Bustler's top prize-winning architects, design leaders, and academics of 2024
By Josh Niland|
Monday, Dec 30, 2024
The field of architecture is filled with annual awards and accolades conferred to those who shape the present and future built environment through practice, research, and teaching.
This past year has proved another full one in terms of such honors. From brilliant curators to champions of labor rights, sustainability, and social justice to academics and students, those recognized for their unique contributions to architecture and the built environment are truly deserving as the faces, lifeblood, and inspiring future of our profession.
Below is our curated selection of some of the most notable award-winning architects, designers, and academics from this past year in chronological order.
Lesley Lokko is the 2024 RIBA Royal Gold Medal winner
"The founder of the African Futures Institute (AFI) and curator of last year’s 18th Venice Architecture Biennale received the award for her work surrounding justice causes and other attempts to 'democratize' the profession. Fittingly, she joins last year’s winner Yasmeen Lari as the first-ever back-to-back solo female Royal Gold Medalists in RIBA history."
Francis Kéré among winners of World Economic Forum's 2024 Crystal Award
"In announcing Kéré as an award recipient, the organization applauded the architect’s 'exemplary leadership in providing the Gando community the means towards a socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable future through projects that focus on education, health, and the environment.' The organizers also noted Kéré’s development of innovative construction strategies that 'combine traditional building techniques and materials with modern construction methods.'"
"The retired officer and woman responsible for maintaining and improving a total of 36 U.S. Air Force installations is credited with authoring over 50 facility standards guidelines. Loomis, who is currently working as a principal at The Urban Collaborative, is also an adjunct lecturer at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. Her work has garnered major specialty awards and recognition from the American Planning Association and other professional bodies in a thirty-year span, working closely throughout with the General Services Administration and other key public entities."
ACSA picks 2024 Architectural Education Award winners
"The group was led by this year's Topaz Medalist, University of Miami professor Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, who was previously announced in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects, along with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. and Edward C. Kemper Award recipients in early December. She was joined by the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s Lynne Dearborn and University of Maryland faculty member Mohammad Gharipour, who were named the winners of the Distinguished Professor Award. A total of seven individual award winners were granted alongside another seven category awards for Diversity Achievement, Creative Achievement, Collaborative Practice, Faculty Design, Design-Build, Practice + Leadership, and Housing Design Education."
"The five Architecture and Design Fellows are: Ifeoma Ebo, Selina Martinez, Maya Bird-Murphy, DK Osseo-Asare, and AD-WO (Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood). This year’s Architecture and Design Fellows join a list of previous recipients that includes Theaster Gates, Germane Barnes, Nina Cooke John, Mabel O. Wilson, and Deanna Van Buren. Subjects covered in their work include bioclimatic design, placemaking, and the role of craft traditions in architecture."
Peter Pennoyer named 2024 Driehaus Prize laureate
"The Driehaus jury accordingly cited the Peter Pennoyer Architects founder's portfolio of buildings as being 'unmatched in their form and details — beautiful, imaginative and discreet — belying the great effort such excellence requires.' Outside of his professional endeavors, Pennoyer has been active in philanthropic efforts as a member of the Municipal Art Society of New York and board chair of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art while also contributing to the U.S. General Services Administration’s Design Excellence Program as a juror. He is also the author of several historical studies and other titles, the sum of which the jury citation referred to as having 'guiding a generation of architects seeking to perpetuate the continuity that comes from practicing classicism as a living language capable of artistic expression and innovation.'"
"Speaking of the influential designer, Manon Mollard, Editor of The Architectural Review, said: 'Iwona Buczkowska is both a pioneer of timber construction and a fierce defender of the right to good housing. Rejecting standardization, she prefers arcs and oblique planes to create intimate and brightly lit homes, and encourages us to think of architecture’s contribution to social ecology. Buczkowska’s buildings need to be preserved, and her ideas celebrated.'"
"Speaking of her impact within architecture, Eleanor Beaumont, Deputy Editor of The Architectural Review, said: 'Angela Davis’s activism and leadership is as relevant and pertinent to architecture as it has ever been. Her work highlights the complicity of architecture as a tool of violence and encourages architects to advocate for spatial justice. Davis continues to speak truth to power, setting an example for architects around the world.'"
