Over the 160 years of the Royal Gold Medal, 154 individuals and six practices have won the medal. We’ve selected the very best in each decade below, with quotes from the medallists’ citations.
RGM Medallists
1840s – Charles Robert Cockerell (1788-1863) 
St George’s Hall, Liverpool (1856)?Designer: Cockerell, Charles Robert (1788-1863); Elmes, Harvey Lonsdale (1814-1847)?Copyright: RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (c1892)
The first recipient of the Royal Gold Medal was Charles Robert Cockerell, by then architect to the Bank of England (1833); the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
(1840-42); the Sun Assurance office in Threadneedle Street, London (1842); and Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy (1840).
Cockerell followed his architect father into the family business, being articled to Samuel Pepys Cockerell for five years. Towards the end of that period Cockerell was asked to act as confidential advisor to Robert Smirke (himself a Royal Gold Medallist) who was rebuilding Covent Garden Theatre.
National Monument, Calton Hill, Edinburgh (1829)?Designer: Cockerell, Charles Robert (1788-1863); Playfair, William Henry (1790-1857)?Copyright: Eric de Mare/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1960s)
In 1810, when England was at war with Napolean, Cockerell set off on his Grand Tour to visit Italy, Greece and Turkey, absorbing all forms of Classical architecture that would influence his future work. When he returned to England in 1817, Cockerell established himself in practice in London, specialising in the Greek revival style.
By 1819, Cockerell had been appointed Surveyor to the Fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, yet still found time to assist his father with the survey of India House. Other key works included the Hanover Chapel in Regent Street, London (1823); St David’s College, Lampeter (1829); the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (taken on from Basevi in 1837, but not completed until after Cockerell’s death in 1874); and St George’s Hall, Liverpool (1847). The latter of these schemes is considered the masterpiece of the Classic Revival.
Even in death he was considered a great architect: being buried alongside Christopher Wren and his father-in-law John Rennie in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.
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Won the Royal Gold Medal as testimony of his distinguished merits as an architect. |
1850s – Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860)
Houses of Parliament, Westminster, London: view from the south bank (1860)?Designers: Barry, Sir Charles (1795-1860); Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore (1812-1852)?Copyright: Joe Low/RIBA Library Photographs Collection (1994)
Ironically, Charles Barry was born just a stone’s throw from his greatest work. Born in Bridge Street, Westminster, his masterpiece is considered to be the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament in London, after the fire of 1834.
After being articled to a firm of surveyors for six years, Barry’s Grand Tour from 1817-1820 provided him with the foundation to observe and practice architecture. He worked primarily in the Gothic Revival style and his first two public commissions, the churches of St Matthew, Campfield, Manchester (1822-25) and All Saints, Stand, Lancashire (1822-26) followed the Gothic line.
Barry was still able to apply the Italian palazzo style of Florence and Rome, massive and solid rather than just a shell, to his buildings, and the best example of this is the Traveller’s Club (1829) in Pall Mall, London, which he won by competition. Barry’s building is seen as an improved version of the Florence Palazzo and is considered a turning point in English architecture.
The Houses of Parliament commission was won in 1836, begun in 1840, but not opened until 12 years later. Delays were caused on-site by the necessity of clearing the old buildings, difficulties with the heating and ventilation superintendant, and a mason’s strike.
Barry chose Augustus Welby Pugin to work as the skilled decorator on the scheme because he admired his enthusiasm for Gothic details. Barry the architect was the planner and businessman who complemented Pugin’s skills as a sensitive artist.
Traveller’s Club, Pall Mall, London: the Library which is broken into three parts by screens of paired columns (1832)?Designer: Barry, Sir Charles (1795-1860)?Copyright: Edwin Smith/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1970)
Barry’s qualities seem to lie in his versatility. He could deliver whatever the client required, as long as it included ornamentation. Manchester City Art Gallery (1835); was built as a Greek Revival building; he added Tudor styling to Canford Manor (1850) in Dorset. Judging by the high level of decoration on his buildings, Barry seems to have disliked blank spaces.
