The Pritzker Architecture Prize has released a special video to honor 2020 Laureates, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the 47th and 48th Laureates of the award, and the first two Irish citizens to receive the distinction. For the first time in the 42-year history of the award, an in-person ceremony could not be held, therefore organizers created a film, discussing the meaning of the Prize and revealing the Laureates’ intimate reflections on architecture.
Featuring full remarks from the Laureates and other public figures, the video includes elements of a traditional Prize ceremony, while offering never-before-seen footage and photographs of Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara’s work. The documentary-style archival piece also includes a personal message to embolden aspiring architects. Discover below the ceremony highlights, and for the full version, check the official website.
Standing here almost alone in this room, celebrating this wonderful honor of the Pritzker Prize, with no audience, brings to mind the empty stage of a Samuel Beckett play. But of course, we are not alone. We are in a space which holds time, and knowledge, and treasures of the mind. We can feel the presences of all the great people who passed through this great space. We chose this room so that we could celebrate the power of architecture here in our own city. So that we would feel part of a bigger order, which of course is one of the functions of architecture. -- Shelley McNamara
While past ceremonies have been held at architecturally and historically significant venues, for the first time, this year’s participants delivered their speeches remotely. Viewers were invited into public and private locations around the world including the Long Room, the main chamber of the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin; the State Reception Room in Dublin; and Palacio de Liria in Madrid.
This is a time for new and agile thinking, not only about every space that we touch, but also for new thinking about our relationship with each other, “It’s fitting, therefore, that this year’s Laureates, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, have first and foremost demonstrated that friendship, socialization and partnership are the wellspring for the humane ideals to which their built work is dedicated. -- Tom Pritzker, Chairman of The Hyatt Foundation.
