RA Architecture Awards 2019
We kicked off our 250th anniversary with two new architecture awards. Now in their second year, these awards continue to champion architecture across the globe.
New York (2014). Collaboration between James Corner Field Operations (Project Lead), Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf.
Royal Academy Architecture Prize 2019
The Royal Academy Architecture Prize is awarded to an architect or individual who has been instrumental in shaping the discussion, collection or production of architecture in the broadest sense.
Winners: Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio
This year's winners are an innovative partnership that from its inception has been passionately committed to interdisciplinary work that expands architectural ideas and urban culture. With their practice, Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), they produce work that consistently demonstrates how buildings can enhance cities and capture the public imagination.
Founding partners Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio established their practice's identity with independent, self-generated installation and performance pieces. Their ability to transcend traditional architectural thinking is particularly apparent in their iconic Blur Building (2002). Here, they re-defined ideas about structure and form, with an amorphous cloud of fog, floating atop Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland.
Today, DS+R’s four partners — Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Charles Renfro and Benjamin Gilmartin — collaborate on every project and work with over 100 architects, designers and artists. They continue Diller and Scofidio’s early experimental legacy with successful, large-scale public projects across the world such as the High Line and the recently announced Centre for Music in London.
Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio's interdisciplinary work has expanded architectural ideas and urban culture. They consistently demonstrate how buildings can enhance cities and capture the public imagination.
The Jury
Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio
Learn more about the winners of the 2019 Royal Academy Architecture Prize.
Works by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
24-hour installation, Columbus Circle, New York (1981).
Glassmanifest, Leerdam, the Netherlands (1997).
MoMa, New York (1989).
Lake Neuchatel, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland (2002).
New York (2014). Collaboration between James Corner Field Operations (Project Lead), Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf.
The High Line, New York (2018).
Barbican, London (render).
Barbican, London (render)
The Royal Academy Dorfman Awards
The Royal Academy Dorfman Award champions new talent in architecture. It is awarded to an emerging architect, practice or collective who are re-imagining the future of architecture and whose work demonstrates a high degree of sensitivity to local and global context.
This year’s winner is Boonserm Premthada of Bangkok Project Studio.
The three finalists are Fernanda Canales; Alice Casey and Cian Deegan, TAKA architects and Mariam Kamara, Atelier Masōmī.
The work of Boonserm Premthada, Bangkok Project Studio
Born and raised in the heart of Bangkok, Boonserm Premthada founded Bangkok Project Studio in 2003. The practice celebrates the importance of craft in architecture, leading to carefully detailed projects with a deep sense of authenticity. Local construction methods and materials are crucial to Premthada’s work and his buildings, such as the Kantana Film and Animation Institute in Nakhon Pathom, often utilise the skills of local craftspeople and traditional production methods.
Bangkok Project Studio, Baan Chang Town hall, Rayong Province, Thailand, 2017
Katana Film and Animation Institute, Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand
The Wine Ayutthaya, Ayutthaya Province, Thailand, 2017
Elephant World, Surin Province, Thailand, 2015
Fernanda Canales
Fernanda Canales founded her eponymous architecture firm in 2002 in Mexico City. She has worked internationally for architects such as Toyo Ito in Tokyo and Sola-Morales in Barcelona. While her practice spans from large scale architectural projects to small interventions, from public and institutional commissions to private retreats, Canales still sees each project as an opportunity to narrow the gap between what we build and where we actually want to live.
Bruma House, Mexico, 2017.
Elena Garro Cultural Center, Mexico City, Mexico, 2012.
Reading Rooms, Mexico, 2015.
The Shelter, Mexico City, Mexico, 2017.
Alice Casey and Cian Deegan, TAKA Architects
TAKA was founded in 2006 as the result of a longstanding collaboration between Alice Casey and Cian Deegan, based in Dublin, Ireland. Their local work is deeply informed by their international travel and study, particularly research undertaken as part of their respective PhD projects. The tension between vernacular and high architecture is particularly productive for TAKA and results in subtly detailed work that delivers tactile and visual impact.
House 01, Dublin, Ireland, 2009
House 2, Dublin, Ireland, 2009.
St Patricks Park Tearoom, Dublin, 2015
Merrion Cricket Pavilion, Dublin, Ireland, 2014
Mariam Kamara, Atelier Masōmī
Mariam Kamara grew up in Niger in West Africa, which is also where she founded her architecture and research firm atelier masōmī in 2014. In 2013, she and an international group of colleagues also formed a collective called united➃design, whose work includes projects in the US, Kamara’s native Niger, and Germany.