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Won the Royal Gold Medal for the magnificent work currently in hand, namely the Palace of Westminster. |
Barry’s Royal Gold Medal in 1850 and his knighthood in 1852 were both given as a result of his Westminster masterpiece.
1860s- Eugene-Emanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879)
House in the Ville Basse, Geneva?Copyright: Eugene E. Viollet-le-Duc/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1860s)
Viollet le Duc was the Gilbert Scott of France, Scott the Viollet-le-Duc of England. Both were leading restorers of their time and nation. Both believed in Gothic of the 13th century. Both were scholars and thinkers as well as practising architects.
Viollet-le-Duc was born into a intellectual and liberal family in Paris and trained with the architects Huvé and Leclère for a short time. Viollet le Duc developed an early enthusiasm for the Middle Ages and spent his teenage years travelling and sketching and developing his knowledge of French architecture. After the Commission des Monuments Historiques was established in 1837, Viollet le Duc was entrusted to restore several high profile buildings that had been made obsolete by the Revolution. Viollet le Duc’s work included the Abbey Church at Vézelay (1840), Notre-Dame in Paris (1845), and the cathedral at Clermont-Ferrand (1864).
Viollet le Duc published widely and his works came to be the most respected and widely read architecture books of the late 19th century across Europe. His ‘Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française’ (1854-68) and the ‘Entretiens sur l’architecture’ (1863-72) displayed his wide antiquarian knowledge. In the 1870s, Viollet le Duc wrote a series of books which explained architecture to the layman and were very popular.
Chateau de Pierrefonds, Oise: view of the castle during its reconstruction (1407)?Designer: Viollet-le-Duc, Eugene Emmanuel (1814-1879)?Copyright: Cundall Downes & Co./RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1860s)
1870s – George Edmund Street (1824-1881)
The Royal Courts of Justice, the Strand, London (1882)?Designer: Street, George Edmund (1824-1881)?Copyright: Joe Low/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1992)
George Edmund Street was apprenticed firstly, to an architect in Winchester, and secondly, to Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1844. Just four years later, Street left to establish his own practice, initially in Wantage, Oxfordshire and eventually in London.
Scott’s influence is shown throughout Street’s work as Street tended to favour the Gothic style. His most famous building, the Law Courts in London, however, are a good example of Gothic reticence – but this may be because the Law Courts were completed after Street’s death by his son, A E Street, and Arthur Blomfield. Famously it has been suggested that there were 3,000 drawings for the Law Courts ready when Street died.
Street was much in demand as an architect. He was Diocesan Architect to the cathedrals of Oxford, York, Winchester and Ripon in 1851, as well as undertaking a programme of restoration at Bristol cathedral in 1864 and York Minster in 1871. Notable churches include Kingstone Church, Dorset; St Mary Magdalene, Paddington; and the Garrison Church, Portsmouth.
Contract drawing for alterations to the chapel, Wellington Barracks, London: plans, elevations and colour references for the pews, front desk and tiled flooring (c1877)?Designer: Street, George Edmund (1824-1881)?Copyright: RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings Collection (1876)
Considered by many to be one of the greatest Gothic architects in Europe. Street also undertook considerable commissions abroad, including building churches in Rome, Constantinople, Geneva, Lausanne and America.
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‘The most eminent practical exponent of the art of architecture and an author of no mean eminence.’ |
In addition to his design work, Street also published books, including ‘Brick and Marble Architecture in Italy’ (1855) and ‘Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain’ (1865).
For many years, Street was the responsible treasurer of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He was also President of the RIBA at the time of his death in 1881. As a highly revered architect, he was awarded the rare posthumous status of being buried in Westminster Abbey.
