Royal Academy Architecture Prize 2022 to Renée Gailhoustet
John Hill
1. 六月 2022
Ivry-sur-Seine by Renée Gailhoustet and Jean Renaudie (Photo: federico novaro/Flickr)
The Royal Academy of Arts in London has announced that French architect Renée Gailhoustet is the recipient of the 2022 RA Architecture Prize, which recognizes architects who have made "a significant impact on society."
Per yesterday's announcement from the RA, Renée Gailhoustet is being honored for her "pioneering work as an architect designing public housing and neighborhoods in and around Paris during a forty-year career that began in 1961." Gailhoustet was born in Oran in French Algeria in 1929. She enrolled at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, gaining her diploma in 1961 and then founding her own firm in 1964.
Her most well-known project is Le Liégat in Ivry-sur-Seine. There she developed the master plan for the mixed-use city center and invited architect Jean Renaudie to develop what the RA calls "the first built expression of his Étoiles apartment buildings." Instantly recognizable with its angled concrete forms and planted terraces, Le Liégat has been Gailhoustet's home and studio since its completion.
The RA jury (Farshid Moussavi, Farrokh Derakhshani, Hisham Matar, Cornelia Parker, Zoë Ryan, Peter St. John) highlighted Gailhoustet’s "extraordinary contribution to social housing in France" in their statement, also citing a body of work that "consistently reflects her interest in realizing architecture as a social and cultural practice."
"Renée Gailhoustet’s achievements reach far beyond what is produced as social or affordable housing anywhere today. Her work has a strong social commitment that brings together generosity, beauty, ecology, and inclusivity. This award highlights housing design as one of the most pressing and complex issues of our time by inviting the public to rediscover the work of one of the most committed and prolific practitioners of the 20th Century – an architect who pioneered a new approach to housing design, and was an early adopter of important principles such as generous public space and nature in the city."
Ivry-sur-Seine by Renée Gailhoustet and Jean Renaudie (Photo: federico novaro/Flickr)
The RA Architecture Prize is supported by the Dorfman Foundation, which also gives its name to the RA Dorfman Award that it also supports. Yesterday the RA also revealed the four finalists for the RA Dorfman Award, "which champions global talent that represents the future of architecture":
- Apparata (UK)
- dot architects (Japan)
- Semillas (Peru)
- Wallmakers (India)
The winner of the RA Dorfman Award will be announced at the end of the five-day Royal Academy Architecture Awards Week that will take place September 12–16, 2022.