The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced Professor Lesley Lokko, the acclaimed Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator, author and curator, as the recipient of the Royal Gold Medal 2024 for architecture. The RIBA Honours Committee 2024 citation stated, "This medal honours Lokko’s resounding voice. It is a testament to her unwavering commitment to advancing architectural education and redressing imbalances by amplifying the voices of underrepresented people in shaping our built environment.”

Lokko’s work is a clarion call for equitable representation in policies, planning, and design that shape our spaces. – RIBA Honours Committee

Having already been awarded an OBE in 2023, on hearing the news, Lesley Lokko said, “It came as such a surprise to me. This was never on the cards. I’m delighted to be considered alongside some of the great past winners of the Royal Gold Medal. Although this is a personal award, this isn’t merely a personal triumph, this is a testament to the people and organisations I have worked with that share my goals. I came into architecture seeking certainties, looking for answers. Instead, I found questions and possibilities, far richer, more curious, and more empathetic ways to interpret and shape the world. Architecture gave me language, in all its forms—visual, written, built, performed—and that language, in turn, has given me such hope.”

Curation

With a practice that lays more emphasis on pedagogy and methodology, and not just the built environment, Lokko is one of the first architects to be honoured for work that goes beyond the traditional definition of architectural practice. This part of her approach to architecture was well on display during the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023. In addition to ensuring that the biennale served as a platform for the voices of practitioners from all across the global majority, her decision to use the term “practitioners” itself had a profound impact.

The Honours Committee’s citation also drew attention to her curatorial prowess. It stated: “A guiding force for creativity, Lokko’s curatorial prowess shone brilliantly in her recent stewardship of the Venice Biennale 2023, a groundbreaking event that united African and Africa-related architectural expressions for the first time. It was a platform where emerging and established African architects and designers converged to create 'The Laboratory of the Future’, a six-part exhibition igniting the discourse on decarbonisation and decolonisation. Under Lokko’s curatorship, Nigerian artist, designer, architect and master builder, Demas Nwoko was the first Black person to be awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the International Venice Biennale.”

Education

Lokko’s pedagogical footprint spans diverse cultural landscapes, from the United States and the United Kingdom to South Africa and Ghana, namely at the Bartlett School of Architecture, Kingston University and London Metropolitan University in London; Iowa State University and University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Cape Town; and UTS in Sydney, Australia. Notably, she was the Founder and Director of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg (2015) and Dean of The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York in 2019. She subsequently resigned from the CCNY in 2020 after a year to start the African Futures Institute in, Accra, Ghana.

Founded in 2021, the African Futures Institute (AFI) aims to be a new model of education, research and public dialogue that unites the arts, humanities and sciences and “reimagines Africa as the crucible of the future”. Operating as a pan-African think tank, the institute leans on research to confront the monopolised language and challenges around race, environmental justice and urbanism. Lokko’s educational experiments even found their way into the 18th International Architecture Biennale in Venice. ‘The Laboratory of the Future’, made space for the Biennale College Architettura which hosted 50 students from across the globe for a four-week teaching programme, focused on the twin themes of the exhibition—decarbonisation and decolonisation. Her global and intersectional expertise has earned her several awards for contributions to architectural education, among them: the RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Education 2020; and the AR Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for Contributions to Architecture 2021.

Writing

In 2004, Lokko made the transition from architecture to fiction with the publication of her first novel, Sundowners (Orion). The architect turned-educator-turned novelist will be publishing her 13^th novel, The Lonely Hour, in 2024. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of FOLIO: Journal of Contemporary African Architecture and the editor of White Papers, Black Marks: Race, Space and Architecture (Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota Press 2000).

RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki, encapsulated the impact and importance of recognising Lokko's diverse approach to architecture as he said, “A fierce champion of equity and inclusion in all aspects of life, Lesley Lokko’s progressive approach to architecture education offers hope for the future—a profession that welcomes those from all walks of life, considers the needs of our environment and acknowledges a broad range of cultures and perspectives. A visionary agent of change, Lesley has dedicated her life to championing these values, not only through academic endeavours but through her work as an author and curator. She remains a humble revolutionary force, with her ambition and optimism etching an indelible mark on the global architectural stage.” 

The Royal Gold Medal 2024 will be formally presented to Lokko in London on May 2. The 2024 Royal Gold Medal selection committee was chaired by RIBA President Muyiwa Oki and comprised Royal Gold Medal 2023 recipient Yasmeen Lari; architect and senior partner at RSHP Ivan Harbour, Head of School and Chief Executive at the London School of Architecture, Neal Shasore; and Cindy Walters, architect and partner at Walters & Cohen. Awarded since 1848, past Royal Gold Medallists include Grafton Architects (2020), Dame Zaha Hadid (2016), Frank Gehry (2000), Sir Norman Foster (1983), and Frank Lloyd Wright (1941).