1884 – William Butterfield (1814-1900)
Keble College Chapel, Oxford (1876)?Designer: Butterfield, William (1814-1900)?Copyright: Reginald A. Cordingley/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1950s)
Born in London, two years after the battle of Waterloo, Butterfield was the son of a chemist, who played on London Bridge as a child, and was apprenticed to a builder, decorator and furnisher in Middlesex as soon as he left school. He was then articled to a builder in Worcester before travelling in England and the Continent to study medieval buildings.
Not given to publicity, Butterfield’s first work is suggested to be St Andrew’s at Wilmcote (1841) or the non-conformist chapel in Bristol (1841-43). His contact with R Beresford-Hope led to work at St Augustine’s, Canterbury (1845-50) and the commission to build All Saints’, Margaret Street, London (1850-59). Through these works, Butterfield became famous for his use of constructional polychromy. Other works include St Matthias, Stoke Newington (1850-53); St Alban’s, Holborn (1859-63); and Keble College, Oxford (1870).
Butterfield maintained that throughout his work there was always a historical precedent for any detail.
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Won the Royal Gold Medal ‘for his revival of Gothic architecture – a true master of his craft’. |
Its also interesting to note that Butterfield’s style did not change throughout his working life, and he did not subscribe to any particular school of architecture.
All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London (1859)?Designer: Butterfield, William (1814-1900)?Copyright: Janet Hall/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1990s)
As a young man Butterfield had a romantic view of the world and was perceived to be a happy, optimistic architect with aspirations that he could change the world through his work. However, after bitter quarrels with his friends, Hardman and Beresford-Hope, Butterfield came to believe that he was alone in the world. A bachelor, Butterfield lived above his practice in Adam Street, London.
Butterfield’s medal ceremony is unusual in that Butterfield himself chose not to attend, saying that if he did so, it would be ‘inconsistent with the habits of his whole life to appear in person publicly to receive the medal, and that if that were a necessity then he must regretfully decline’.
1899 – George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907)
St Mark’s Church, Bilton, near Rugby: view of the chancel (1873)?Designer: Bodley, George Frederick (1827-1907)?Copyright: Sir Charles A. Nicholson/RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings Collection (1889)
George Frederick Bodley was one of the most important architects of the Gothic Revival with his career spanning 55 years. Not only did he shape the direction of the Gothic Revival; but he also pioneered the contrasting Queen Anne revival.
Bodley learnt the architectural trade at the knee of one of the masters, being the first pupil of George Gilbert Scott. Whilst in this office, he made contact with a fellow student, Thomas Garner, with whom Bodley was to go into an architectural partnership that lasted almost 30 years. Bodley’s relationship with Scott continued beyond a working relationship, as his sister married Scott’s brother. Perhaps Bodley was not truly at ease with his master, as his early work tended to show a slight rebellion against Scott.
However, by the mid 1860s, Bodley’s work had turned to his characteristic English late-Gothic, including work at St John, Tue Brook, Liverpool (1868-70); St Mark’s Church, Bilton, near Rugby; St Michael, Folkestone (1873-83); Queen’s College Chapel, Cambridge (1890).
Bodley, George Frederick (1827-1907)?Copyright: RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1899)
Bodley’s later works include Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Road, London (1901-07); the major part of Hobart cathedral, Tasmania (1868-1936); and collaboration with Giles Gilbert Scott in the early work of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (1902-07).
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‘A true artist, whose designs and conceptions will receive the approval and veneration of generations to come.’ |
At the time of his death, Bodley was engaged in plans for a cathedral in San Francisco and the enlargement of two cathedrals in India.
1900s – Aston Webb (1849-1930)
Buckingham Palace, London (1913)?Designer: Webb, Sir Aston (1849-1930) ?Copyright: Pawel Libera/RIBA Library Photographs Collection (2002)
The son of an engraver and water colourist of some distinction, Aston Webb trained in the office of Banks & Barry and won the Pugin scholarship for the study of English medieval architecture in 1873. It was after this prize, that Webb established his own practice. After 1882, all his work was completed with his business partner, E Ingress Bell.
