RIBA Gold Medal

Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

The Royal Gold Medal for architecture[1] is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual’s or group’s substantial contribution to international architecture. It is given for a distinguished body of work rather than for one building, and is therefore not awarded for merely being currently fashionable.

The medal was first awarded in 1848 to Charles Robert Cockerell, and its winners include some of the most influential architects of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1864), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941), Le Corbusier (1953), Walter Gropius (1956), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1959) and Buckminster Fuller (1968). Already with the second recipient, the Italian Luigi Canina in 1849, the award went international.

Not all recipients were architects. Also recognised were engineers such as Ove Arup (1966) and Peter Rice (1992) who undoubtedly played an outstanding role in the realisation of some of the 20th century’s key buildings all over the world. Repeatedly, the prize was awarded to influential writers on architecture, including scholars such as the Rev Robert Willis (1862), Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1967) and Sir John Summerson (1976) as well as theoreticians such as Lewis Mumford (1961) and Colin Rowe (1995). It honoured archaeologists such as Sir Austen Henry Layard (1868), Karl Richard Lepsius (1869), Melchior de Vogüé (1879), Heinrich Schliemann (1885), Rodolfo Lanciani (1900) and Sir Arthur Evans (1909), and painters such as Lord Leighton (1894) and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1906). Another notable exception was the 1999 award to the city of Barcelona.

