Grafton Architects has been announced as the 2022 winner of the Mies van der Rohe Award for contemporary architecture, becoming the first Irish architecture firm to win the biennial prize, which is organised by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe.
The prestigious award recognises the best architecture project completed in Europe in the past two years, and Grafton's Town House at Kingston University in London was selected as the winner ahead of 532 projects from 41 countries.
It is also the first time a university building has won the prize, and the latest honour bestowed upon Grafton founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara after they won architecture's highest honour, the Pritzker Prize, in March 2020 and the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal in October 2019.
The award will be presented to McNamara and Farrell on 12 May at a ceremony taking place at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona.
"We are over the moon to have been awarded the Mies Van der Rohe Award for our work," Farrell said. Shelley and I are delighted to accept the award on behalf of everyone in Grafton Architects.
In Association with
"We have a fantastic team who are dedicated to designing beautiful buildings that deliver on their purpose. Today’s award acknowledges that this has been successfully achieved in Town House for Kingston University, London”.
McNamara added: “Kingston University, London bought into our vision for Town House and they were true partners with us on this prestigious project. We designed the six-storey Town House to act as the university's 'front door'.
"We wanted to create a space which was inviting and welcoming to the local community and which fostered collaboration within its walls. This award is a wonderful reflection on our client and on the entire team at Grafton Architects."
The Town House contains Kingston University's main library and archive as well as dance studios, a theatre, adaptable learnings spaces, and two cafés, and the judges were impressed by "remarkable environmental quality that creates an excellent atmosphere for studying, dancing, gathering and being together."
The judges also applauded Grafton Architects for creating "an emotional experience from within and through the multi-level façade colonnade that creates a domestic atmosphere on different levels".
"It accommodates dance, library and study spaces using layers of silence and layers of sound which work perfectly well together," they said, adding that there is a need for public educational projects of such quality.
Congratulating Grafton Architects, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel, said: “I congratulate the winners of the EU Prize for ContemporaryArchitecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, who have demonstrated the creative and innovative potential of European architecture.
"It is particularly encouraging to see the contribution of contemporary architecture to improving the well-being of citizens in Europe like we are also doing with the New European Bauhaus.”
Farrell and McNamara co-founded Grafton Architects in 1978, and have built a reputation for strong expertise in educational buildings over the past four-plus decades.
Two of the firms other buildings, the Institute Mines Télécom in Paris and Toulouse School of Economics in Toulouse, were nominated to the 2022 EUmies Awards, and its University Luigi Bocconi in Milan was a finalist in 2009.
In 2021 Grafton Architects was awarded both the RIBA Stirling prize and an Architectural Association of Ireland Award for the Town House in addition to the L’Equerre d’Argent, the most prestigious architectural honour in France, for the Toulouse School of Economics.
Photo: Yvonne Farrell (left) and Shelley McNamara, co-founders of Grafton Architects and winners of the EU's 2022 Mies van der Rohe Award. (Pic: Ste Murray)
