Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron was named this year’s recipient of the Royal Institute of British Architects’s (RIBA) Jencks Award, given to a firm or person who “has made a recent significant, simultaneous contribution to the theory and practice of architecture.” The award was established in 2003 using funds donated by writer and landscape architect Charles Jencks.
“While a recognisable attitude runs through the work, and a commitment to intelligent design, it is the creative flexibility which stands out above other practices today,” Jencks said about the firm, in a RIBA press release.
The Jencks Award includes ÂŁ1,000 (about $1,568) in prize money. The recipient also gives a lecture at RIBA, which Herzog & de Meuron will deliver on Oct. 29. Past recipients of the Jencks Award include Benedetta Tagliabue; Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA; Eric Owen Moss, FAIA; Steven Holl, FAIA; Charles Correa; Wolf Prix, Hon. FAIA; Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos; Zaha Hadid, Hon. FAIA; Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Moussavi; Peter Eisenman, FAIA; and Cecil Balmond.
The jury for this year’s award included: Charles Jencks; RIBA president Stephen Hodder, Hon. AIA; Serpentine Galleries director Julia Peyton-Jones, Architectural Association School of Architecture director Brett Steele, and RIBA’s director of education David Gloster (the chair).
For information and images on Herzog & de Meuron’s work, visit ARCHITECT’s Project Gallery.
