Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, co-founders of Grafton Architects, are the first all-woman pair to be awarded the 2020 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture.
They are the fourth and fifth female architects to have won the prestigious award in a partnership. There has still only been one woman ? Zaha Hadid ? named sole winner of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in its 171-year history.
"Grafton Architects are impressive role models," said Alan Jones, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
"Their work, philosophy and ambition are of profound importance, not just in their home country and the UK but across the globe. They show us all how architecture, practiced humbly and humanely, can make the world a better place." Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia by Grafton Architects won the first RIBA International Award. Photograph by Iwan Baan
Approved personally by the Queen, the Royal Gold Medal is the highest architecture honour in the UK, recognising people who have had a significant impact on advancing the industry.
Last year women's action group Part W put together an alternative winners list of worthy female architects to counteract the overwhelmingly male list of past winners of the Royal Gold Medal.
"We are delighted the 2020 RIBA Gold Medal is being awarded to leading female designers, and too is being awarded co-jointly to Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, reflecting the fact that production of architecture is a collect...