Gold Medal

• 2021: David Adjaye 
• 2020: Yvonne Farrell & Shelley McNamara (Ireland)
• 2019: Sir Nicholas Grimshaw
• 2018: Neave Brown
• 2017: Paulo Mendes da Rocha
• 2016: Zaha Hadid
• 2015: O’Donnell & Tuomey
• 2014: Joseph Rykwert
• 2013: Peter Zumthor
• 2012: Herman Hertzberger
• 2011: David Chipperfield
• 2010: I. M. Pei
• 2009: Álvaro Siza Vieira
• 2008: Edward Cullinan
• 2007: Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron
• 2006: Toyo Ito
• 2005: Frei Otto
• 2004: Rem Koolhaas
• 2003: Rafael Moneo
• 2002: Archigram, UK
• 2001: Jean Nouvel, France
• 2000: Frank Gehry, U.S.
• 1999: City of Barcelona, Spain
• 1998: Oscar Niemeyer
• 1997: Tadao Ando
• 1996 Harry Seidler, Austria/Australia
• 1995 Colin Rowe, UK/U.S.
• 1994 Michael and Patricia Hopkins
• 1993 Giancarlo De Carlo, Italy
• 1992 Peter Rice, Ireland
• 1991 Colin Stansfield Smith
• 1990 Aldo van Eyck, Netherlands
• 1989 Renzo Piano, Italy
• 1988 Richard Meier
• 1987 Ralph Erskine
• 1986 Arata Isozaki, Japan
• 1985 Sir Richard Rogers
• 1984 Charles Correa, India
• 1983 Sir Norman Foster
• 1982 Berthold Lubetkin
• 1981 Sir Philip Dowson
• 1980 James Stirling
• 1979 Charles and Ray Eames, U.S.
• 1978 Jørn Utzon, Denmark
• 1977 Sir Denys Lasdun
• 1976 Sir John Summerson
• 1975 Michael Scott, Ireland
• 1974 Powell and Moya
• 1973 Sir Leslie Martin
• 1972 Louis I Kahn, U.S.
• 1971 Hubert de Cronin Hastings (1902–86)
• 1970 Robert Matthew
• 1969 Jack Coia
• 1968 Buckminster Fuller, U.S.
• 1967 Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
• 1966 Ove Arup
• 1965 Kenzo Tange, Japan
• 1964 Edwin Maxwell Fry
• 1963 William Holford, Baron Holford
• 1962 Sven Markelius, Sweden
• 1961 Lewis Mumford, U.S.
• 1960 Pier Luigi Nervi, Italy
• 1959 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Germany/U.S.
• 1958 Robert Schofield Morris, Canada
• 1957 Alvar Aalto, Finland
• 1956 Walter Gropius, Germany/U.S.
• 1955 John Murray Easton (1889–1975)
• 1954 Sir Arthur George Stephenson (1890–1967)
• 1953 Le Corbusier, France
• 1952 George Grey Wornum
• 1951 Emanuel Vincent Harris
• 1950 Eliel Saarinen, Finland
• 1949 Sir Howard Robertson
• 1948 Auguste Perret, France
• 1947 Sir Albert Richardson
• 1946 Sir Patrick Abercrombie
• 1945 Victor Vesnin, USSR
• 1944 Sir Edward Maufe
• 1943 Sir Charles Herbert Reilly
• 1942 William Curtis Green
• 1941 Frank Lloyd Wright, U.S.
• 1940 Charles Voysey
• 1939 Sir Percy Thomas
• 1938 Ivar Tengbom, Sweden
• 1937 Sir Raymond Unwin
• 1936 Charles Holden
• 1935 Willem Marinus Dudok, Netherlands
• 1934 Henry Vaughan Lanchester
• 1933 Sir Charles Reed Peers (1868–1952)
• 1932 Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Netherlands
• 1931 Sir Edwin Cooper
• 1930 Percy Worthington
• 1929 Victor Laloux, France
• 1928 Sir Guy Dawber
• 1927 Sir Herbert Baker
• 1926 Ragnar Ostberg, Sweden
• 1925 Sir Giles Gilbert Scott
• 1924 No award
• 1923 Sir John James Burnet
• 1922 Thomas Hastings, U.S.
• 1921 Sir Edwin Lutyens
• 1920 Charles Girault, France
• 1919 Leonard Stokes
• 1918 Ernest Newton
• 1917 Henri Paul Nénot, France
• 1916 Sir Robert Rowand Anderson
• 1915 Frank Darling, Canada
• 1914 Jean-Louis Pascal, France
• 1913 Sir Reginald Blomfield
• 1912 Basil Champneys
• 1911 Wilhelm Dörpfeld
• 1910 Sir Thomas Graham Jackson
• 1909 Sir Arthur Evans
• 1908 Honoré Daumet, France
• 1907 John Belcher
• 1906 Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Netherlands
• 1905 Sir Aston Webb
• 1904 Auguste Choisy, France
• 1903 Charles Follen McKim, U.S.
• 1902 Thomas Edward Collcutt[9]
• 1901 No award
• 1900 Rodolfo Lanciani, Italy
• 1899 George Frederick Bodley
• 1898 George Aitchison
• 1897 Pierre Cuypers, Netherlands
• 1896 Sir Ernest George
• 1895 James Brooks (1825–1901)
• 1894 Lord Leighton
• 1893 Richard Morris Hunt, U.S.
• 1892 César Daly, France (1811–94)
• 1891 Sir Arthur Blomfield
• 1890 John Gibson
• 1889 Sir Charles Thomas Newton
• 1888 Baron Theophil von Hansen, Austria
• 1887 Ewan Christian
• 1886 Charles Garnier, France
• 1885 Heinrich Schliemann, Germany
• 1884 William Butterfield
• 1883 Francis Penrose
• 1882 Heinrich von Ferstel, Austria
• 1881 George Godwin
• 1880 John Loughborough Pearson
• 1879 Marquis Melchior de Vogüé, France
• 1878 Alfred Waterhouse
• 1877 Charles Barry
• 1876 Joseph-Louis Duc, France
• 1875 Edmund Sharpe
• 1874 George Edmund Street
• 1873 Thomas Henry Wyatt
• 1872 Friedrich von Schmidt, Germany/Austria
• 1871 James Fergusson
• 1870 Benjamin Ferrey
• 1869 Karl Richard Lepsius, Germany
• 1868 Sir Austen Henry Layard
• 1867 Charles Texier, France
• 1866 Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt
• 1865 Sir James Pennethorne
• 1864 Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, France
• 1863 Anthony Salvin
• 1862 Rev Robert Willis
• 1861 Jean-Baptiste Lesueur, France (1794–1883)
• 1860 Sydney Smirke
• 1859 Sir George Gilbert Scott
• 1858 Friedrich August Stüler, Germany
• 1857 Owen Jones
• 1856 Sir William Tite
• 1855 Jacques Ignace Hittorff, France
• 1854 Philip Hardwick
• 1853 Sir Robert Smirke
• 1852 Leo von Klenze, Germany
• 1851 Thomas Leverton Donaldson
• 1850 Sir Charles Barry
• 1849 Luigi Canina, Italy
• 1848 Charles Robert Cockerell