Together, Webb and Ingress Bell won the competition for the Assize Courts at Birmingham (1886), considered to be his greatest work. Webb also went on to design other university buildings at Birmingham (1901) and Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham (1893-1902). Other work by Webb included three buildings in London’s South Kensington: the Victoria & Albert Museum (1899-1909); the Royal College of Science (from 1909) and the Royal School of Mines (1909); as well as Britannia Naval College at Dartmouth (1899-1905).
Design for Admiralty Arch, London, viewed from the north east (1910)?Designer: Webb, Sir Aston (1849-1930)?Copyright: Robert Atkinson/RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings Collection (1909)
Webb also changed the architectural character of royalty in London, by formlising the avenue of approach with the Mall (1901-11), the ceremonial archway of Admiralty Arch (1903-10) and the remodeling of the east façade of Buckingham Palace (1913).
Publicity named as Waterhouse’s ‘spiritual successor’, in reality Webb was not so spirited, although after his funeral, he was named as the most distinguished architect of his generation.
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‘The turn having come round for the Royal Gold Medal to be offered to an English architect, no other choice could well have been entertained.’ |
1913 – Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942)
The Quadrant, Regent Street, London (1928)?Designer: Blomfield, Sir Reginald (1856-1942)?Copyright: Joe Low/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (c1990)
Reginald Blomfield studied at Oxford before being articled to his uncle, Sir Arthur Blomfield (himself a Royal Gold Medallist) and going on to study architecture in London. Amongst his friends that he made during the architectural course were Norman Shaw and William Morris.
In the 1906, Blomfield was appointed as the Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, London, and went on to be elected President of the RIBA seven years later.
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Blomfield received the medal for ‘his breadth of view, his knowledge, his wide sympathies and the very high position which has maintained as a representative of the great profession of architecture.’ |
After the First World War, Blomfield was involved with the Imperial War Graves Commission designing cemeteries behind the Western Front. One of these was the Menin Gate, considered to be the key work of his career. Blomfield also worked with Aston Webb to design memorials in London, as well as taking sole credit for the Royal Air Force memorial on the Embankment, and the Memorial Chapel at Oundle School.
Blomfield’s work in London included the remodelling of Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus, the façade of the Carlton Club and Lambeth Bridge.
Appleyard’s filling station, The Headrow, Leeds (1924)?Designer: Blomfield, Sir Reginald (1856-1942)?Copyright: Charles R. H. Pickard/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1924)
1920s – Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960)
Battersea Power Station, London: view from across the River Thames (1955)?Designer: Halliday, James Theodore (1882-1932); Scott, Sir Giles Gilbert (1880-1960)?Copyright: Architectural Press Archive/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (c1955)
Scott descended from a family of architects, being the grandson of Sir George Gilbert Scott (already a Royal Gold Medallist), the son of George Gilbert Scott, and the nephew of John Oldrid Scott.
Giles Gilbert Scott was articled to Temple Lushington Moore in 1899 and was able to develop his own architectural style during this period. Giles was also privy to his father’s designs – which were regarded as infinitely superior to those of his grandfather (although this view was not commonly shared by others in the architectural field).
Scott’s best-known work, and also the work which he spent most of his life on, was Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. He won the competition in 1902, when he was just 22, and the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral recommended that, because of his youth, Scott should work on the designs with George Frederick Bodley, a member of the cathedral design panel. Unfortunately, Bodley and Scott did not see eye to eye, and Scott was about to leave the project when Bodley suddenly died in 1907. This meant that Scott could continue the project in his style – by redesigning out Bodley’s contributions. Liverpool Cathedral was consecrated in 1924 although the tower was not completed for another 18 years, and the nave after Scott’s death. The cathedral was finally finished in 1980.
