Francine Houben, the architect of the new Library of Birmingham (pictured above) has been named Woman Architect of the Year by the Architects’ Journal.
Houben is the founder of architecture practice Mecanoo Architecten and has received widespread acclaim for the Library of Birmingham, one of the most high-profile UK-based buildings of the last year.
She is working on the HOME Art and Culture House in Manchester and a housing scheme for the University of Cambridge.
The prize for Emerging Woman Architect of the Year went to Julia King (pictured below), who the judges described as a ‘truly inspiring’ young British-Venezuelan architect focusing on urban development.
King designed and built a sewer for low-income homes in New Delhi and is working on the regeneration of a major drain in India that runs through slum areas, as well as studying for a PhD at London Metropolitan University and establishing a practice in New Delhi and London. The judges felt that she ‘came across as someone who is very driven, very smart and very capable of getting things done often in very difficult circumstances’.
The Jane Drew Prize for lifetime contribution to architecture was presented to the family of Kathryn Findlay, the architect and former principle director of Ushida Findlay, who died on 10 January, the day the award was announced.
Findlay is best known for her organic structures such as the Truss Wall House in Tokyo, Soft and Hairy House, also in Tokyo, Poolhouse 2 in the Chilterns, and, most recently, her work on the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower in London’s 2012 Olympic Park.
The AJ Women in Architecture Awards were founded in 2011 to raise the profile of women architects in a sector where women still face an alarming degree of discrimination. These female architects have succeeded in a difficult environment, as revealed in the results of AJ’s annual Women in Architecture survey, released simultaneously, and highlighting widespread discrimination and unequal pay in the profession.