Religious Secular Complex, Dandaji, Niger, 2018
Religious Secular Complex, Dandaji, Niger, 2018
Dandaji Market, Dandaji, Niger, 2018
Religious Secular Complex, Dandaji, Niger, 2018
The judges
Alan Stanton OBE RA began his career working with Norman Foster RA before going on to work with Richard Rogers RA and Renzo Piano Hon RA on the Pompidou Centre in Paris. In 1985, he launched Stanton Williams with Paul Williams and the practice has been responsible for a number of critically acclaimed projects including Central St Martins, the Millennium Seedbank, the Britten Pears Archive and the Sainsbury Laboratory, which won the 2012 RIBA Stirling Prize. Stanton has been Vice President of the Architectural Association Council, has sat on the RIBA Awards Committee and is currently the chair of the RA’s Architecture Committee. He was elected a Royal Designer for Industry in 2005 and in 2009 became a Royal Academician. In 2014, he received an OBE for services to architecture.
Louisa Hutton OBE RA is co-founder of Sauerbruch Hutton. With projects all over Europe, the practice gained international renown for its early and comprehensive engagement with sustainability in architecture and urbanism. Sauerbruch Hutton were awarded the Erich Schelling Prize in 1998, the Fritz Schumacher Prize for Architecture in 2003, the International Honour Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2010, the Gottfried-Semper-Award in 2013 and the German Architecture Award 2015. Alongside running her practice, Hutton taught at the Architectural Association and was a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is a member of the Curatorial Board of the Schelling Architecture Foundation, and was a Commissioner at CABE as well as a member of the first Steering Committee for Germany’s Bundesstiftung Baukultur. Hutton was elected as a Royal Academician in 2014.
Phyllida Barlow CBE RA came to the fore as an influential teacher, having taught at both the Slade School of Art and Chelsea College of Art shaping the careers of artists including Rachel Whiteread, Tacita Dean, and Conrad Shawcross. Her artworks have reconfigured spaces around the world from the Tate Britain to Zurich’s Kunsthalle. She uses materials such as cardboard, cement and plaster to create looming structures which redefine the spaces they inhabit. Barlow was elected as a Royal Academician in 2011 and in 2015 she received a CBE for services to the arts. In 2017, Barlow represented the Great Britain at the Venice Biennale.
Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at LSE and Director of the Urban Age and LSE Cities, a global centre of research and teaching at LSE which received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education 2016-18. He curated the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale and has published a number of books. Burdett was architectural advisor to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2016 and Chief Advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics. He is a member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board and is also a Trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation. In 2017, Burdett was appointed a CBE for services to urban planning and design.
Kirsty Wark joined the BBC as a graduate researcher for BBC Radio Scotland in 1976. She has gone on to hold many roles at the BBC from a radio producer to presenting BBC Four’s Book Quiz. From 1990 to 1993 she presented the arts programme The Late Show and following this went on to become a presenter of BBC Two’s Newsnight. She has won several awards for her work including Bafta Scotland Journalist of the Year (1993), Best Television Presenter (1997) and Scot of the Year (1998). Wark was on the Scottish Parliament Building Design Selection Panel, which chose Enric Miralles to design Scotland’s new parliament building. In 2013 Wark was awarded a BAFTA for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting and in 2017 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Lesley Lokko is an architect, academic and author. She is currently Head of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg and has previously taught at schools in the US, UK and South Africa. Lokko has contributed to discourse around identity, race, African urbanism, and the speculative nature of African architectural space for the past 30 years. She edited White Papers, Black Marks: Race, Culture, Architecture (2000) and has written ten novels.
Thank you to all our nominators
David Adjaye RA, Xenia Adjoubei, Aaron Betsky, British Council, Stephen Chambers RA, Andrew Clancy, Peter Cook RA, Frederick Cooper Llosa, Trevor Dannatt RA, Spencer de Grey RA, João Guarantani, Olafur Eliasson Hon RA, Homa Farjadi, Kristin Feireiss, Norman Foster RA, Yvonne Franquinet, Beatrice Galilee, Felipe González, Antony Gormley RA, Piers Gough RA, Harriet Harriss, Itsuko Hasegawa, Perry Kulper, Laura Mark, Mohsen Mostafavi, Farshid Moussavi RA, Robert Mull, Christine Murray, Mimmo Paladino Hon RA, Eric Parry RA, Peter Randall Page RA, Alice Rawsthorn, David Remfry RA, Ian Ritchie RA, Raymund Ryan, Michael Sandle RA, Leon van Schaik, Rahel Shawl, Ellie Stathaki, Elisa Valero, Fleur Watson, Tom Weaver, Chris Wilkinson RA, Mimi Zeiger.
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