The RIBA Charles Jencks Award

The RIBA Charles Jencks Award was established in 1993 in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to both practice and theory in architecture. Set up with the prize money Charles Jencks received from the Japanese Nara Gold Medal for Architecture in 1992, the Jencks Award is presented at a public lecture given by the recipient at the RIBA in London.

The principle behind the award is to acknowledge the multiple intelligences at work in architecture, and celebrate the other forms of thinking and production can drive architecture beyond design.

Previous winners have included Peter Eisenman, who used philosophy as basis for his practice; Zaha Hadid, whose paintings were the medium that drove her work; and Rem Koolhaas, whose polemical journalism pushed and provoked his research-based projects.

The Jencks Foundation and the RIBA will continue the award as a way of recognising Charles Jencks’ vast contribution to architectural culture, and in order to honour the plurality of perspectives that he celebrated in his works as a writer and critic. It will also acknowledge the broader cultures of architecture globally and the changing issues which the profession addresses, constantly expanding the idea of theory and recognising new challenges and forms of practice.

The Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are pleased to announce that DAAR will receive the 2025 RIBA Charles Jencks Award. The prize recognises their major contribution to the theory and practice of architecture, including their humanitarian projects that promote peace, improved teaching, and better opportunities for displaced people. DAAR, which stands for Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency, was among 12 nominees in competition considered by an independent jury for the annual award.

The artistic research practice DAAR, established by Sandi Hillal and Alessandro Petti, has been given the award for a series of works including art exhibitions, built architectural structures, reimagined learning spaces, and books promoting justice and equality. Over the last two decades they have developed a body of work that is both theoretically ambitious and deeply engaged in the pursuit of justice and equality.

For DAAR, art exhibitions are not only spaces of display but also sites of action, catalysing broader interventions that extend into built architectural structures, critical learning environments, and civic spaces. Their work challenges dominant collective narratives, redefines political concepts, and fosters new forms of civic engagement. Among the many groundbreaking projects DAAR has been recognised for is a new layout for the Shu’fat School situated in a refugee camp, and a book dossier called Refugee Heritage which reuses and redirects UNESCO World Heritage guidelines and criteria to challenge and subvert the accepted idea of heritage.

Founder of the Jencks Foundation, Lily Jencks said: “We are thrilled to award the 2025 RIBA Charles Jencks Award to DAAR and are looking forward to their lecture at RIBA. The award celebrates architecture’s multiple intelligences; that it is not only building or design that is important, but a sincere dedication to theory and research that situates architecture in its wider social, economic and political context. DAAR have a long-standing commitment to the architectural and learning practices of decolonisation: propagated through exhibitions, teaching and publishing. This research-driven art practice runs in parallel to significant building projects, creating a powerful body of work that is both theoretically and practically engaged with architecture’s effort to redress injustice.”

DAAR will deliver a lecture at the RIBA headquarters on 30 May. We would love for you to join us. Ticket booking will be available shortly—the link will appear below as soon as it's live.

Previous Winners

2023 Dogma

2022 Forensic Architecture

2021 Anupama Kundoo

2019 Ensamble

2018 Alejandro Aravena

2016 Niall McLaughlin

2015 Herzog and De Meuron

2013 Benedetta Tagliabue

2012 Rem Koolhaas

2011 Eric Owen Moss

2010 Steven Holl

2009 Charles Correa

2008 Wolf D. Prix, Coop Himmelb(l)au

2007 Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, UN Studio

2006 Zaha Hadid

2005 Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Moussavi, Foreign Office Architects

2004 Peter Eisenman

2003 Cecil Balmond

Jury

Judging Panel

The jury has been assembled to ensure there is a breath of experience and consists of the following key members:

1. Lily Jencks
2. RIBA President (or President-elect if the award event takes place after they have taken over the presidency)
3. A Head of School of Architecture or a Senior Lecturer in the field of History and Theory of Architecture
4. A past winner of the RIBA Jencks Award
5. Architecture broadcaster or curatorial director at a cultural institution
6. The RIBA Director of Education as non-voting Chair

Selection Process

The judging panel are asked to submit up to 3 nominations each with a short citation as to why they have chosen each nomination. The RIBA organizer prepares a summary of information about the nominees and distributes this prior to the meeting. The judges then meet at the RIBA for a 2-3 hour discussion and debate. Judges should be prepared to present and defend their nominations. Conversation and debate should be passionate and congenial, with picnic lunch included (if there is time).

The judges will review both the built work and bibliography of the nominated architects. Books on or by the architects should be made available from the RIBA, and the jury should consult all possible media (videos, internet interviews etc) to consider their vote.

Following intense debate a winner is chosen by voting. The winner is invited to give a lecture at the RIBA and travel arrangements are made by the RIBA organiser.