Balkrishna Vittaldas Doshi is Winner of the 2018 Pritzker Architecture prize, (it is not the Nobel Prize for architecture; it is considered the most important award for architecture). B.V. Doshi is a thinker and a teacher whose work is invaluable to the narrative of Indian architecture. He was also the Founder Dean of the famed Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology in Ahmedabad, one of the many institutions that he was deeply involved with. His other important work is in pioneering sustainable low-cost mass-housing projects in different parts of India. He belongs to an eminent group of great Indian architects who are responsible for creating an identity for modern Indian architecture, working during a time of both hardship and excitement, when creating heritage did not mean building big ghastly things in the middle of the sea. Or on land.

Professor Richard Leplastrier AO (born 1939, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian architect and AIA Gold Medal recipient and was a Professor of Practice (Architecture) at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

From 1964 to 1966, Leplastrier assisted with documentation of the Sydney Opera House. He later studied at Kyoto University under Tomoya Masuda and worked in the office of Kenzo Tange in Tokyo.

Leplastrier established his own practice in 1970 and works from his studio in Sydney’s Lovett Bay. He teaches master classes for students and established architects with his colleagues Glenn Murcutt and Peter Stutchbury.

He has contributed several unique and thoughtful ideas during preservation and development discussions around the Pittwater area. During the 1980s he raised the idea of resurrecting the creekline natural corridor which leads from Avalon Beach through Elba Lane up through Toongari and Nandina reserves and down past Avalon sailing club, linking the sea to the bay. He has strong opinions regarding the re-development and re-commercialization of the Pasadena wharf the point of embarkation for commuters to Western Pittwater, submitting the ‘lePlastrier plan’ to the debate.

Peter Stutchbury Architecture is well known for its innovative approach to sustainability and design and works across educational, industrial and residential projects.

Álvaro Siza was born in Matosinhos (near Porto), Portugal in 1933.

From 1949-55 he studied at the School of Architecture, University of Porto. His first built project was finished in 1954.

From 1955-58 he was a collaborator of Arch. Fernando Távora. He taught at the School of Architecture (ESBAP) from 1966-69 and was appointed Professor of “Construction” in 1976.

His works have been exhibited in many countries. He has participated in lectures and conferences worldwide.

He is the holder of numerous awards and honours including the Priztker Architecture Prize in 1992.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, “Honorary Fellow” of the Royal Institute of British Architects, AIA/American Institute of Architects, Académie d’ Architecture de France and European Academy of Sciences and Arts and American Academy of Arts and Letters; Honorary Professor of Southeast University China and China Academy of Art and honorary partner of the Academy of Schools of Architecture and urbanism of Portuguese language.

Glenn Murcutt is Australia’s most internationally recognised architect.

In 1992 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Australian Institute of Architects; in 1996 he was awarded the national honour Order of Australia; in 2002 he received the Pritzker Prize, considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for architecture; and in 2009 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects. He has carried out his work predominantly alone, as a sole-practitioner, without staff but using creative collaborations on a project-by-project basis. He pursues an architecture that is rooted in Australia’s culture and its diverse climate and topography, while being active internationally, teaching and lecturing as a professor at universities throughout the world.

Glenn Murcutt has received numerous Australian Institute of Architects awards for his built projects, honorary doctorates and many international honours. International architecture wards include the Alvar Aalto Medal Finland (1992); Richard Neutra Award USA (1998); the ‘Green Pin’ International Award for Architecture and Ecology Denmark (1999); the Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award (2001) and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts International Award (2002). He has been, until recently, chair of the jury for the Pritzker Prize. He is a Professor at the University of New South Wales, and is the principle ‘master’ on the Architecture Foundation Australia annual International Architecture Master Classes.

Francesco Dal Co (1945) is an Italian historian of architecture. He graduated in 1970 at the University Iuav of Venice, and has been director of the Department of History of Architecture since 1994. He has been Professor of History of Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture from 1982 to 1991 and professor of History of Architecture at the Accademia di Architettura of the Università della Svizzera Italiana from 1996 to 2005. From 1988 to 1991 he has been director of the Architectural Section at the Biennale di Venezia and curator of the architectural section in 1998. Since 1978 he has been curator of the architectural publications for publishing House Electa and since 1996 editor of the architectural magazine Casabella. He is currently Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies of the National Gallery of Art, scholar at the Getty Center, and Member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians. He is also member of the National Academy of San Luca.

