Australian Architect Glenn Murcutt has been awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal for 2009.

Australian Architect, Glenn Marcus Murcutt, has been recognised for his “ecologically responsive and socially responsible Modernist” approach with the American Institute of Architects’ 2009 Gold Medal. Despite working exclusively in Australia, the American Institute note the architect has had a “profound impact on Architecture throughout the world.”

“While some might characterise a single-continent geographic range of work as ‘regional,’ the effect of Mr. Murcutt’s is amplified by impassioned and extensive lectures and a commitment to teaching throughout the world,” says Tom Howorth chair of the AIA Committee on Design’s Gold Medal Committee.

The highest individual honour awarded by the AIA the Gold Medal is awarded annually to a professional who has had a significant and “lasting influence on the practice of architecture”.

“Recently our architectural field experienced an ‘ecological boom,’” says 2005 AIA Gold Medalist Tadao Ando. “However, without relation to such a trend of time, Glenn Murcutt has always been focusing on the geographical and regional conditions, from the very beginning of his career.”

Born in London, Murcutt grew up in New Guinea. He studied at the University of New South Wales and established his own Sydney practice in 1970. As the 65th recipient of the AIA Gold Medal Murcutt joins Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, LeCorbusier and many more architectural visionaries.

Murcutt will receive the award at a presentation in February next year.

aia.org

Hero Image: Glenn Murcutt – photograph by Jure Zavrtanik.

Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre ’Riversdale’ on the Shoalhaven River- photograph by Wojciech Przywecki.