Canadian Indigenous rights lawyer and activist Justice Murray Sinclair wins the 2024 RAIC Gold Medal
"Sinclair was formerly the Chair of Canada's Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an enormously influential body whose work was to uncover, document, and honor the memories of victims of the injustices and the harm facilitated against Indigenous people by both national and provincial governments throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries."
Riken Yamamoto is the 2024 Pritzker Prize winner
"Yamamoto was chosen by the Pritzker jury for his championing of a profession that creates awareness in the community, 'questioning the discipline of architecture to calibrate each individual architectural response, and above all for reminding us that in architecture, as in democracy, spaces must be created by the resolve of the people.'"
Shohei Shigematsu wins the 2024 Mainichi Design Award, one of Japanese design's most coveted honors
"It’s an honor to be recognized by the Japanese design community and receive an award that’s acknowledged such highly esteemed designers before me. I will carry it as a source of encouragement and inspiration," Shigematsu said.
The W Awards honor Nguyễn Hà and Jennifer Frewen as Moira Gemmill and MJ Long Prize winners for 2024
"Organizers of the W Awards have just announced their selection of this year's recipients of the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture and MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice via a special ceremony held today, March 7th, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal."
SelgasCano wins the 2024 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize
"As the 68th winners of the Prize, they follow last year's winner, Professor W. G. Clark of the University of Virginia, and join past Pritzker laureates Francis Kéré and Eduardo Souto de Moura in what should be an encouraging sign that presages potential future major awards wins."
Five architects and designers join RAIC College as new Honorary Fellows
"Architects Adele Weder, Yvonne Hancock, Claire Weisz, last year’s Venice Architecture Biennale head curator and the 2024 RIBA Gold Medal winner Lesley Lokko, and the late Quebec landscape architect Claude Cormier were honored with the designation, which is given to practitioners that have "achieved international professional eminence or rendered distinctive service to the profession or to the community at large, either nationally or internationally."
AIA selects 2024 Young Architects Award and Associate Award winners
"The 30 recipients of this year’s AIA Young Architects Award have been announced, along with five Associates Awards winners. Both honors are meant to recognize the contributions of early-career architects to the profession. Tannia Chavez, Katie Hitt, Asa Santa Cruz, Heli Shah, and Leslie Tijerina are the recipients of the 2024 Associates Awards."
Alberto Campo Baeza wins Daylight in Architecture Award
Baeza, the designer of the new Robert Olnick Pavilion in New York’s Hudson Valley, was complimented for his "celebrations of the silent miracles of daylight in buildings of widely differing functions." The jury added that his designs "exemplify the spiritual qualities of daylight and thus expand the understanding of the values of daylight beyond the current scope of science."
Bernard Tschumi wins the 2024 Grand Prix d’Architecture
"The list of works by the Swiss-born Tschumi, who also won the Grand Prix National d'Architecture in 1996, that were mentioned by the jury included the Parc de la Villette in Paris, Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. His academic work and later projects like the Tianjin Binhai Science Museum in China and The Haagse Passage (De Passage) in the Netherlands were also cited for their design excellence and ability to 'emphasize the relationship between concept and context and between space and event.'"
Sandhya Naidu Janardhan wins the $100,000 Berkeley Rupp Prize
"A recognition of this nature for a practice from the Global South brings to light the significance and foundational role of the built environment, which is often overlooked in creating equitable communities. This will no doubt have a catalyzing effect on our work and impact," her public statement reads.
Santiago Calatrava to receive a 2024 CTBUH Lifetime Achievement Award
"Architecture and engineering are not merely technical professions; they are also artistic endeavors that shape our cities and our lives," Calatrava stated. "Incorporating beauty, functionality, and sustainability into tall buildings is essential for creating spaces where people can thrive."
