Source: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/pritzker-prize-winner-2020/index.html
Yvonne Farrell
and Shelley McNamara have won the 2020 Pritzker Prize, becoming only the fourth
and fifth women to claim architecture's
equivalent to the Nobel Prize in its 41-year history.
The Irish pair,
co-founders of Dublin-based firm Grafton Architects, were named this year's
laureates in recognition of their "unceasing commitment to
excellence."
Known for robust creations in concrete and stone, Farrell
and McNamara have been prolific in their native Ireland, also working across
Europe and elsewhere. The duo has produced dozens of residential, commercial
and civic buildings since opening their practice in 1978, including new offices
for Ireland's Department of Finance in Dublin, and the striking Solstice Arts
Centre in the nearby town of Navan.
Grafton Architects is best known, however, for educational
buildings. The firm was thrust into the global spotlight in 2008, when its
design for Bocconi University's Milan campus -- a sturdy shell of stone-clad
structures atop subterranean lecture halls carved beneath the city's surface --
was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival.
The practice has
gone on to design buildings for academic institutions including University
College Dublin, the Toulouse School of Economics and the London School of
Economics. Perhaps most notable among them is the University of Engineering and
Technology's campus in Lima, Peru, which won the prestigious RIBA
International Prize in 2016.
Composed of
teaching spaces and offices dramatically stacked into what the firm describes as a
"man-made cliff," the project is typical of the pair's output, which
often comprises solid, imposing volumes that mark urban landscapes rather than
blend into them. Yet Farrell and McNamara were also praised by the Pritzker
Prize judges for their ability to "maintain a human scale and achieve
intimate environments" through clever plays of light and warm interiors.
"Without
grand or frivolous gestures, they have managed to create buildings that are
monumental institutional presences when appropriate," read the jury's
citation, "but even so they are zoned and detailed in such a way as to
produce more intimate spaces that create community within."
A 'male-dominated profession'
Tuesday's
announcement marks a significant step for an award long criticized for its lack
of female representation.
It wasn't until
2004 that Zaha Hadid became the
first woman -- and, to date, the only solo female architect -- to claim the
Pritzker Prize. Kazuyo Sejima became the second woman laureate in 2010, when
she was jointly recognized alongside her firm's co-founder, Ryue Nishizawa.
Carme Pigem was named laureate as one of a trio of architects to
claim the honor in 2017.
Controversy has
also centered around the apparent omission of winning architects' female
partners. When Wang Shu, a member of
this year's jury, became the first Chinese laureate eight years ago, he told the LA Times
that he believed his wife and partner Lu Wenyu should have shared the honor.
The following
year, a petition called for
American architect Denise Scott Brown to be retroactively acknowledged as joint
winner of 1991's prize, which had been solely awarded to her husband and
creative partner Robert Venturi. At the time of the campaign, Scott Brown told CNN that the
prize was based on the fallacy that great architecture results from
"single lone male genius," rather than collaboration.
This year's jury
-- made up of architects and academics, and chaired by US Supreme Court Justice
Stephen Breyer -- recognized that architecture remains a "male-dominated
profession." Its statement went on to describe Farrell and McNamara as
"beacons to others as they forge their exemplary professional path."
First awarded to
the American Philip Johnson in 1979, the Pritzker Prize honors living
architects who display a combination of "talent, vision and
commitment." Farrell and McNamara are described by award organizers as the
first Irish recipients, though 1982's laureate, the late Irish-American
architect Kevin Roche, was born and educated in Dublin.
High-profile
former laureates include Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas. Last
year's prize went to Arata Isozaki,
the eighth Japanese architect to be awarded the honor.
The annual award, founded by members of the family behind
the Hyatt Hotel chain, is modeled on the Nobel Prize. Farrell and McNamara will
share a $100,000 grant and be presented with bronze medallions at a ceremony
later this year.
"Architecture could be described as one of the most
complex and important cultural activities on the planet," Farrell said in
a press statement. "To be an architect is an enormous privilege. To win
this prize is a wonderful endorsement of our belief in architecture."
McNamara
meanwhile called the recognition "extremely gratifying," adding in a
statement: "Within the ethos of a practice such as ours, we have so often
struggled to find space for the implementation of such values as humanism,
craft, generosity, and cultural connection with each place and context within
which we work."
Beyond their
architectural output, Farrell and McNamara have filled various teaching posts
and were joint curators of the 16th Venice Biennale of
Architecture in 2018. They were recently awarded the 2020 RIBA Gold Medal,
another major architecture award that has faced criticism for its dearth of female
winners.
