UIA Gold Medal and Prizes
Image: Casa Millán, São Paulo by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. © Douglas Friedman
ARCHITECTURE
Paulo Mendes da Rocha
UIA Gold Medal
Awarded by the International Union of Architects (UIA), the Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha won the UIA Gold Medal for a lifetime of achievement. Paulo Mendes da Rocha passed away this year at the age of 92 years old. He was one of Brazil’s most important architects and one of the world’s last great modernists. He has been honored with the Pritzker Prize in 2006 and the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, in 2016. Some of his most notable projects are the Brazilian Sculpture Museum (1988), the renovation of the Pinacoteca of the State of São Paulo (1993), the Cultural Center of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (1996), the Museum of Portuguese Language (2006), and the new facilities of the National Coach Museum in the Belém district of Lisbon.
Building of the Year 2021
Image: The MoAE – Huamao Museum of Art Education by Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira, 2020.
© Bowen Hou
ARCHITECTURE
Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira
Cultural Architecture
The MoAE – Huamao Museum of Art Education is an art museum in Ningbo, China, whose iconic building was designed by Portuguese architects Álvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira. Its plan has a triangular form, delineated by continuous walls, with slightly curved rather than angled corners. The public entrance is reached after passing around the form of the building and experiencing an imposed, absorbing compression, to then be released into a vast space, the full height of the building, where a snaking ramp links all the floor levels. This exercise of compression and release is constant during the visit.
About the Building of the Year
Pritzker Architecture Prize 2021
Image: FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque by Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, 2013-2015.
© Philippe Ruault.
ARCHITECTURE
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal
Pritzker Architecture Prize
Social housing French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, founders of the Paris-based studio Lacaton & Vassal, won the 2021 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Their work reflects architecture’s democratic spirit. Through their ideas, approach to the profession, and the resulting buildings, they have proven that a commitment to a restorative architecture that is at once technological, innovative, and ecologically responsive can be pursued. The practice begins every project with a process of discovery which includes intensely observing and finding value in what already exists. Many of the studio's projects focus on expanding usable space through the use of winter gardens and balconies often utilising polycarbonate panels.
About the Pritzker Architecture Prize
Biennale di Venezia
Golden Lion Award 2021
Image: Murcia City Hall, Spain by Rafael Moneo, 1991-1998. © Michael Moran
ARCHITECTURE
Rafael Moneo
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
The Spanish architect, educator, critic and theoretician Rafael Moneo received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Rafael Moneo is famous for his contextual buildings and commitment to modernist stylings. Attracted initially to philosophy and painting rather than architecture, he was influenced by his father, an industrial designer, to pursue a career in architecture. Among his best-known works are the transformation of the Villahermosa Palace into the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (1989-92), the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca (1987-1992), the Museums of Modern Art and Architecture in Stockholm, Sweden (1994-98), the Prado Museum Extension (2001-2007), the Souks in Beirut (1996-2009).
About the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
Jane Drew Prize 2021
Image: Dawson Height's, Overhill Road, Dulwich, London by Kate Macintosh (1964-72).
ARCHITECTURE
Kate Macintosh
Jane Drew Prize
Scottish architect Kate Macintosh has been awarded the 2021 Jane Drew Prize by the Architects' Journal and The Architectural Review as part of its W awards series, formerly known as the Women in Architecture awards. Macintosh, now retired, was selected in celebration of her work in public architecture and advocation for the use of buildings as a tool for social justice since the 1960s. At the age of 26, she conceived Dawson's Heights – a listed social housing estate in London. It is widely regarded as her most significant project and has seen her dubbed one of the "unsung architects of social housing". Macintosh continued to make her name in the public building, working on projects ranging from sheltered housing to schools and fire services.