Celebrated design mogul Paolo Pininfarina is the 2024 American Prize for Design laureate
"A well-deserved tribute to the influential late Italian businessman and multihyphenate designer Paolo Pininfarina, who passed away unexpectedly this April at the age of 65, has come in the form of the 2024 American Prize for Design. Pininfarina, who is credited with successful expansions of his father's legacy automotive business into new fields of design (including architecture), was revered as a visionary whose creative impulses propelled the continued influence of Italy's design culture over the international scene into the 21st century."
Walter Hood recognized with 2024 Vincent Scully Prize
His 2024 Jury citation states: "Hood focuses particularly on urban public space, and unlike many of his peers in landscape design, he makes a point of working at both the scale of large, public projects such as the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, and the intimate scale of community-based neighborhood projects. His recent work at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, has been particularly admired. We were mindful of Vincent Scully’s own history as a scholar who took pride in being an activist on social and political issues."
Shigeru Ban wins the 35th Praemium Imperiale Award in Architecture
"Shigeru Ban has revolutionized architecture with his innovative use of materials and distinctive designs. He creates monumental, uplifting buildings while maintaining a passionate sense of the role of the architect in an unstable world," the Praemium Imperiale citation reads. "Throughout his career, Ban has used a unique structural system for projects large and small, from civic buildings to emergency shelters. At the heart of his work is his determination that architecture should create something positive for society."
SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa to receive the 2025 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand Award
"The 2010 Pritzker Prize laureates are the fourth recipients of the award that’s included as part of the French Créateurs Design Awards. Past winners include Frida Escobedo (2023), Jeanne Gang (2022), and David Adjaye (2021). In a joint statement, the duo said, 'Charlotte Perriand is one of the masters of modern architecture, and we admire the delicacy of her interior and furniture designs.' SANAA was also named the 2024 Kanter Tritsch Medal winner by the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design in August."
Forensic Architecture named a Right Livelihood Award 2024 laureate
The Award’s executive director Ole von Uexkull lended his support in saying: "Forensic Architecture is redefining truth-telling in a post-truth era, bringing a crucial new layer of oversight to international accountability. Their innovative work has been instrumental in uncovering decisive evidence for landmark human rights cases, ensuring that powerful actors are held accountable. In a time when misinformation thrives, Forensic Architecture’s efforts are vital in upholding justice and transparency on the global stage."
Structural engineer Hanif Kara receives the 2024 Soane Medal
At his win, Kara said: "[Sir John] Soane used his work and collection to inspire future generations of builders and designers, something I hope to continue through my own work In the complex world that we live in today, it is impossible to solve the problems we face without interdisciplinary collaboration and thinking. Only through curiosity and continual inquiry, questioning practices and norms, will we find the solutions that are so urgently required."
Deborah Berke is the 2025 AIA Gold Medal winner
The Yale School of Architecture dean and founder of TenBerke follows Lake|Flato namesakes David Lake and Ted Flato to become the Gold Medal award's fourth living female architect recipient. "Throughout her career, Berke has exemplified the power of architecture to transform lives and communities. Her work, teaching, and advocacy collectively underscore a profound belief in design as a tool for social good, leaving an indelible mark on the field and inspiring a more inclusive and sustainable architectural future," the Gold Medal jury's statement reads.
LPA Design Studios named winner of the 2025 AIA Architecture Firm Award
"The award’s 61st official recipient follows Quinn Evans in winning the honor. Their influence on architecture in the region has been felt widely even as it emerged from a 1997 rebranding to design projects wed to a philosophy that consistently exhibits sustainability credentials while internally creating opportunities for underrepresented voices to enter the professional community."
"Three of the country's highest individual honors for architecture, the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, and Edward C. Kemper Award, have been bestowed by the American Institute of Architects as part of its year-end awards program."
Sang Dae Lee wins 2024 American Prize for Architecture
The Kennesaw State University professor and founder of UNITEDLAB Associates, Lee, was praised as a "formidable, one-of-a-kind design visionary who is pushing the envelope in today’s architecture practice" who was also noticeably "interested in an architecture that combines with human beings to fit strongly in nature and society" by Chicago Athenaeum President/CEO Christian Narkiewicz-Laine.
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