About the Royal Gold Medal

Established in 1848, the Royal Gold Medal is still celebrated today. The Royal Medal online exhibition| was especially created to coincide with the RIBA's 175th anniversary and takes you through the history, winners and more.

Given in recognition of a lifetime's work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the Queen and is awarded annually to a person or group of people
whose influence on architecture has had a
truly international effect.

The award is for a body of work, rather than for one building or for an architect who is currently fashionable. Previous winners include Le Corbusier| (1953), Frank Gehry| (2000), Archigram| (2002), Frei Otto| (2005), Toyo Ito |(2006), Herzog and de Meuron |(2007), Edward (Ted) Cullinan| (2008), Alvaro Siza (2009), I. M. Pei| (2010), Sir David Chipperfield| (2011) and Herman Hertzberger| (2012).