Denise Scott Brown wins 2018 Soane Medal
06/09/2018.
Sir John Soane's Museum [LON] UK 17.10.2018
metalocus, ANDREA GONZÁLEZ
metalocus, ANDREA GONZÁLEZ
American architect Denise Scott Brown is being honored with the 2018 Soane Medal for her “ideas and work as architect, planner, urbanist, theorist, writer and educator have had a global influence, transforming thinking about architecture and cities”.
Scott Brown outside Las Vegas in 1966, photograph from the Archives of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Denise Scott Brown photographed by Frank Hanswijk.Downtown Denise Scott Brown. Image © Robert Venturi
Sainsbury Wing de Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London by Robert Venturi (1991). Photography © Richard George via Wikipedia.
Vanna Venturi House, west elevation. Photograph courtesy Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.
Denise Scott Brown. Photograph courtesy Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.
The architect Denise Scott Brown has been announced as the recipient of the 2018 Soane Medal and Soane Annual Lecturer. Awarded by Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, the yearly medal recognizes influential architects that have significantly contributed to the field through their built work, education, history, and theory. Last year, Rafael Moneo received the inaugural medal and was the first to present the Soane Annual Lecture.
The Sir John Soane's Museum organizes a conference that recognizes architects, writers or artists who have been recognized in the field of architecture to explain the public in the influence of architecture in our environment. She will be recognized during an evening event at London's National Gallery on October 17, which will include a presentation of her hour-long lecture that was pre-recorded in her home in Philadelphia, accompanied by rarely seen photographs.
The Sir John Soane's Museum organizes a conference that recognizes architects, writers or artists who have been recognized in the field of architecture to explain the public in the influence of architecture in our environment. She will be recognized during an evening event at London's National Gallery on October 17, which will include a presentation of her hour-long lecture that was pre-recorded in her home in Philadelphia, accompanied by rarely seen photographs.
A lecture pre-recorded by Denise Scott Brown at her home in Philadelphia, with a live response by Sir David Chipperfield.
About Denise Scott Brown
Denise Scott Brown’s ideas and work as architect, planner, urbanist, theorist, writer and educator have had a global influence, transforming thinking about architecture and cities.
She was born in what was then Northern Rhodesia in 1931. She attended the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and the Architectural Association, London, before receiving a master’s degree in architecture and city planning from the University of Pennsylvania, beginning a long association with the university and the city of Philadelphia, where she now lives.
As an academic and educator, Scott Brown has led countless research projects, notably Learning from Las Vegas, which became a seminal book (1972; revised edition 1977, with Robert Venturi and Steven Izenour). Both the ideas and the techniques employed in this and other studies have proved highly influential on the subsequent direction of architectural research. Scott Brown’s other books include The View from the Campidoglio (1984 with Robert Venturi), Architecture as Signs and Systems for a Mannerist Time (2004 with Robert Venturi) and Having Words (2009).
As principal of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Scott Brown has been responsible for numerous urban plans and masterplans, and been instrumental in the design of buildings such as the Département de la Haute-Garonne provincial capitol building in Toulouse, France (1999); the Mielparque resort in Kirifuri National Park, Japan (1997); and the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London (1991), recently awarded Grade 1 listing.
More information
Venue
The Sainsbury Wing, The National Gallery, London WC2N 5DN. UK
Dates
Wednesday 17 October. 7-8pm followed by drinks.
Denise Scott Brown
Denise Scott Brown, (born as Denise Lakofski) (Nkana, Rhodesia, October 3rd 1931) is a postmodern architect, urbanist, writer and teacher. Expert in urban and educational planning at universities such as Berkeley, Yale and Harvard, she wrote in 1972 in collaboration with Robert Venturi and Steven Izenour Learning from Las Vegas: the forgotten symbolism of architectural form, one of the most influential books in architecture in the second half of the twentieth century. It is considered the most famous woman architect of the second half of the twentieth century. She married Robert Venturi in 1967 and they have worked together since 1969, but in 1991 she was excluded from the Pritzker Prize prompting protests and debates about the difficulties of women architects to be recognized in their profession. Finally, they were awarded jointly with the AIA Gold Medal 2016 becoming the second woman in history to win the most prestigious award in the world of architecture and the first living woman to receive this galardón. She is a member of the architectural Studio Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates of Philadelphia (USA), which in 2012, following the retirement of Venturi, became VSBA Architects & Planners.
