The Royal Institute of British Architects has named Dublin-based Grafton Architects winner of the 2020 RIBA Gold Medal—the UK's top prize for architecture.
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara founded the firm in 1978. Directors Gerard Carty and Philippe O’Sullivan joined the practice in 1992. The firm won the inaugural RIBA International Prize in 2016 for a new university building on the campus of UTEC in Lima, Peru. Farrell and McNamara also curated the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale under the theme "Freespace." (Watch an interview by PLANE—SITE.)
Recent winners of the Gold Medal include Nicholas Grimshaw (2019), Neave Brown (2018), Paulo Mendes da Rocha Awarded (2017), and Zaha Hadid (2016). RIBA will present the 2020 prize to Grafton Architects in a ceremony in early next year.
Farrell will speak at RECORD's 2019 Innovation Conference on October 29, in New York. Learn more and register here.