More recently, on February 13, Grafton executives Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell were honored in London with the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal, the oldest of the world's "major" architectural awards; its laureates, albeit formally, are approved by the British monarch. And now the next "order", in the eyes of the general public, is even more honorable: the Pritzker Prize, a private initiative of the owners of the Hyatt group, but not only with a medal (bronze), but also with a cash prize of $ 100,000.
Worldwide fame for McNamara and Farrell
brought the Grand Prix of the very first World Architecture Festival in 2008 - for the Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. This was their first building outside their homeland, where they were already well known for their very high-quality structures, from general design to small details, structures - contextual, original, with attention to material. Another area of activity of the Grafton duo is teaching, they have brought up many representatives of the bright Irish school of architecture at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. However, among this school they stand out, perhaps, only by the presence of "shock" foreign objects: the aforementioned University of Milan and another university building in Lima, which brought them another resounding victory - the very first RIBA International Prize, for which all architects of the world could apply. that is, the “passing grade” was very high.
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zooming 1/3 Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. 2008 Photo © Federico Brunetti
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zooming 2/3 Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. 2008 Photo © Federico Brunetti
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zooming 3/3 Luigi Bocconi University of Milan. 2008 Photo © Federico Brunetti
Another conquered peak, albeit not so unambiguous, was the Venice Architecture Biennale: McNamara and Farrell curated it in 2018. Their appointment was quite surprising: they were still known as practitioners and educators, but not organizers of exhibitions, theorists or publicists. These fears were justified: even against the backdrop of the not very successful Biennale of Alejandro Aravena (2016), the 2018 festival looked weak, but critics preferred to remain silent.
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zooming 1/4 UTEC University in Lima. 2015 Photo © Iwan Baan
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zooming 2/4 UTEC University in Lima. 2015 Photo © Iwan Baan
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zooming 3/4 UTEC University in Lima. 2015 Photo © Iwan Baan
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zooming 4/4 UTEC University in Lima. 2015 Photo © Iwan Baan
Indeed, Grafton is a little uncomfortable to criticize: excellent architects, not "star" at all, but modest and benevolent women who have achieved success in a still largely male profession, actively passing on their experience to the younger generation are definitely positive heroines. And that their buildings as a whole do not go beyond the level and imagery of the modern Irish school, for example, in the person of the O'Donnell + Tuomey bureau RIBA-2015 Gold Medal winners - this is not a vice at all, this is a wonderful world-class architecture.
But if the RIBA medal is still focused primarily on the architects of the British Isles, then from the Pritzker Prize with its constant rotation of jury members with different backgrounds, an active search for candidates and the choice of the winner not by photo, but during expeditions around the world, you expect much more " resourcefulness ". So far, the 2020 prize looks like the “default” option: everyone rewards them, and we will reward them.
Yes, in the background
last year's winner Grafton looks very progressive and fresh, but for all the capabilities of the Hyatt Foundation, its willingness to limit searches to the First World (with rare exceptions) is amazing - especially in the context of the global information space and against the backdrop of decades of successful existence, for example, the Aga Khan Prize, constantly finding new significant names even before the advent of the Internet.
