Carme Pinós Wins 2016 Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize

Architects & Firms

The UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design (CED) has named Spanish architect Carme Pinós the 2016 recipient of the Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize. The biannual award honors a design practitioner or academic who has contributed to gender equality in the field of architecture, and who has shown an outstanding commitment to sustainability and community.

Pinós, who founded the Barcelona-based firm Estudio Carme Pinós in 1991, has a diverse portfolio of work ranging from civic architecture to landscape and furniture design. In 1994, she designed the Igualada Cemetery near Barcelona with her former partner, the late Enric Miralles. More recent work includes the CaixaForum arts center, completed in March 2014 in Zaragoza, Spain, and the Cube Office Towers I & II, built in 2005 and 2014, in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In addition to a prize of $100,000, the Berkeley-Rupp award recipients receive a semester-long professorship, public lecture, and a gallery exhibition at CED. In 2018, Pinós will begin leading a graduate studio focused on furthering architect Albert Faus’ design research in the West African country of Burkina Faso. Faus’ work investigates a low-cost, sustainable thermal insulation made from regional peanuts, harvested almost solely by women. Pinós’ studio will aim to design and implement a production plant and an agricultural training and investigation center, working in conjunction with local women agricultural producers.

Past recipients of the award include Sheila Kennedy, founding partner of Boston-based firm Kennedy and Violich Architecture, and New York-based architect Deborah Berke, who became the Yale School of Architecture’s first woman dean this past summer.

Alex was an associate editor at Architectural Record. Prior to joining the magazine, she worked in marketing and communications for New York–based architecture firms. Her writing has appeared in the Architect’s Newspaper and CityLab. Alex holds a master’s degree in design criticism from the School of Visual Arts and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.