Lesley Lokko winner of 2020 RIBA Annie Spink Award

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced Professor Lesley Lokko as the recipient of the 2020 RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education.

Lokko is currently Dean of Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture, New York, and from January 2021 will begin building the African Futures Institute, an independent postgraduate school of architecture in Accra, Ghana.

Lesley Lokko. Photograph courtesy of RIBA

The prestigious biennial prize is awarded to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of architectural education, in a school of architecture anywhere in the world that offers courses validated by the RIBA.

“I am deeply humbled by the jury’s decision. This award is for everyone who came out in support of the Black Lives Matter protests, which put such difficult and challenging questions on the table for us all. It is also dedicated to the teachers and students at the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, whose tenacity and inventiveness have charted a new path for architectural education. Together with the profound intellectual generosity I experienced as a student at the Bartlett School of Architecture in the 1990s, they remain crucial touchstones in my teaching practice, now and in whatever comes next.”

Professor Lesley Lokko, on receiving the award.

The members of the judging panel (see below) of the 2020 RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education were unanimous in their decision to select Lesley Lokko as the recipient of this year’s award.

The £10,000 Annie Spink Award is financed by the Annie Spink Trust Fund, which was established in 1974 by architect Herbert Spink FRIBA. He bequeathed the trust as a lasting memorial to his wife Annie, who died in 1938, as an honour for the ‘advancement of architectural education’. Past recipients of the Annie Spink Award include Murray Fraser, Christine Hawley, Florian Beigel, Nigel Coates, Peter Cook and Dalibor Vesely.

The 2020 Annie Spink judging panel included:

    Nicky Watson (Chair) – Director at JDDK Architects, RIBA Council member, RIBA Board Trustee, Chair of the RIBA Education Committee.
    Asterios Agkathidis – Architect; and Senior Lecturer for Digital Design, Programme Director for the MA in Architecture, and Postgraduate Lead in Architecture at the University of Liverpool.
    Niall McLaughlin – Architect, and Professor of Architectural Practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.
    Dr Martina Murphy – Director of Studies for the BA and MArch programmes and Associate Head of the Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment at Ulster University.
    Naomi Rubbra – Winner of the 2019 RIBA Dissertation Medal, currently architecture assistant at Levitt Bernstein while completing her Part III, and co-founder of PeopleMatter, a start-up dedicated to rethinking cities to improve quality of urban life.
    Alex Wright – Professor and Head of Architecture at the University of Bath.

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El premio tiene una concesión bianual y se otorga a una persona que haya realizado una contribución significativa al avance de la educación arquitectónica, en una escuela de arquitectura en cualquier parte del mundo que ofrezca cursos validados por la RIBA.

«Me siento profundamente honrado por la decisión del jurado. Este premio es para todos los que apoyaron las protestas de Black Lives Matter, que pusieron sobre la mesa preguntas tan difíciles y desafiantes para todos nosotros. También está dedicado a los profesores y estudiantes de la Graduate School of Architecture de la Universidad de Johannesburgo, cuya tenacidad e inventiva han trazado un nuevo camino para la educación arquitectónica. Junto con la profunda generosidad intelectual que experimenté como estudiante en la Escuela de Arquitectura de Bartlett en la década de 1990, siguen siendo piedras de toque cruciales en mi práctica docente, ahora y en lo que venga después.»

Profesora Lesley Lokko, al recibir el premio.

Los miembros del tribunal (ver más abajo) del Premio RIBA Annie Spink a la Excelencia en Educación Arquitectónica 2020 fueron unánimes en su decisión de seleccionar a Lesley Lokko como la ganadora del premio de este año.

El premio Annie Spink de dotado con 10.000 £ está financiado por el Fondo Fiduciario Annie Spink, que fue creado en 1974 por el arquitecto Herbert Spink FRIBA. Legó el fideicomiso como un recuerdo duradero a su esposa Annie, quien murió en 1938, en homenaje al "avance en la educación arquitectónica". Los ganadores anteriores del premio Annie Spink incluyen a Murray Fraser, Christine Hawley, Florian Beigel, Nigel Coates, Peter Cook y Dalibor Vesely.

El panel de jueces de Annie Spink de 2020 incluyó:

    Nicky Watson (Presidente) - Director de JDDK Architects, miembro del Consejo de RIBA, Fideicomisario de la Junta de RIBA, Presidente del Comité de Educación de RIBA.
    Asterios Agkathidis - Arquitecto; y Profesor Titular de Diseño Digital, Director de Programa de la Maestría en Arquitectura y Líder de Postgrado en Arquitectura en la Universidad de Liverpool.
    Niall McLaughlin - Arquitecto y profesor de práctica arquitectónica en la Escuela de Arquitectura Bartlett, UCL.
    Dra. Martina Murphy, directora de estudios de los programas de licenciatura y maestría y directora asociada de la Escuela de Arquitectura de Belfast y el entorno construido en la Universidad de Ulster..
    Naomi Rubbra - Ganadora de la medalla de disertación RIBA 2019, actualmente asistente de arquitectura en Levitt Bernstein mientras completaba su Parte III, y cofundadora de PeopleMatter, una empresa emergente dedicada a repensar las ciudades para mejorar la calidad de la vida urbana.
    Alex Wright, profesor y director de arquitectura de la Universidad de Bath.

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Lesley Lokko. Photograph by Debra Hurford-Brown, courtesy of RIBA

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More information

Lesley Lokko

Lesley Lokko. Born in Dundee, United Kingdom, in 1964, is a Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist. Trained at the Bartlett School of Architecture and with a PhD in Architecture from the University of London where Lokko’s knowledge base and capability as an educator was built, her academic career was initially honed at Kingston University, University of East London, London Metropolitan University, University of Greenwich, the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and later at the University of Westminster. These experiences were followed by a number of visiting professorships in North-American and African higher education institutions.

Throughout her career thus far, Lokko has established a durable and international legacy in terms of her voice and the courses to which she has contributed, most notably between 2014 and 2019, as the founder and director of the Graduate School of Architecture of the University of Johannesburg, a school which – in its independence and ambition – has been transforming not just the content but the narrative of architectural education in South Africa and the continental region.

She has pioneered for, and cultivated, critical debate about identity in architecture. The innovation and passion in her teaching is matched by an unfaltering commitment to ensuring that architectural education and research run in parallel with the contemporary anthropological, artistic, technological and literary public debates. In tandem with this approach, she questions, defines and enhances the role the architect plays in shaping contemporary global and local communities. This professional stance not only makes her a most deserving winner of this award but also confirms that we are to expect many forms of achievement and of well-deserved recognition in her future career steps.

Published on: January 5, 2021

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