Other key works of Scott include the Church of the Annunciation in Bournemouth (1906); the memorial court at Clare College, Cambridge (1923-34); the William Booth Memorial Training College, South London (1932); and Battersea Power Station, London (1933).
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‘One of a long line, or shall we say dynasty, of architects and he is one of two men who, hardly out of their teens, have adorned Liverpool with two of its distinguished buildings – Liverpool Cathedral and St Paul’s Church.’ |
Scott was also famous for the red K2 GPO telephone box which graced many a British street. The classical structure of the box was the favourite with the judges and was put into mass production from 1935.
1930s – Williem Marinus Dudok (1884-1974)
Town Hall, Hilversum (1930)?Designer: Dudok, Willem Marinus (1884-1974)? Copyright: Jan Derwig/RIBA Library Photographs Collection (c1994)
The Dutch architect, Williem Dudok, was the son of Johannes Dudok, a well-known violin player. Dudok initially chose a military a career and went to the army training school in Alkmaar in 1900. He continued his training at the Royal Military Academy in Breda and became a regular officer. In this capacity he worked at the construction of the Fortress of Amsterdam and learned how to work with concrete.
Dudok became more and more interested in architecture and changed to a civilian career in 1913 when he became director of the Department of Public Works in Leiden. In 1915, he became the Director of Public Works in Hilversum and immediately was asked to plan the new town hall. This is considered his most significant work and was completed in 1931, although he designed up to 75 other buildings within the town. The town hall is built of nearly 700,000 custom-made brocks, an alternative material to the modernists using concrete, steel and glass.
Egelantierstraat school, Hilversum (1927)?Designer: Dudok, Willem Marinus (1884-1974)?Copyright: RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1927)
Other major works include the Rembrandt School in Hilversum (1920) and the department store, De Bijenkorkf in Rotterdam (1930).
Heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, Dudok also allied himself with the Amsterdam expressionist school, although his work tended to rationalise and straighten the excesses of the more eccentric forms.
Dudok is named as the architect of many buildings in Turkey, Germany, Iraq and France as well as in the Netherlands, and it is thought that his career total exceed 400 structures.
1940s – Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania (1937)?Designer: Wright, Frank Lloyd (1867-1959)?Copyright: Michael Hodges/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1969)
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Wisconsin, the son of Welsh parents, and considered himself to be Welsh rather than American all his life. After training as an engineer at Wisconsin University, he was articled before producing his first building for two of his aunts. He then was apprenticed to Adler and Louis Sullivan for a year, before working on his own in 1888.
Working in Illinois, Wright developed his first characteristic style, namely ‘Prairie Architecture’, which was represented as low-lying buildings with deep overhanging eaves. His own first house at Taliesin, Wisconsin, was a prime example of Prairie Architecture. Wright was also one of the first architects to introduce and develop open-plan living within the domestic context.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Fifth Avenue, New York (1959)?Designer: Wright, Frank Lloyd (1867-1959) ?Copyright: Bernard Cox/RIBA Library Photographs Collection (1979)
Wright’s first office building was the Larkin Building in Chicago (1904), closely followed by the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (1914-18) which survived a Japanese earthquake when all other buildings surrounding it were damaged. Wright’s design was built only on shallow foundations (instead of deep) and supported the floors from a series of central pillars.
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Awarded the Royal Gold Medal for ‘the great ability of this outstanding architect’. |
After the First World War, Wright continued to design and build houses, using pre-cast concrete blocks, the most famous of which is Falling Water in Pennsylvania which was built for Edgar Kaufmann.
Due to the Second World War and the difficulties of travelling, Wright did not attend the Royal Gold Medal ceremony in London, but sent a telegram expressing his gratitude.
