Architecture's top prize awarded to female duo first time

Architecture's most prestigious award has been awarded to a female duo for the first time.

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were awarded the Pritzker prize on Tuesday.

The Dublin-based pair gained international fame for their inspiring structures, pairing strong, heavy materials like stark concrete with delicate human-scale detail like lookout points, meeting places and spots to loiter.

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The pair met at university in 1974 and went on to found their firm Grafton Architects in 1978 in Dublin, where they have worked together for four decades.

McNamara, 68, and Farrell, 69, are the first female duo to win a Pritzker, and the first architects from Ireland to be awarded the prize.

"We make the space in which life happens, and I think our profession needs to expand to embrace all the other disciplines of environmental sustainability, of making, of the crisis, of changing people's attitude," the Pritzker committee quoted Farrell as saying.

According to the jury's citation, "pioneers in a field that has traditionally been and still is a male-dominated profession, they are also beacons to others as they forge their exemplary professional path".

In announcing their selection, the jury cited Farrell and McNamara's "integrity" and "generosity towards their colleagues", both continue to teach, rare for architects of their repute.

The judges also praised their "unceasing commitment to excellence in architecture, their responsible attitude toward the environment, their ability to be cosmopolitan while embracing the uniqueness of each place in which they work."

Just three women have won Pritzkers before them: Zaha Hadid in 2004, Kazuyo Sejima in 2010 with Ryue Nishizawaand Carme Pigem in 2017 with Ramon Vilalta and Rafael Aranda.