Sean Godsell was born in Melbourne in 1960. He graduated with First Class Honours from The University of Melbourne in 1984. He spent much of 1985 traveling in Japan and Europe and worked in London from 1986 to 1988 for Sir Denys Lasdun. In 1989 he returned to Melbourne and worked for The Hassell Group. In 1994 he formed Godsell Associates Pty Ltd Architects. He obtained a Master of Architecture degree from RMIT University in 1999 entitled ‘The Appropriateness of the Contemporary Australian Dwelling.’ His work has been published in the world’s leading Architectural journals including Architectural Review (UK) Architectural Record (USA) Domus (Italy) A+U (Japan) Casabella (Italy) GA Houses (Japan) Detail (Germany) Le Moniteur (France) and Architect (Portugal). In July 2002 the influential English design magazine wallpaper listed him as one of ten people destined to ‘change the way we live’. He was the only Australian and the only Architect in the group. He has lectured in the USA, UK, China, Japan, India, France, and New Zealand as well as across Australia. He was a keynote speaker at the Alvar Aalto Symposium in Finland in July 2006. In July 2003 he received a Citation from the President of the American Institute of Architects for his work for the homeless. His Future Shack prototype was exhibited from May to October 2004 at the Smithsonian Institute’s Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York. In the same year, the Italian publisher Electa published the monograph Sean Godsell: Works and Projects. Time Magazine named him in the ‘Who’s Who -The New Contemporaries’ section of their 2005 Style and Design supplement. He was the only Australian and the only Architect in the group of seven eminent designers. He has received numerous local and international awards. In 2006 he received the Victorian Premier’s Design Award and the RAIA Robin Boyd Award and in 2007 he received the Cappochin residential architecture award in Italy and a Chicago Athenaeum award in the USA – all for St Andrew’s Beach House and in 2008 he was a finalist in the wallpaper International Design Awards and a recipient of his second AIA Record Houses Award for Excellence in the USA for Glenburn House. In 2008 noted architectural historian and Professor of Architecture at Columbia University Kenneth Frampton nominated him for the inaugural BSI Swiss Architecture Award for architects under the age of 50 and his work was exhibited as part of the Milan Triennale and Venice Biennale in the same year. In 2010 the prototype of the RMIT Design Hub façade was exhibited in Gallery MA in Tokyo before being transported in 2011 to its permanent home at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2012 he was shortlisted to design the new Australian Pavilion in Venice. In January 2013 the Spanish publication El Croquis published the monograph Sean Godsell – Tough Subtlety which includes an essay by Juhani Pallasmaa and an interview by Leon Van Schaik. In July 2013 he was visiting professor at the IUAV WAVE workshop in Venice and delivered the UNESCO chair open lecture in Mantova.

Tony Giannone is the National President of the Australian Institute of Architects and former President of the Institute’s South Australian Chapter.

He is also Director of tectvs, the practice he founded with his colleagues Francesco Bonato and Gary Bonato in 1989, and an industry professor in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Adelaide.

Throughout his presidency, Tony is committed to promoting the role of the emerging architect and advocating for communities across the country to have access to well-designed social and affordable housing.