1953 – Le Corbusier (1887-1965)
Philips Pavilion, 1958 World’s Fair, Brussels (1958)?Designer: Le Corbusier (1887-1965)?Copyright: John Donat/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1958)
Born Charles Edouard Jenneret, Le Corbusier took his nickname from his signature in architecture from the 1920s. When only 17, he designed his first building and financed by the fee he was paid, made a trip to Italy. In 1907, Le Corbusier obtained work as a draughtsman in the office of Joseph Hoffman, a leading modernist architect of the time, which was followed by 15 months working as an apprentice to Auguste Perret (himself a Royal Gold Medallist).
In 1916, Le Corbusier settled in Paris with the intention of practising architecture there. As well as designing, Le Corbusier published and edited L’Esprit Nouveau, an avant-garde magazine about the arts. It was during this time that C E Jenneret adopted the name Le Corbusier.
Le Corbusier founded a practice with his cousin, Pierre Jenneret in 1924 which became known as a post-graduate training school for architecture students of all nationalities. The practice of Le Corbusier and P. Jenneret existed until 1940 when the fall of France put an end to its activities.
Many of Le Corbusier’s finest projects have never been executed due to budgetary restraints. One such example was his winning competition design for the palace of the League of Nations. Yet at the same time, the design provoked such interest that Le Corbusier was invited to lecture about it in Europe and South America.
After the second World War, the French government commissioned Le Corbusier to replan the maritime region of Pallice-La-Rochelle and Saint-Dié in north east France. In 1947, Le Corbusier was one of a group of architects to design the United Nations Headquarters in New York – the Secretariat building is essentially Le Corbusier’s design.
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The Royal Gold Medal was awarded ‘for a man with not only a poetic vision of buildings and cities but also a vision of a poetic way of life; a new manner of living’. |
Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer and Sven Markelius discussing UNESCO building, Paris (1952)?Designer: Breuer, Marcel (1902-1981); Gropius, Walter (1883-1969); Le Corbusier (1887-1965); Markelius, Sven (1889-1972)?Copyright: RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1952)
Le Corbusier’s key work is the Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp (1950-4) which demonstrates his anti-rational style, which can be compared to his heavy concrete work at Chandigarh, at the invitation of Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.
Le Corbusier’s main contribution to contemporary architecture is the evolution of the ‘Free Plan’, which by utilizing the modern materials such as concrete and steel, makes possible the elimination of load-bearing walls and allows a freer planning of interior space.
1966 – Ove Arup (1895-1988)
Labworth Cafe, Canvey Island (1940s)?Designer: Arup, Sir Ove (1895-1988)?Copyright: Morley von Sternberg/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (2003)
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne of Danish-Norwegian parents, Arup’s early education was in both Denmark and Germany as his father was the Danish Consul. Originally studying philosophy at Copenhagen University, Arup then chose to study as an engineer.
His first employer was the Danish engineering company, Christiani & Nielson, pioneers of reinforced concrete, originally in Hamburg before transferring to the London base in 1924.
Given Arup’s continental background and technical knowledge, he was able to integrate with the small schools of English architects working in reinforced concrete, including Berthold Lubetkin (himself a Royal Gold Medallist). Lubetkin introduced Arup to the Modern Architecture Research Group (MARS) which led Arup to disagree with his employers’ approach. Arup then moved to work for J L Kier as chief designer, primarily to collaborate with Tecton, Lubetkin’s group.
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Awarded the Royal Gold Medal ‘for his involvement in all the best buildings in this country since the 1930s, which have always been the better for it’. |
Although Arup’s relationship with Kier was short, he became both structural designer and contractor for Highpoint One (1935), Lubetkin’s elegant flats in Highgate, and the penguin pool at London Zoo (1934).
