Royal Gold Medal 2021 was awarded to David Adjaye

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has been awarding the Gold Medal as a recognition for lifetime achievement since 1848 to individuals or groups who have had a significant impact on the development of architecture, either directly or indirectly. The award is personally approved by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Last year, this award was given to the legend of the British hi-tech scene, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw. This year's recipients of the RIBA Gold Medal are a pair of Irish architects, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, while next year's laureate has been named as Sir David Adjaye, who earned the award for his twenty-five years of work in the international architectural scene, during which he sought to apply influences from contemporary African art and music in the final form of his projects.
Adjaye was born to Ghanaian parents in Tanzania and grew up in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Great Britain. From the beginning of his career, he combined practice with teaching at architectural schools in the UK and the USA, including professorships at Harvard, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Princeton universities. While still a student, Adjaye received the RIBA Bronze Medal in 1993, in 2007 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 2017 he was elevated to the aristocracy. He currently runs the architectural firm Adjaye Associates in London with branches in New York and Accra, Ghana. Of the more than fifty completed buildings, the most attention has been drawn by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. He is currently preparing projects around the world: an art museum for Princeton University, an International Financial Centre in Dakar, George Street Sydney Plaza in Sydney, a royal museum in Benin City, Nigeria, or a House of Unity for three religions in Abu Dhabi.
The RIBA Gold Medal 2021 laureate was decided by a committee consisting of: RIBA President Alan Jones, architects Lesley Lokko, Dorte Mandrup, and Shelley McNamara, and structural engineer Hanif Kara. RIBA also announced that in light of the current situation, the awarding of the Stirling Prize and other awards will be postponed to next year, as it is not possible to assess buildings in person on-site due to the pandemic.

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