The London Design Medals have been announced and the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Medal this year was Architect Eva Jiřičná.

The London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world. The Festival has earned the reputation as a key calendar moment of London’s autumn creative season, and attracts the greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to the capital, in a citywide celebration.

The Lifetime Achievement Medal supported by Fortnum & Mason honours an individual who has made significant and fundamental contributions to the design industry over their career.

Eva Jiřičná is a Czech-born architect based in London since 1968 – this year celebrating 50 years in the UK. Jiřičná is best known for her innovative use of industrial materials in retail and commercial spaces.

A Royal Academician, CBE and royal designer for industry, she began her career at the Greater London Council, before moving on to the Louis de Soissons Partnership and Richard Rogers Partnership, where she was responsible for the interior design of the Lloyds of London building. Jiřičná continued to gain recognition in the mid-eighties. She met fashion designer and entrepreneur Joseph Ettedgui, designing several of his Joseph retail shops in London, and eventually his own Knightsbridge flat. By 1985 she had formed Jiřičná Kerr Associates with Kathy Kerr, a practice which is still operating, now under the name of Eva Jiřičná Architects.

Jiřičná creatively fused her engineering and architecture background with interior design. By utilizing lighting effects and material characteristics, she maximized space in an intriguing manner. The understanding of architecture is perhaps responsible for this, Jiřičná was able to transform the sometimes-unmanageable spaces of London’s old buildings into usable areas. While she gained recognition with architectural projects, her store design commissions were large contributions to her profession. She demonstrated how retail design could be treated with architectural concepts, strengthening the image of interior design.

Talking about her career, Jiřičná said: “I am not specifically proud of anything in my career – I am just immensely grateful to everybody who has worked with me, who has entrusted me with a job. Everything in architecture involves teamwork and I have worked with so many magnificent people.”

Five years ago, Jiřičná also scooped the Jane Drew Prize for her outstanding contribution to the status of women in architecture.

Past winners of the Lifetime Achievement Medal include:

2017: Margaret Calvert
2016: Kenneth Grange
2015: Ken Adam
2014: Richard Rogers
2013: Dieter Rams
2012: Terence Conran
2011: Vidal Sassoon

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Architect Renzo Piano – the mind behind such buildings as The Shard in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the new Whitney Museum of Art in New York City lead an architecture talk at a recent TED conference.

Speaking of architecture, Piano said: “Architecture is amazing, for sure. It’s amazing because it’s art. But you know, it’s a very funny kind of art. It’s an art at the frontier between art and science. It’s fed by … by real life, every day. It’s driven by force of necessity. Quite amazing, quite amazing. And the life of the architect is also amazing.”

During the speech, Piano expresses the need for architects to be multi-occupational – they are “poets” in the morning, “humanist” mid-morning and a builder by noon.

A shelter for communities

Piano goes on to say that Architecture is about construction and this is a necessity, but at the heart of it, it is making a “shelter for communities, not just for individuals”. He says that as the world changes so does architecture and this is the adventure in which architecture takes its people.

In his poetic manner, Piano likens Architecture to telling a story and uses a number of his projects as examples. For example; The Shard in London, he says: “This building is the tallest building in Western Europe. It goes up more than 300 meters in the air, to breathe fresh air. The facets of this building are inclined, and they reflect the sky of London, that is never the same. After rain, everything becomes bluish. In the sunny evening, everything is red. It’s something that is difficult to explain. It’s what we call the soul of a building.”

Finding beauty

Piano finalises his speech by talking about beauty, and how beauty has the power to change people. He comments: “Making buildings for this beauty makes cities better places to live. And better cities make better citizens.”

Following this speech, Hunter Dunning Architecture Lead, John Watson commented: “Renzo Piano has exceeded the top of his career; a real inspiration that our candidates can aspire too and we help them on their way to this goal.”

Hear the full speech on the TED website here.

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