Carme Pigem grew up in Olot, which is located in the Catalonian region of Spain, and met with Rafael Aranda and Ramon Vilalta when studying at the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura del Vallès (ETSAV). After graduating in 1987, they returned to Olot and established their firm in 1988. The same year, they won first prize for their unusual cantilevered proposal to a competition to design a lighthouse in Punta Aldea, Canary Islands. Although the lighthouse was never built, the three continued to rethink archetypes and to focus on the essence of a project’s intended uses. In the 2000s they renovated an early-20th-century foundry into their office, calling it the Barberí Laboratory. The projects of RCR Arquitectes have a distinct regional identity, but they nonetheless show a regard for such universal concerns as a building’s relationship to the existing space, the needs of the user, the effects of changing light, and the look of materials. Among their notable projects is the Tossols-Basil Athletics Track (2000), located within a natural park outside Olot. The architects sought to preserve the extant space, choosing not to level the landscape or clear the existing trees. Instead they placed the running track in a forest clearing so it would circle embankments of oak trees, and they built spectator seating and a pavilion within the natural slopes of the topography. The pavilion was made from Corten, a weathered steel that RCR frequently used for the rich, textured patina it gains over time. The result is an athletics facility that minimally occupies the natural landscape and provides dynamic views of nature. The Sant Antoni–Joan Oliver Library and Senior Citizens Centre and Cándida Pérez Gardens (2007), on the other hand, is situated amid dense buildings on a bustling city street in Barcelona. Although the client originally envisioned a modest administrative building on the site, RCR Arquitectes recognized the potential of the space for users to socialize and successfully proposed a library and senior citizens centre instead. The library building faces the city street and forms a gateway to a public courtyard at its rear and to the senior citizens centre at the back of the site, effectively providing a quiet refuge for the city’s pedestrians in the park and sheltering the senior citzens centre from urban hubbub. Meanwhile, the interior of the library offers secluded nooks and public spaces for meeting. Large expanses of glass let in light and provide varied views of the tree-lined street and the courtyard below. The entirety of the project promotes interaction among its visitors. In 2017 RCR Arquitectes created the laboratory RCR LAB·A and in 2013 they have founded RCR BUNKA foundation to increase the architecture, landscape, arts and culture values in society. Between 1992 and 1999 Carme Pigem worked as professor of Architectural Projects at ETSA Vallés and was a member of the board of examiners for the final examinations from 1995 to 2004. From 1997 to 2003 she was professor of Architectural Projects at the ETSAB and a member of the board of examiners in 2003. Since 2005 she has been a visiting professor in the Department of Architecture at the Zurich Institute of Technology (ETHZ), Switzerland.

Kerry Clare was born in 1957 in Sydney, NSW. Her father was an industrial pattern maker, mechanic, inventor, and owner of a Citroën dealership. She spent her adolescence in Darwin, in a house where the walls were made up of operable louvers, exposing her to the importance of cross ventilation. She studied at the Queensland Institute of Technology during the 1970s and graduated with a bachelor of Architecture. As a student, she worked for Gabriel Pool (1934-) in his office on the Queensland Sunshine Coast from 1972-76 where she met her future husband and architectural collaborator, Lindsay Clare (1952-). In 1979, the Clares established their own practice on the Sunshine Coast, Clare Design. Their early works were primarily residential and they quickly earned a reputation for their lightweight, structurally expressive houses. Early projects include Goetz House, Buderim, Queensland (1984-85), and the Thrupp + Summers House, Nambour, Queensland (1986-87). In 1991 their McWilliam House (1990) was displayed at the Venice Architectural Biennale and in 1992, their own residence, Buderim House (1990-91) won national acclaim from the RAIA. In 1998, the Clares relocated to Sydney where they were appointed Design Directors to the NSW Government Architect. At the same time, they also accepted positions as adjunct professors in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Architecture (1998-2005). In 2001, the Clares left the Government Architect office and became founding partners of the Sydney firm Architectus. That same year, the Clares won an international design competition for the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane (2001-2006) in conjunction with James Jones. A significant project from this time includes the commercial building, Wesley House in the Brisbane CBD (2009). Their involvement with Architectus ceased in 2010 and they resumed practicing as Clare Design in Sydney. Projects include the No. 1 Fire Station, Sydney (2004), the Newcastle Art Gallery Redevelopment (2010-2014), and the South Coast House, NSW (2013-2015). Kerry Clare has also contributed to the profession by serving on numerous councils, committees, and awards juries. These include a member of the RAIA Awards Jury Queensland (Regional), 1994; member of the RAIA National Awards Jury, 1999, 2000; City of Sydney Design Advisory Panel member, 2008-current; Northern Territory Government Urban Design Advisory Panel, 2009-2010; Official Establishments Trust, Department of Prime Minister + Cabinet, 2011-2014. With her husband, Lindsay, she was a joint recipient of the AIA Gold Medal in 2010. Their practice Clare Design remains in operation in Sydney and she continues to teach with her husband as Professors of the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle (2011-current).