Scheme for an air raid shelter for Finsbury Borough Council designed to hold 830 people: sectional view (1939)?Designer: Arup, Sir Ove (1895-1988); Lubetkin, Berthold (1901-1990); Skinner, Russell Thomas Francis (1908-1998)?Copyright: John Maltby/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1939)
In 1946, Arup started Ove Arup and Partners, an engineering consultancy mainly involved in the rebuilding of Britain, particularly new universities and motorways. How appropriate that Ove Arup and Partners were appointed as the engineer for Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House (1957-66), after all, Utzon was Danish. Eventually, the consultancy formed its own architectural partners, Arup Associates, who designed the Birmingham University Mining and Metallurgy building (1966) and Loughborough University.
1972 – Louis I Kahn (1901-1974)
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California: detail of an archway (1965)?Designer: Kahn, Louis Isidore (1901-1974)?Copyright: Danielle Tinero/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (2004)
Louis Kahn emigrated to the United States at the age of four with his parents. He studied at the Architecture School of the University of Pennsylvania before qualifying in 1924. Prior to travelling in Europe in the late 1920s, Kahn was articled to John Molitor.
During the depression of the late 1930s, Kahn formed the Architectural Research Group of 30 architects and engineers who planned housing, slum clearance and city redevelopment schemes for the City of Philadelphia Planning Commission.
Kahn established his own practice in 1935 but still maintained his links with the Philadelphia Housing Authority, working as their consultant architect. He was also appointed as consultant architect to the US Housing Authority in 1939.
Kahn’s most influential work was the Richards Medical Research building at the University of Pennsylvania (1957-61). Other work includes the Salk Institute, California (1965); the Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India (1963); the Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth (1972); and the Yale Centre for British Art (1974).
Yale Centre for British Art, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut (1974)?Designer: Kahn, Louis Isidore (1901-1974)?Copyright: Nathan Monger/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (c1999)
From 1947-57, Kahn taught at the School of Architecture at Yale University, and then took a more leading role as Professor of the University of Pennsylvania, whilst continuing his own practice.
Kahn died bankrupt but not forgotten, and today is highly esteemed in the United States.
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‘Three things stand out in particular. First, in the presence of this teacher, you are in the presence of some wind that blows through him as of were the agent of some more deep and natural force; second, the way in which he keeps talking about ‘beginnings’; thirdly, he is, I think, deeply religious – like a pagan’. |
1983 – Norman Foster 1935 –
Head office for Willis Faber and Dumas, Ipswich (1975)?Designer: Foster Associates, Artist: Hunter, Alastair (1938-1991)?Copyright: Alastair Hunter/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1975)
However deserving of the Royal Gold Medal he received in 1983, none of the jury could have predicted the international acclaim and success that would be achieved by him and by Richard Rogers (1985) in the years to come. Their achievements both engender and typify the transformation that has taken place in British architecture in the latter halves of their careers.
At the time of the award his significant built work comprised: Willis Faber & Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich (1971-1975), a building which at first shocked but which came to be accepted by public and architects alike as the way to build in cities and which was the first scheme in this country to democratize the workplace; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (1974-1978), a scheme which explored lightweight, flexible structures and still looks as good in its landscape setting as ever it did; and the Renault Distribution Centre, Swindon (1980-1982), a project whose yellow skeletal structure was used by Renault for years as the backdrop to it advertising campaigns. At that time the scheme which revived the post-Ronan Point fortunes of the skyscraper, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters (1979-1986), was still four years from completion.
The judges said of Foster: ‘No other architect has so effectively drawn the advanced modern technology of the aerospace and electronic worlds into architecture and building, transforming the muddy, rough and ready, traditional building process into a precision activity.
Swiss Re, 30 St Mary Axe and St Andrew Undershaft Church, City of London (2005)?Designer: Foster & Partners?Copyright: Pawel Libera/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (2005)
In doing so he has given a new embodiment to the spirit of classical architecture and created structures of great style and grace … In his combination of brilliant innovation, passionate dedication to the highest standards of design and detail, and respect for human scale, Norman Foster is an inspiration to a generation of architects throughout the world.’ And – it is now possible to add – to many future generations too.
