subscribe: Posts | Comments

Female architect wins prize for second year running

0 comments

Summary of story from The Guardian, October 1, 2011

Architect Zaha Hadid has won the RIBA Stirling prize for architecture for the second year running.

She was awarded the £20,000 prize for the Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton, a Z-shaped school in south London. Last year she won for the Maxxi Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome.

The RIBA prize celebrates the best new European building “built or designed in Britain.” Hadid beat Michael Hopkins’s Olympic velodrome, which was widely tipped as the favourite to win.

The school, in an area with the highest crime rate in Western Europe, is run by the Ark (Absolute Return for Kids) Academy organisation, set up by hedge-fund multimillionaire Arpad ‘Arki’ Busson.

“Schools are among the first examples of architecture that everyone experiences and have a profound impact on all children as they grow up,” said Hadid.

Angela Brady, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects and chair of the judges, said: “The result […] is what every school should and could be.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *