The 2020 Pritzker Prize was awarded to Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara

This year's Pritzker Prize goes to the founders of the Irish studio Grafton Architects. This Dublin office, founded by the duo of architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, entered the global consciousness of the professional community two years ago when they served as curators for the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale. However, both architects have been significant figures in the Irish academic and professional ground since the late 1970s. The jury of the American Hyatt Foundation, which selected this year's Pritzker Prize winners, also confirmed the decision of the Royal Institute of British Architects, which awarded Farrell and McNamara the RIBA Gold Medal 2020 less than three weeks ago.

In the more than forty-year history of the Pritzker Prize, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara become only the fourth recipients. The first solo recipient of the Pritzker Prize was British architect of Iraqi descent Zaha M. Hadid, who received the prestigious award in 2004 (exactly a quarter-century after the first award was given to Philip Johnson in 1979). Six years later in 2010, Kazuyo Sejima had to share the prize with her partner from SANAA, Ryue Nishizawa, and three years ago in 2017, Carme Pigem was one of the trio from the Spanish studio RCR. A vigorously discussed chapter was the awarding of the prize to Robert Venturi in 1991 and the omission of his long-time life and professional partner Denise Scott Brown, which was rectified by the American Institute of Architects, which awarded both of them the AIA Gold Medal in 2016.


Both architects, in addition to running their own architectural practice, are also engaged in academic activities. They founded their architectural office a year before the Pritzker Prize started being awarded. After a quarter-century of teaching at their home University College Dublin, both architects have also taught at prestigious American universities Harvard and Yale, and currently teach at the academy in Mendrisiu. They received great recognition from their colleagues at the last Venice Biennale, where their forty years of collaborative art and generosity in architectural work came to full expression.


The jurors' reasoning for this year's Pritzker Prize: “Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have practiced architecture together for forty years in a manner that clearly reflects the goals of the Pritzker Prize: to honor architectural artistry while serving humanity through built works. In 1978, they established their practice Grafton Architects in Dublin, Ireland, and consistently and unwaveringly pursue the highest architectural quality always destined for a specific place, a specific function, and especially for the people who use the building. Their work includes numerous educational buildings, residential, cultural, and civic structures. They are pioneers in a field that has traditionally and still primarily been a male profession. Thus, their professional path serves as a beacon and an example for others.”

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