RIBA Charles Jencks Award
The RIBA Charles Jencks Award was established with prize money awarded to Charles Jencks from the Nara Gold Medal, which he received in 1992.
Charles Jencks graciously donated this prize money to the RIBA to set up an endowment fund, the interest from which was initially used for an exchange programme between British and Japanese architects. In 2003, the investment purpose of the fund was changed to create an annual award with a remit that has remained untouched since then: to reward an individual (or practice) that has recently made a major contribution simultaneously to the theory and practice of architecture. In addition to prize money, the winner delivers a lecture at the RIBA.
The RIBA remains grateful to the family of Charles Jencks for their support of ideas in architecture, and their enthusiasm about the power of finely conceived design to move emotions and provoke thought.
Selection process
The selection process starts in April or May of each year, when members of a judging panel comprising the RIBA President and other individuals agreed by the Jencks family and the RIBA are invited to submit up to three nominations each. A meeting then takes place in May or June at the RIBA, where judges are requested to support their nominations and agree on a winner.
Winners of the RIBA Charles Jencks Award
- 2022: Forensic Architecture
- 2021: Anupama Kundoo
- 2019: Débora Mesa and Antón García-Abril, Ensamble Studio
- 2018: Alejandro Aravena
- 2016: Níall McLaughlin
- 2015: Herzog & de Meuron
- 2013: Benedetta Tagliabue
- 2012: Rem Koolhaas
- 2011: Eric Owen Moss
- 2010: Stephen Holl
- 2009: Charles Correa
- 2008: Wolf Prix
- 2007: Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, UN Studio
- 2006: Zaha Hadid
- 2005: Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Moussavi, Foreign Office Architects
- 2004: Peter Eisenman
- 2003: Cecil Balmond
For more information, please email RIBA Education.
