Ted Cullinan wins RIBA gold medal

Many Irish architects will be familiar with the work of Edward Cullinan who has just been awarded the RIBA Gold Medal.

He has lectured widely to architects in Ireland from Dublin and Kilkenny to Belfast. He was also an external examiner at the University of Ulster.

Former recipients of the Gold Medal include Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn. Irish people who have been awarded it are Peter Rice (engineer) and Michael Scott.

Ted, whose father's family came from Co Clare, has become associated with humanistic buildings and this award has been seen as the recognition of a general practitioner whose work responds to its surroundings and to the people who use the buildings, rather than being vast, look-at-me structures.

"Over four decades of inspirational practice and teaching, Edward (Ted) Cullinan has shown us how a keen awareness of the natural environment and a deep engagement with those who use and experience buildings, can generate compelling and poetic architecture," says the RIBA in a citation on why it chose Ted to receive the medal.

"Long before they became widely accepted, Cullinan had made his own versions of 'sustainability' and 'consultation' central to his highly original and inventive approach to putting buildings together; an approach also distinguished by its determination to root architecture firmly in its context."

Irish architects who have worked in Edward Cullinan Architects' London-based offices include Brendan Woods, Miriam Fitzpatrick, Brian O'Brien, Michael Haslam and Seán Harrington.

But Ted has influenced many more designers, with the RIBA saying that he is "one of the great teacher's of his time. Hundreds of students continue to be inspired by his enthusiasm and energy and lit up by his wit and deep insights into architecture."

His daughter Emma writes about architecture for The Irish Times.