Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio Bag Royal Academy Architecture Prize for 2019
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New York-based architect duo Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, founders of celebrated architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, have been awarded this year’s Royal Academy Architecture Prize. The annual recognition is given to architects who make ins
Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio Bag Royal Academy Architecture Prize for 2019
New York-based architect duo Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, founders of celebrated architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, have been awarded this year’s Royal Academy Architecture Prize. The annual recognition is given to architects who make inspiring and enduring contributions to the culture of architecture. The Prize, which is only in its second year, was won last year by Japanese architect Itsuko Hasegawa.Diller and Scofidio were recognized for their unique and interesting portfolio of work that includes The Broad Art Museum in Los Angeles and The Shed in New York. The duo’s work is often considered to capture the architectural zeitgeist. It can at once be iconic and eye-catching, featuring dramatic forms and material experimentation; as well as subtle, with a soft dynamism, ever-changing and reaching out to connect with different types of practices, disciplines, and strands of local and global culture, according to the Royal Academy of Arts.The architect duo started their collaboration in 1981, and today, they are the proud founders of an acclaimed architectural firm that has a strong presence in the cultural realm, and in the arts — visual as well as performance — a feat that very few architectural practices can boast of. One of their earliest collaborations include creating the master plan for New York's High Line. However, most of their earlier works were experimental, with installations and interventions that featured objects like traffic cones, electronic parasites, and a table with an orbiting ashtray.Talking about their creative journey, Diller stated, “We started as dissidents, challenging architecture as a self-contained discipline and probing its intersections with other cultural forms using a large toolkit of media.” She added, “ A combination of naivete and determination allowed us to realize some challenging projects over time but it was not until our collaboration expanded to include new partners and a growing staff that we were truly able to push architecture's untapped agency and convert provocations into meaningful action in cities and institutions.”One of the most celebrated works of the architecture duo is the “Blur Building” — a temporary structure created in Switzerland for the 2002 Expo. The “Blur Building” was an immersive structure shrouded in fog that created its own weather system.Diller and Scofidio were the chosen winners of the 2019 Royal Academy Architecture Prize by an unanimous decision of a jury panel that included Stanton Williams co-founder, Alan Stanton; Sauerbruch Hutton co-founder, Louisa Hutton; director of LSE Cities, Ricky Burdett; broadcaster Kirsty Wark; and head of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, Lesley Lokko.Commenting on the award, Diller said that the recognition from the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) had prompted reflection on the early works of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. For Diller and Scofidio, who are currently working on a revamp of MoMA in New York and the London Centre for Music, a new concert hall at the Barbican, the 2019 Royal Academy Architecture Prize is one of the many high-profile recognition that they have received recently. Diller, for instance, was awarded the Jane Drew Prize 2019 and was also named one of the world’s most influential people by the Time magazine.The prize is part of a drive from the Royal Academy to build on the gallery’s architecture offering to the public. Supported by the Dorfman Foundation, the Royal Academy is hosting exhibitions, debates, and lectures on architecture, as well as a prize for emerging global architecture talent. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more
