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Agence France-Presse

Dublin-based Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were awarded the Pritzker prize on Tuesday – the first time a female duo has scooped architecture’s most prestigious award.
The pair gained international fame for their brutalist-inspired structures, pairing strong, heavy materials like stark concrete with delicate human-scale detail like lookout points, meeting places and spots to loiter.
The pair met at university in 1974, and went on to found their firm Grafton Architects in 1978 in Dublin, where they have worked together for four decades.
McNamara, 68, and Farrell, 69, are the first female duo to win a Pritzker, and the first architects from Ireland to be awarded the prize.

“Pioneers in a field that has traditionally been and still is a male-dominated profession, they are also beacons to others as they forge their exemplary professional path,” read the jury citation.
Just three women have won Pritzkers before them: Zaha Hadid in 2004, Kazuyo Sejima in 2010 (with Ryue Nishizawa) and Carme Pigem in 2017 (with Ramon Vilalta and Rafael Aranda).
In announcing their selection, the jury cited Farrell and McNamara’s “integrity” and “generosity towards their colleagues” – both continue to teach, rare for architects of their repute.
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The judges also praised 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.”
The pair say Ireland informed their focus on geography and shifts in climate, resulting in buildings that celebrate detail while remaining modest.
“What we try to do in our work is to be aware of the various levels of citizenship and try to find an architecture that deals with overlap, that heightens your relationship to one another,” the Pritzker committee quoted Farrell as saying.

In 2008, Farrell and McNamara’s celebrated Grafton Building at Milan’s Bocconi University was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, a prize that thrust the pair onto the international stage.
The past four decades have seen them complete projects in Ireland as well as Britain, France, Italy and Peru – notably designing many educational and civic buildings – all with nuanced sensitivity to a site’s natural elements and needs.
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“The collaboration between Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara represents a veritable interconnectedness between equal counterparts,” said Tom Pritzker, chairman of the foundation that sponsors the award.
“They demonstrate incredible strength in their architecture, show deep relation to the local situation in all regards, establish different responses to each commission while maintaining the honesty of their work, and exceed the requirements of the field through responsibility and community.”
In 2018, Farrell and McNamara curated that year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, entitled “Freespace”, which they defined as “a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the core of architecture’s agenda”.

“We are interested in going beyond the visual, emphasising the role of architecture in the choreography of daily life,” they said in their Biennale announcement.
“We see the Earth as client. This brings with it long-lasting responsibilities.”
In 2016, their firm won the inaugural RIBA International Prize, for their University of Engineering and Technology building in Peru, which the judges called a “modern-day Machu Picchu” for its verticality and mix of open and enclosed spaces.
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Though acclaimed, the pair have cautioned against the “starchitect” phenomenon that celebrates eye candy and celebrity over structural needs.
Farrell, speaking to Spain’s IE University in 2015, instead likened architects to translators, saying “we translate people’s needs and their dreams into reality.”
“We make the space in which life happens, and I think our profession needs to expand to embrace all the other disciplines of environmental sustainability, of making, of the crisis, of changing people’s attitude.”


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Architecture and design

Pritzker prize: Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley win top international award

The Graduate Entry Medical School at the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland. The building was designed by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. Photo: AP

This image released by the Pritzker Prize shows the exterior of the University of Toulouse in Toulouse, France. The building was designed by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, recipients of the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize. (Dennis Gilbert/Pritzker Prize via AP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 23, 2018 Yvonne Farrell (R) and Shelley McNamara curators of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition pose in Venice. The Biennale Architettura 2018, titled "Freespace", take place from May 26th to November 25th 2018 in the Giardini and Arsenale venues, and in other locations in Venice. - Dublin-based Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were awarded the Pritzker prize on March 3, 2020 -- the first time a female duo has scooped architecture's most prestigious award. They gained international fame for their blocky, brutalist-inspired structures, which prioritize human interaction by pairing heavy materials like stark concrete with lookout points, meeting places, and spots to loiter. The pair met at university in 1974, and went on to found their firm Grafton Architects in 1978 in Dublin, where they have practiced together for four decades. (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP)

A building at Bocconi University in Milan, designed by Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. Photo: AP

Pritzker Prize for Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who builds in cardboard

Shigeru Ban's cardboard cathedral, built after a crippling earthquake ravaged Christchurch in New Zealand in 2010. Photo: AP

Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban's row of paper log houses in Kobe, Japan. Photo: AP

Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese architect Wang Shu battles to save China’s traditional rural building style amid rampant urbanisation

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Wang Shu sitting on a bench at the Xiangshan Campus, which he and his wife designed, at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Photo: Reuters

The Wa Shan Guesthouse, China Academy of Art, Xiangshan Campus in Hangzhou. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: Iwan Baan [FEATURES 2018]

The exhibition Wang Shu et Lu Wenyu in the Grande Salle of the Arc en Reve in Bordeaux. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: Rodolphe Escher [FEATURES 2018]

Amateur Architecture Studio, Regeneration of the Wencun Village.. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: Iwan Baan [FEATURES 2018]

Wang Shu, very widely available on the internet. Can’t find a copyright linked to it. Shot was used a lot after his Pritzker prize win by several architectural mags. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: HANDOUT [FEATURES 2018]

The soaring angular facades of the Ningbo Museum of History, built from recycled vestiges of past demolished buildings. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: Iwan Baan [FEATURES 2018]

Wa Shan Guesthouse, China Academy of Art Xiangshan Campus, Amateur Architecture Studio. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: Iwan Baan [FEATURES 2018]

Bamboo features strongly in the studio’s work - along with other traditional building techniques employed — rammed-earth, cement cast in bamboo formwork, simple stone masonry construction. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: Rodolphe ESCHER [FEATURES 2018]

Ningbo History Museum Amateur Architecture Studio. For Charmaine and DESIGNWANGSHU Photo: Iwan Baan [FEATURES 2018]

German architect Frei Otto named winner of Pritzker Prize a day after he dies

Frei Otto helped design Munich's Olympic Stadium, which was unveiled for the 1972 Games. Photo: SCMP Pictures, EPA

Frei Otto helped design Munich's Olympic Stadium, which was unveiled for the 1972 Games.Photo: SCMP Pictures

Architect Frei Otto.Credit: EPA

King of the block: Alejandro Aravena, master of minimalist forms, wins architecture’s Pritzker Prize

This undated image released by ELEMENTAL shows the interior of the Innovation Center in Santiago, Chile, designed by Alejandro Aravena and Juan Cerda. Arevena was named 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016. (Nina Vidic/ELEMENTAL via AP)

This image released by ELEMENTAL shows Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. Arevena was named 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016. (Cristobal Palma/ELEMENTAL via AP)

The Angelini Innovation Centre at Catholic University in Santiago, Chile, designed by Alejandro Aravena and Juan Cerda. The design embodies the iconoclastic approach by Arevena, the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. Photo: AP

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Grafton Architects, best known for educational buildings, has received numerous awards for its designs
Just three women have won or shared Pritzkers before them



Dublin-based Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were awarded the Pritzker prize – the first time a female duo has scooped architecture’s most prestigious award.


Ireland

Pritzker prize: Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley win top international award

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Grafton Architects, best known for educational buildings, has received numerous awards for its designs Just three women have won or shared Pritzkers before them

Grafton Architects, best known for educational buildings, has received numerous awards for its designs

Just three women have won or shared Pritzkers before them