Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara are Irish architects who, as founders (1978) of the firm Grafton Architects, are known for structures that are at once understated and complex, historical and modern, generous toward their users, and considerate of the environment. The pair had been collaborating for more than 40 years when they received the Pritzker Prize in 2020, the first time the honor was given to two women.

Farrell and McNamara met while studying at the School of Architecture at University College Dublin. After graduating in 1976, they began teaching at the university, and in 1978 they set up a practice in Dublin with three other architects. The firm began to receive a number of projects in the 1990s when the Irish economy began to improve. By the early 21st century Grafton Architects had designed several schools, office buildings, and public and private housing throughout the country, including North King Street Housing (2000), Dublin, and the Spatial Dynamics Lab (formerly the Urban Institute of Ireland; 2002), Dublin. Reflecting the materials of neighbouring buildings on the University College Dublin campus, the Spatial Dynamics Lab features unique applications of brick, concrete, and wood. Brick “fins” on one facade, for example, act as shades for a row of windows and create visual interest.

In 2003 Grafton Architects won an international competition to design the School of Economics building at the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan, their first commission outside of Ireland. When the building was completed in 2008, it was named the World Building of the Year at the inaugural World Architectural Festival. Indeed, the geometric structure is a masterpiece of gray stone, glass, and light. Beyond its pleasing appearance, the building also connects users with the city. A floating canopy near the entrance shelters an open plaza, where passersby can glimpse into the interior public spaces through an expanse of windows. Meanwhile, a series of light wells, a frequent feature in Grafton Architects’ oeuvre, ensure that light reaches the deepest niches of the building, showing the architects’ generosity toward the user.

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More international commissions followed, including the campus of Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) Lima (2015); the Toulouse School of Economics at the Université Toulouse 1 Capitole (2019), France; and the Institut Mines-Télécom (2019), Paris. The sloping concrete UTEC building recalls Lima’s seaside cliffs and Le Corbusier’s concrete works for Chandigarh, India. The tall, open structure seemingly acts as a barrier between the residential neighbourhood it faces and the sunken highway below, and it invites breezes from the nearby sea to cool its public areas. Grafton Architects also continued to design buildings in Ireland, namely the offices for the Department of Finance, Dublin (2009), and the medical school for the University of Limerick (2012).

Throughout their design career Farrell and McNamara continued teaching at University College Dublin. In addition, they held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard (2010) and the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professorship at the Yale School of Architecture (2011); they also taught at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the Accademia di architettura, Mendrisio, Switzerland. The duo received the Silver Lion Award at the 2012 Venice Biennale for their exhibition “Architecture as New Geography” and were appointed cocurators of the International Architecture Exhibition at the 2018 Venice Biennale, for which they chose the theme “Freespace.” The Pritzker jury noted that the latter exhibition reflected Farrell and McNamara’s openness toward colleagues and commitment to collaboration. In 2020 they were awarded the Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects.