New Delhi: Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have been awarded the 2020 Pritzker Prize for architecture, considered to be the profession’s highest honour.
The two have become the fourth and fifth women to win architecture’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize in its 41-year history and the first Irish citizens to win the distinction.
The co-founders of the Dublin-based firm Grafton Architects were awarded for “their unceasing commitment to excellence in architecture, their responsible attitude toward the environment, their ability to be cosmopolitan while embracing the uniqueness of each place in which they work,” according to the 2020 Jury Citation.
Urban Institute of Ireland, Photo: Ros Kavanagh
University Campus UTEC Lima, Photo: Iwan Baan
Farrell and McNamara, according to the jury chair Justice Stephen Breyer, had with considerable success, tackled a serious human problem: “How do we build housing and workplaces in a world with over half of its population dwelling in urban environments, and many of them who cannot afford luxury?”
Also read: In Photos: Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara’s 2020 Pritzker-Prize Winning Buildings
The international prize was created by the late Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, in 1979 through their Hyatt Foundation to honour the world’s most innovative architects and is awarded each year to a living architect. The award consists of USD 100,000 and a bronze medallion and is conferred on the laureate at a ceremony held at an architecturally significant site.
Town House Building, Kingston University, Photo: Ed Reeves
University Campus UTEC Lima. Photo: Iwan Baan
Farrell and McNamara’s win is a welcome development for the award that has been criticised for its lack of female representation.
In 2004, Zaha Hadid became the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize and remains the only solo female architect to win the award. In 2010, Kazuyo Sejima became the second woman to win the award alongside her firm’s co-founder Ryue Nishizawa. In 2017, Carme Pigem was named as one of three laureates.
Balkrishna Doshi. Photo: Twitter/PritzkerPrize
In 2018, Balkrishna Doshi became the first Indian to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize for demonstrating “that all good architecture and urban planning must not only unite purpose and structure but take into account climate, site, technique, and craft, along with a deep understanding and appreciation of context”.
Doshi’s “solutions take into account the social, environmental and economic dimensions, and therefore his architecture is totally engaged with sustainability,” the prize jury said in a statement.