Jeanne Gang wins Architect of the Year Award organized by The Architectural Review for Women in Architecture Awards.

The Architectural Review (AR) has announced that Jeanne Gang has won the Architect of the Year award and Gabriela Etchegaray is the winner of the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. The AR always supports the professionalism of women in architecture with special campaigns -Women in Architecture (WIA) has a special mission to promote the role of women in architecture and raises the state of professionalism by considering the multi-layered status of women in the society. The AR also runs some statistical researches in order to understand other aspects of architecture, appeared frequently in women's professional and personal lives. Recently, the AR's 'Women in Architecture' survey put some tragic results about women.

Beyond these, In the latest AR's awards, the juries of the AR were particularly impressed with Gang’s tri-axial Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership in Michigan and Etchegaray’s artisanal Mezcal factory in Santiago Matatlan, Oaxaca, which has helped give economic life to the local community. According to juries decision, both Gang and Etchegaray have demonstrated excellence in design and a commitment to working both sustainably and democratically with local communities.

Jeanne Gang with the editor-in-chief in the AR, Christine Murray. image courtesy of The Architectural Review

The Architect of the Year award celebrated Studio Gang’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, Michigan, which took a novel tri-axial form. The first building purposed for social justice, Gang’s democratic and participatory design process involved the organisation, students and public who now work from the Center.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice in Kalamazoo, Michigan. image courtesy of Studio Gang.

The Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL ,USA. image Steve Hall © Hedrich Blessing

Studio Gang Architects has recently completed Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL ,USA, which is the new architectural home of writers. The design approach is to forefront the potential of livetheater to unite people across boundaries through shared experiences. 

Gabriela Etchegaray wins the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. image courtesy of Ambrosi Etchegaray.

Gabriela Etchegaray is co-founder of art and architecture studio Ambrosi Etchegaray and has worked extensively in architecture and local heritage across residential and public projects. Her 2015 Guanajuato Building in Mexico’s Roma Neighbourhood preserved the façade of traditional colonial houses whilst integrating contemporary private courtyards. Also in 2015, Etchegaray designed Milagrito Mezcal Pavilion in Oaxaca, a renovated Mezcal factory.

Gabriela Etchegaray in the Women in Architecture Awards taking her prize from the editor-in-chief in the AR, Christine Murray. 

Christine Murray, founder of Women in Architecture and editor-in-chief of the Architectural Review said: ‘The judging process was such an inspiring event and a hugely exciting day. The jury fell in love with the fabric of Jeanne Gang’s Arcus Center: its feeling of warmth and its attempt to embody its social purpose. Gabriela Etchegaray impressed the judges with her commitment to excellence in design and evolution of that design – and we really felt that her work sprang from a sense of place.’

Spa San Ángel in Mexico City by Ambrosi Etchegaray. image © Luis Gordoa

Norman Foster, judge and co-founder of Foster + Partners said: ‘The impression you leave with is – wow, there is so much talent out there. And the younger generation of architects, as well as more established names, is impressive. 

‘The Arcus Center is an interesting building – the materials, the taking of a vernacular, bringing it up to date. It is a building that will respond to the climate, to the elements. It is very gentle in its setting with a strong social agenda.

‘The Women in Architecture Awards is a great initiative. There is such an extraordinary wealth of talent – and also there is a fresher perspective that is very much there.’

Alfonso Reyes 200 in Mexico by Ambrosi Etchegaray. image © Luis Gordoa.

The AR has recently announced the 2016 Women in Architecture Awards -who are French architect Odile Decq who has won the Jane Drew Prize and director of the Serpentine galleries Julia Peyton-Jones who has been awarded the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize.

image above courtesy of Studio Gang Architects

> via The Architectural Review