RIAI awards Honorary Fellowships

logo_riaiAt the RIAI Annual Conference, Minister for Education and Skills, Ruiari Quinn, TD, conferred, on behalf of the RIAI, Honorary Fellowships on the Pritzker Prize-winning Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, renowned architectural critic Kenneth Frampton, and on the distinguished architect and writer Edward Jones, Director in the London practice of Dixon Jones.

The Annual Conference, which took place in VISUAL, Carlow on 23 and 24 October, heard inspiring presentations from all three Honorary Fellows. In a tour de force on Critical Regionalism, Kenneth Frampton applied his theory to a diverse range of projects from Alvaro Siza’s homage to Brazilian in-situ concrete, at the Iberê Camargo Foundation in Porto Alegre, to Anna Heringer’s award-winning school in Rudrapur, Bangladesh, which reinforces regional tradition through local building materials. Edward Jones discussed his long-standing relationship with Irish architecture and architects, in particular the days of the ‘Flying Circus’ when teaching staff from London and Glasgow ran UCD’s School of Architecture. Rafael Moneo inspired delegates with a highly insightful talk on his work and thought process. Presenting two recent projects – his sculptural Church in San Sebastian and the Northwest Science Building, Columbia University, in New York city – Moneo argued for a return to the principles of construction and space in architecture, at a time when there is overreliance on iconography.