Feb 20 2007
The Swiss architects Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, famed for projects including Tate Modern and the Laban dance centre in the UK, are the recipients of one of architecture’s most prestigious prizes, the Royal Gold Medal. They will be presented with the award by Jack Pringle, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) at a glittering ceremony tomorrow night at the RIBA in London.
Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the Queen and is given annually to a person or group of people whose influence on architecture has had a truly international effect.
The honour recognises the impact Herzog & de Meuron have made both on cities and on architects throughout the world, from their early inspirational work in Switzerland, via the London projects for Tate Modern (2000) and the RIBA Stirling Prize - winning Laban dance centre (2003), to their recent and current work in Barcelona, Tokyo, Beijing and the United States.
Jack Pringle, RIBA President said:
“I look forward to presenting Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron with the Royal Gold Medal tomorrow night. Their career has seen them move painlessly from being an experimental studio to a big practice without the work being diluted in any way. They reinvent everything with each new project and do it with such vigour. As teachers their influence on the current and future generations of architects is huge.”
This year’s Royal Gold Medal jury was chaired by RIBA President Jack Pringle and made up of: Chris Wilkinson, Wilkinson Eyre Architects; Deborah Saunt, DSDHA; Christophe Egret, Studio Egret; Kenneth Powell, journalist and writer and client Lady Susie Sainsbury of Turville.
At the ceremony, the RIBA will also be awarding its 2007 International and Honorary Fellowships to recipients including Odile Decq, Ken Livingstone, Paul Smith and Kevin McCloud. The 2007 Royal Gold Medal programme is supported by Ebel and Hobs Reprographics.