1997 – Tadao Ando 1941 –
Kidosaki house, Setagaya, Tokyo (1986)?Designer: Ando, Tadao (1941-)?Copyright: RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (1986)
Tadao Ando is largely self-taught and set up practice in his home city of Osaka in 1969. Although he has been honoured with awards from America and Europe (he is an Honorary Fellow of both the RIBA and the American Institute of Architects), most of his work has been done in Japan.
Notable exceptions include the Japanese Expo building in Seville (1992), FABRICA, the Benetton Research Center in Treviso, Italy (1992), the Vitra Seminar House in Basel (1993) and the Meditation Space for UNESCO in Paris (1995). But it is in his Japanese buildings that traditional forms and shapes have been most perfectly married to the modern materials of concrete, steel and glass.
Ando has won just about every other international award including: the Carlsberg Architectural Prize (Denmark) 1992; the Pritzker Architecture Prize (USA) 1995; Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France) 1995; the Praemium Imperiale (Japan) 1996; the AIA Gold Medal (USA) 2002 and the UIA Gold Medal (2005).
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‘Ando has emerged as something of a creative rebel in his own country although clearly respected as a thoughtful and cultured artist. To the rest of the world he is an architectural hero.’ |
The Royal Gold Medal jury’s official citation read as follows: ‘An Ando building, whether large or small, is instantly recognisable yet eminently individual. In a world dominated by consumerism Ando seeks solace through his architecture in the rediscovery of new relationships between space and light, modern finishes and man and nature.
Vitra Seminar House, Weil am Rhein (1998)?Designer: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates?Copyright: Julian Osley/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (2006)
Nowhere is this better seen than in the beautiful and poignant religious buildings he created on Mount Roko (1985-6) near Kobe, the Chapel on the Water (1985-9) at Tomamu and the more urban but equally poetic Church of the Light (1987-9) in a quiet residential suburb of Osaka. He is called a minimalist although there is nothing simple about the man.’
2004 – Rem Koolhaas 1944 –
Casa da Musica, Rotunda da Boavista, Porto (2006)?Designer: Koolhaas, Rem (1944-) Office for Metropolitan Architecture?Copyright: Duccio Malagamba/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (2006)
It falls to few architects to be ‘cool’ to more than a single generation. Rem Koolhaas and his buildings have been just that, and an inspiration to his peers for more than 30 years.
The citation was written by Zaha Hadid who was taught by Koolhaas and worked with him at OMA. ‘Many of my interests and approaches owe very important debts to him. And here I believe I talk not only in the name of the jury but also as a representative of a whole generation whose views, approaches and even aesthetics have been radically affected by Rem …
‘Probably the most important role that he has played in shaping the debate is his proverbial capacity to push the borders of the discipline further and further away, to integrate new areas within architecture, and to enlarge the domains in which architects operate beyond their most conventional limits – to give architecture more breathing space at a time when the architectural debate seemed to have fallen into a dead end of discussions of language and of history. He managed to take architecture away from the simple role of building and to turn it into a discipline that suddenly could process all sorts of materials – politics, economics, lifestyles, culture, the city … Rem’s approach to architecture represents a possibility of re-connecting with reality, finding opportunities to make architecture everywhere …
McCormick Tribune Campus Center, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (2003)?Designer: Koolhaas, Rem (1944-) Office for Metropolitan Architecture?Copyright: Roland Halbe/RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection (2004)
‘So in his buildings, details address the everyday life rituals, lifestyles, conventions rather than simply delivering manual-like tried and tested details. The Bordeaux House, the Kunsthal, the Porto concert hall, the Dutch Embassy in Berlin are full of these significant small-scale inventions …
‘I am sure that in his hands this award will become a tool for the evolution of the discipline. For all of this Rem, I would like to thank you and to congratulate you on this achievement.’
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‘No one has influenced the professional and academic architectural landscape more since he entered the profession in the late seventies.’ |