6 women who should be nominated for the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal award

Part W is an action group of women working across architecture and design, infrastructure and construction and campaigning for gender parity across the built environment. Photo: AFP Relaxnews

Every day, ETX Studio is presenting a figure for our times. Among the latest is the number six, for six names on a list of women who deserve to win a RIBA Royal Gold Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in the world of architecture.

Proposed by Part W, an action group of women working across architecture and design, infrastructure and construction, the list is now the focus of a campaign on social networks.

Since it was first awarded in 1848, the venerable Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has only twice presented the Gold Medal to an individual woman or a women-led practice. The first of these occasions was in 2016, when the award was given to the late Zaha Hadid, who was also a laureate of the ultra-prestigious Pritzker Prize.

Last year, the prize was awarded to Grafton Architects, a women-led cooperative based in Dublin, which is directed by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. The two architects also featured on the list proposed by Part W in that year.

For 2020, the action group has once again launched its campaign and is urging RIBA to present the award to one of five women or a co-operative: Denise Scott Brown, Yasmeen Lari, Eva Jiřičná, Sharon Egretta Sutton, Kate Macintosh or the influential Matrix collective.