Architects Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey honoured for their outstanding contribution to Irish, British and European architecture …
The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has awarded its lifetime achievement award, the RIAI Gandon Medal, to architects Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey for their outstanding contribution to architecture in Ireland, the UK and Europe. Having established their practice, O’Donnell + Tuomey in Dublin in 1988, Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey have left an enduring legacy with a human-centred architecture that celebrates local and historic context, while positively impacting our social and cultural infrastructure. A major housing project by the practice is Timberyard on Dublin’s Cork Street.
UCC
They have delivered educational buildings for world-leading academic institutions – including the London School of Economics and the CEU campus in Budapest – while clients in Ireland include TCD, UCD, UCC, ATU/Letterfrack and St Angela’s College Cork. They are currently completing Liverpool University’s new School of Architecture and TU Dublin’s impressive Academic Hub on the Grangegorman campus. They won their first RIAI Gold Medal for the Ranelagh Multidenominational School.
Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin
O’Donnell + Tuomey have created iconic homes for renowned cultural institutions such as The Photographers’ Gallery London; the Glucksman in Cork; Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, the Irish Language Cultural Centre, Derry and in Dublin’s Temple Bar the IFI, Gallery of Photography and National Photographic Archive. The RIAI awarded a rare second Gold Medal to the practice for the Lyric Theatre Belfast.
In 2015, O’Donnell + Tuomey, working with Allies and Morrison, won the international design competition for a new cultural and residential quarter at the site of London 2012 Olympic Games, now the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It is one of the most ambitious urban renewal programmes in Europe and represents the biggest ever cultural investment by the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, with support from the British Government and the four Olympic boroughs.
V&A
O’Donnell + Tuomey are delivering three major projects for East Bank, including the 2025 completed dance theatre Sadler’s Wells East, which the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan described as a “fantastic example of what we will achieve as we build a better London for everyone.” Next year, the practice will complete the new V&A East museum, while a new residential tower, The Prow, is currently at detailed design stage.
LSE Saw Swee Hock Student Centre
Speaking at the award of the Gandon Medal to O’Donnell + Tuomey, RIAI President Sean Mahon said: “Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey have, over the past 40 years, produced some of the most thoughtful, inventive, and culturally engaged architecture, consistently demonstrating a deep respect for context and craft, balancing intellectual rigor with poetic sensitivity. Their work in Ireland and abroad illustrates that buildings are not isolated objects, but active participants in the making and remaking of place. It allows us to reflect on how great architecture can foster connections between past and the present, between buildings and streets, and, above all, between people and the places they inhabit. Further, their commitment to teaching, writing, and mentoring has shaped generations of architects in this country and beyond. It is a great honour to award them the RIAI’s highest individual honour, the Gandon Medal.”
Sean O’Casey Community Centre
Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey said: “We feel honoured to receive this award. It means so much to us, after four decades in practice together, working closely with many colleagues down the years, to see the collective efforts of our studio so generously recognised by our peers. We believe in the poetical and practical purpose of architecture. Architects play a strategic role in shaping the world we all share.”
Find more information at RIAI.ie and O’Donnell + Tuomey, or on Instagram @odonnell-tuomey.
Photographs by Dennis Gilbert, Micheal Moran, Jed Niezgoda, Fred Howarth.
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