2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize - Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara Wins Tuesday March 03,2020

Irish architects Yvonne Farrell (69) and Shelley McNamara (68) have been awarded the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize for "consistent service to humanity as evidenced by a body of built work" and for leading the way for women in a male-dominated profession.

The announcement was made on Tuesday March 03,2020 by Tom Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award, considered architecture's highest honour

The jury citation noted that the pair, who co-founded their Dublin-based Grafton Architects in 1978, "unhesitatingly pursued the highest quality of architecture for the ... location in which it was to be built, the functions it would house and especially for the people who would inhabit and use their buildings and spaces"

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

"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," read the jury citation.

Three women have won the prize previously

• Zaha Hadid in 2004
•  Kazuyo Sejima in 2010 (with Ryue Nishizawa) and 
• Carme Pigem in 2017 (with Ramon Vilalta and Rafael Aranda)

In 2008, Farrell and McNamara's celebrated Grafton Building at Milan's Bocconi University was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, a prize that thrust the pair onto the international stage.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize was established in 1979 by the late entrepreneur Jay A Pritzker and his wife, Cindy. The winner receives a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion. It is awarded not to a firm but to an individual architect; when more than one individual is selected, it is because the jury deems their work to be inextricably linked.