The 2024 Royal Gold Medal for Structure has been introduced, celebrating Professor Lesley Lokko as its recipient. The accolade, which is awarded yearly by the RIBA to recognise distinctive contributions to the constructed surroundings area, might be offered this yr to Lokko for her work to ‘democratise structure’, hailed by the 2024 RIBA Honours Committee as a ‘clarion name for equitable illustration in insurance policies, planning, and design that form our areas’.
Lesley Lokko: 2024 Royal Gold Medal for Structure winner
Lokko has had a busy few years, filled with fruitful exercise in all her fields of curiosity. The Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator, writer and curator efficiently delivered the extremely acclaimed 2023 Venice Structure Biennale, and her major present, themed Laboratory of the Future; she additionally labored on launching the Africa Futures Institute, a brand new structure analysis institute and faculty, which is at present being arrange from scratch.
She has additionally been engaged on fiction writing and tutorial work in parallel. Her quite a few present achievements and recognitions embody an OBE (awarded in 2023), and the RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Schooling (2020).
‘Not solely is Lokko the primary African lady to obtain this honour, however she additionally now takes her place amongst structure’s defining figures,’ states the 2024 Royal Gold Medal choice committee, which was chaired by RIBA president Muyiwa Oki and comprised of 2023 Royal Gold Medal recipient Yasmeen Lari; architect and senior companion at RSHP Ivan Harbour; head of faculty and chief government on the London Faculty of Structure Neal Shasore; and architect and companion at Walters & Cohen, Cindy Walters.
(Picture credit score: Debra Hurford-Brown )
On listening to the information, Lokko stated: ‘It got here as such a shock to me. This was by no means on the playing cards. I’m delighted to be thought-about alongside a number of the nice previous winners of the Royal Gold Medal. Though it is a private award, this isn’t merely a private triumph, it is a testomony to the folks and organisations I’ve labored with that share my targets.
‘I got here into structure looking for certainties, in search of solutions. As an alternative, I discovered questions and prospects, far richer, extra curious, and extra empathetic methods to interpret and form the world. Structure gave me language, in all its varieties – visible, written, constructed, carried out – and that language, in flip, has given me such hope.’
RIBA president Muyiwa Oki stated: ‘A fierce champion of fairness and inclusion in all elements of life, Lesley Lokko’s progressive method to structure schooling gives hope for the longer term – a occupation that welcomes these from all walks of life, considers the wants of our surroundings, and acknowledges a broad vary of cultures and views. A visionary agent of change, Lesley has devoted her life to championing these values, not solely by way of tutorial endeavours, however by way of her work as an writer and curator. She stays a humble revolutionary pressure, along with her ambition and optimism etching an indelible mark on the worldwide architectural stage.’
The 2024 Royal Gold Medal might be formally offered to Lesley Lokko in London on 2 Could 2024.
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