British architect, Tony Fretton (1945) was born into a working class family in London’s East End.
“His work (…) presents an original contribution and convincing proof of the vitality of contemporary British architecture. A vitality that comes first of all from his ability to critically analyze and develop the contribution of those masters (…) who in Great Britain in the dynamic 1950s developed an innovative interpretation of modern architectural concepts, merged with traditional, nineteenth century, British civil engineering construction design.” (R. Vanacore, introduction in the book on Fretton Linguaggio, materia e percezione dell’architettura, Alinea Editrice, Florence 2008).

As a teenager Fretton’s love of art led to his interest in architecture at around 17 years of age. He also worked on a building site for financial reasons. He later said about this period: “I built buildings. I dug foundations by hand, I mixed concrete, I worked with bricklayers and scaffolders. I liked the building materials, the shape of excavations in the earth, more than the finished building. In fact, I was more interested in art” (from the interview with I. Scalbert in “a+t” No. 18, 2001).
He subsequently graduated from the Architectural Association (AA), London, the oldest and most prestigious independent school in the UK.

During the Sixties, he worked for well-known firms such as Arup Associates, Neyland and Chapman Taylor, prior to founding his international design studio, Tony Fretton Architects (TFA), in 1982, being joined by James McKinney in 1992.

The practice, based in London, is noted for a myriad of projects, often participating in invitations to tender, when he designed government offices, commercial buildings, housing and prestigious public buildings.

Virginia Kerridge established her studio in 1995. The practice soon became known for an exquisite catalogue of contemporary housing that crafted thoughtful relationships between interiors and landscapes. Kerridge’s deep interest in art practice has led to an almost painterly approach to material, texture, colour and light. These elements infuse the studio’s projects in both new and existing buildings and across diverse housing and commercial projects.

The Taylor Square Warehouse received an RAIA Merit award in the studio’s first year of practice. Since then, Kerridge has received numerous awards from the Australian Institute of Architects and Houses Awards. House in Country NSW was named as Australia’s House of the Year in 2011. More recently in 2018 M3565 Main Beach won the Job + Froud Award in Residential Housing – Multiple Housing, and in 2020 the Grant Pirrie House was awarded an AIA Residential Architecture Award as well as an AIA Interior Architecture Award.

Alice Hampson is an architect in sole practice; also a writer, architectural historian, and one of few practising Queensland architects who has pursued a career as a professional installation artist. Her design work has been published and awarded both nationally and internationally. As an architectural historian, Hampson’s specialist interest focuses on Mid-Twentieth Century works , and her primary field research has covered all major centres along Queensland’s Eastern seaboard and principal towns of the Queensland Outback. She has been an assessor for Cultural Heritage, and an invited speaker in Australia and overseas. She has been an architectural writer for over fifteen years, was Brisbane editor of Monument, and is a contributing editor for Architecture Australia. Her current projects and research manifest a continuing interest in landscape, materiality, and the comfort and essentials of habitation.

Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell co-founded Grafton Architects in 1978 having graduated from University College Dublin in 1974. They are Fellows of the RIAI, International Honorary Fellows of the RIBA and elected members of Aosdána, the eminent Irish Art organisation.

Teaching at the School of Architecture at University College Dublin from 1976 to 2002, they were appointed Adjunct Professors at UCD in 2015. They have been Visiting Professors at EPFL, Lausanne from 2010 – 2011.

They held the Kenzo Tange Chair at GSD Harvard in 2010 and the Louis Kahn chair at Yale in the Autumn of 2011. Currently, they are Professors at the Accademia di Archittettura, Mendrisio, Switzerland.

In 2018, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were the Curators of the Venice Architecture Biennale. Their manifesto: Freespace was the title of the Biennale.

Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell co-founded Grafton Architects in 1978 having graduated from University College Dublin in 1974. They are Fellows of the RIAI, International Honorary Fellows of the RIBA and elected members of Aosdána, the eminent Irish Art organisation.

Teaching at the School of Architecture at University College Dublin from 1976 to 2002, they were appointed Adjunct Professors at UCD in 2015. They have been Visiting Professors at EPFL, Lausanne from 2010 – 2011.

They held the Kenzo Tange Chair at GSD Harvard in 2010 and the Louis Kahn chair at Yale in the Autumn of 2011. Currently, they are Professors at the Accademia di Archittettura, Mendrisio, Switzerland.

In 2018, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were the Curators of the Venice Architecture Biennale. Their manifesto: Freespace was the title of the Biennale.

Brit Andresen is a Norwegian-born Australian architect and was the first female recipient of the RAIA Gold Medal, awarded in 2002, for her sustained contribution to architecture through teaching, scholarship and practice

Richard Johnson was educated in Sydney at the University of New South Wales, graduating in 1969 with First Class Honours and the RAIA Silver Medal. He continued his education at University College, London, receiving a Master of Philosophy in 1977. He has served the community in various capacities including, most recently, as a member of the board of Australian Technology Park and the Redfern-Waterloo Authority. He has lectured and taught widely and has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of New South Wales since 1999.

At an unusually early age Richard was awarded an MBE, in 1977, for his work as architect on Okinawa Expo 75 in Japan. In 1985, in collaboration with Yoshinobu Ashihara, he completed Expo 85, Tsukuba, in the same country.

Smiljan Radic is an internationally recognized Chilean architect of Croatian heritage. Radic graduated in 1989 in architecture at the catholic university of Chile and established his own office in 1995.

Previously a director of Donovan Hill, Timothy Hill recently established Partners Hill to continue participating in building, researching, advocating, and teaching. His output has been awarded at the national and international levels and is deliberately unspecialized; projects have ranged through furniture commissions, city center masterplans, landscapes, campus buildings, office towers, and in a continuous stream, houses.

His investigation into alternate models of housing that provide flexibility throughout the lifespan of their inhabitants calls into question “what is a house?” “Who is it for?” and “are houses just for families?” His involvement in delivering larger schemes in the speculative sector (SL8 and W4 Apartments) has informed propositions for alternative models.

These alternatives to nuclear family housing have yielded the demonstration projects of D House, T1 House, T2 House, Y3 House, Terrace Street Apartments, Z House, N House, MM House, C House, Longhouse, and Mermaid Multi house.

After graduating from ETH Zurich, Valerio Olgiati first lived and worked in Los Angeles and later in the 1990s in Zurich. He has taught at ETH Zurich, at the AA in London and at Harvard GSD in Cambridge. Today he is a full professor at the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio at the Università della Svizzera Italiana. Since 2008 he and his wife Tamara run an office in Flims. Both are currently living mainly in Portugal.

Valerio Olgiati understands his role as an architect who thinks and creates space. His architecture is cultural and not political. In his office as well as in his teachings he operates in an independent way. He is interested in a non-contextual architecture that emerges from an idea. Olgiati does not place value in the use of precedent study or typology. He considers experience of space as the basis to form an architectural oeuvre today.

Olgiati currently works on commercial projects and private houses in Europe and in the US, on a winery in Italy, a house of memory in Bahrain and the UNESCO visitor center in the Swiss Alps.

William is the founder and Creative Director of Smart Design Studio and is directly involved in every project, contributing at all stages from design to final delivery. His buildings have received critical acclaim, many prestigious awards and have been widely published in architectural and other publications.

His, and the Studio’s, approach to design is holistic, combining both architectural and interior design with a passionate attention to detail. Since 1997, as Creative Director, William has been directly involved in each project, and is continuously exploring ideas in his work relating to flexibility, contemporary living and the merging of art and architecture.

William’s enthusiasm and passionate attention to detail is fundamental to the Studio’s success, motivating a highly dedicated team of architects and interior designers to realise projects of high quality and innovation producing work that is both detailed and resolved.