RA Architecture Awards 2020
Our annual architecture awards recognise those who push the idea of what architecture can and should be, and its place in the world.
Royal Academy Architecture Prize 2020
For three years, the Royal Academy Architecture Prize has been awarded to an individual whose work inspires and instructs the discussion, collection or production of architecture in the broadest sense.
Winner: Cristina Iglesias
The winner of this year’s Royal Academy architecture prize – Cristina Iglesias – invites us to look, not just at buildings, but at the spaces between them.
With cities home to more and more people, generous public space is increasingly necessary for reflection and respite. Iglesias’s works exist in dialogue with the buildings around them, but go further in inviting their audiences – city dwellers – to contemplate their surroundings through the introduction of running water and naturalistic imagery reminiscent of fallen leaves.
Works by Cristina Iglesias
She has had the opportunity to work with some of the most important architects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, creating sympathetic works that reward sustained reflection.
At the Centro Botin, her work Desde lo Suberraneo (2017) circles Renzo Piano’s dramatic 2017 building. In Toledo, she takes on a dramatically different context with Tres Aguas (2014) sitting within a reclaimed water tower, a convent and the town hall square respectively. And in Madrid, Threshold-Entrance (2006-7) establishes a new dynamic between public space and the interior of the Prado Museum.
These interventions are representative of a body of work that is carefully and compellingly reshaping the way city inhabitants experience their urban environments. Her work inspires new ways for thinking about architecture, wherever they emerge.
Successive generations of urbanists and artists have enhanced open civic spaces with public art in the form of statuary and fountains. The Royal Academy Architecture Prize pays homage to that enduring and vital tradition in its choice of Cristina Iglesias.
Norman Foster RA
Works by Cristina Iglesias
Desde lo Subterráneo, 2017
Centro Botín, Santander
Desde lo Subterráneo, 2017
Centro Botín, Santander
Deep Fountain (Diepe Fontein), 1997-2006
Leopold de Waelplaats, Antwerp
Threshold-Entrance, 2006-2007
Nuseo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Tres Aguas, 2014
Town Hall Square, Toledo
Tres Aguas, 2014
The Water Tower, Toledo
Tres Aguas, 2014
Convent of Santa Clara, Toledo
Forgotten Streams, 2017
Bloomberg, London
Royal Academy Dorfman Award
The Royal Academy Dorfman Award champions new talent in architecture and in 2020 was awarded to BCKJ Architects for their innovative work in China.
The three finalists were AAU Anastas, AOR Architects, and WHBC Architects. Read on to find out more about each of their diverse practices.
RA Dorfman Award finalists
The work of BCKJ Architects (winner)
BCKJ Architects is located in Beijing, China and was founded by Dong Mei and Liu Xiaochuan in 2004. They are passionate about the environment and many of their projects, nestled into Chinese peri-urban areas, take great pains to not disturb their local settings, building around trees and only using local materials. They understand architecture as a social resource that mediates between the natural environment, communities, cultures and places.
BCKJ Architects, Beijing, 2014.
BCKJ Architects, Mao County, China, 2010.
BCKJ Architects, Beijing, China, 2017.
BCKJ Architects, Chengdu, China, 2014.
Presentation to jury
BCKJ presentation of work.
The work of AAU Anastas
AAU Anastas was founded in 1979 by George, Pauline and Jalal Anastas, who passed the business on to their sons Elias and Yousef 12 years ago. Based in Bethlehem, Elias and Yousef have expanded the business to include furniture through their company Local Industries. They are passionate about promoting Palestinian heritage and making it compatible with cutting edge contemporary digital fabrication. They have also founded Scales, a research arm that investigates the uses for local stone.
AAU Anastas, Amman Design Week, 2019.
AAU Anastas, Bethlehem, Palestine, 2013.
AAU Anastas, Tulkarm, Palestine, 2015.
AAU Anastas, Jericho, Palestine, 2017.
Presentation to jury
AAU Anastas presentation of work.
The work of AOR Architects
Helsinki-based AOR Architects specialise in public buildings and wood construction. Founded in 2015 by Finnish architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila and Mikki Ristola, the practice has evolved into an office of ten people with a focus on designing complex public buildings in demanding urban settings. AOR’s overarching ethos is to combine and transform practical, social, aesthetic, economic and ecological demands into memorable architecture harmonious to its context.
AOR Architects, Lahti Mukkula, Finland, 2018.
AOR Architects, Tampere, Finland, under construction.
AOR Architects, Helsinki, Finland, 2019.
AOR Architects, Tuusula, Finland, 2018.
Presentation to jury
AOR presentation of work.
The work of WHBC Architects
WHBC is a two-person office based in Malaysia consisting of BC Ang and Wen Hsia Ang, founded in 2007. For them architecture is at its best when it comes from a diversity of sources and so they stay purposefully small, working with different collaborators on different projects. Their built work ranges from beautifully detailed private houses to temporary pavilions that showcase indigenous building methods. What unifies their projects however is a commitment to local and re-used materials and a playful, unique engagement with context.
WHBC Architects, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2015.
WHBC Architects, Negeri Sebilan, Malaysia, 2012.
WHBC Architects, Kuala Krau, Pahang, Malaysia, 2013.
WHBC Architects, Langkawi Island, Malaysia, 2009.
Presentation to jury
WHBC presentation of work.
Thank you to all our nominators
Amr Abdel Kawi, Xenia Adjoubei, Brit Andresen, Renata Becerril, Rana Beiruti, Aaron Betsky, Adelia Borges, Basma Bouza, Fernanda Canales, Adam Caruso RA, Alice Casey, Frederick Cooper-Llosa, Ang Chee Cheong, Minsuk Cho, Cian Deegan, Marina Engel, Kristin Feiress, Marcela Ferreira, Angelika Fitz, Yvonne Franquinet, Maria Garcia Holley, Kaye Geipel, Felipe González, João Guarantani, Stefan Gzyl, Harriet Harriss, Hanna Harriss, Itsuko Hasegawa, Manuel Henriques, Martyn Hook, Francesca Hughes, Sarah Ichioka, Mariam Kamara, Justyna Karakiewicz, Kabage Karanja, Asif Khan, Laura Mark, Niall McLaughlin RA, Anh-Linh Ngo, Maria Isabel Pena, Penelope Plaza, Boonserm Premthada, Raymund Ryan, Eric Schuldenfrei, Nasrine Seraji, Neil Spiller, Ellie Stathaki, Fernando Tapia, Jeremy Till, Elisa Valero, Veronika Valk, Dirk van den Heuvel, Fleur Watson, Austin Williams.
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