Winners of 2022 Jane Drew and Ada Louise Huxtable Prizes Announced

The award recognizes "an architectural designer who, through their work and commitment to design excellence, has raised the profile of women in architecture." AJ and AR announced the winner at the end of last week, describing British-Iranian architect, educator and writer Farshid Moussavi as "resolutely turned towards the future." An architect who "will continue to surprise us," Moussavi's strength is "the lack of a prescriptive style." 

Before starting Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA) in 2011, Moussavi was co-founder of Foreign Office Architects (FOA), whose most famous project was the Yokohama Ferry Terminal completed in 2002. FMA's design for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland was completed in 2012, and it continues to be the firm's most well-known building. That honor may be eclipsed by the Ismaili Center Houston, which was unveiled a few months ago and is set to open in 2024.

Moussavi told AJ/AR: "There are relatively few role models for women in architectural practice and I believe that this allows them freedom to be more creative in responding to the urgent challenges facing architects today, whether these challenges are finding new and more generous uses for buildings, as well as new languages in which to engage a larger and more diverse public, or addressing climate change to protect future generations."

Named after architect Jane Drew, "a spirited advocate for women in a male-dominated profession," Moussavi is the eleventh winner of the annual prize. Previous recipients include Kate Macintosh, Yasmeen Lari, Elizabeth Diller, Amanda Levete, Denise Scott Brown, and Odile Decq.
 

Also announced last week, British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum was named the 2022 recipient of the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for Contribution to Architecture, which "recognizes individuals working in the wider architectural industry who have made a significant contribution to architecture and the built environment."

Though not as familiar a name in architectural circles as Moussavi, Hatoum is a celebrated and accomplished artist with no less than three major retrospectives in the last six years and a number of solo shows on display or in the works, including three opening in Berlin later this year. Her relevance to the W Awards follows from the "architectural scale" of her sculptures and installations, with some of her artworks even "at an urban scale."

Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to Palestinian parents. On a trip to London in 1975, the Lebanese Civil War broke out, leaving her in exile; she stayed and went to art school in London. This background no doubt led AJ/AR to write of her art: "In a world fractured by conflict and exile, the work of Mona Hatoum only gains further relevance and importance. Turning familiar objects into uncanny experiences, she makes visible human fragility and spatial violence."

Named after Ada Louise Huxtable, the first full-time architecture critic at a US newspaper and the first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, Hatoum is the eighth winner of the annual prize. Previous recipients include educator Lesley Lokko, historian Beatriz Colomina, photographer Hélène Binet, artist and illustrator Madelon Vriesendorp, sculptor Rachel Whiteread, curator Julia Peyton-Jones, and patron Jane Priestman.