Bartlett Alumna Lesley Lokko Named 2024 Recipient of RIBA Royal Gold Medal

It came as such a surprise to me. 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.

Professor Lesley Lokko is a trailblazer in the field of architecture, promoting the transformation of architectural pedagogy and practice through the complimentary lenses of decolonisation and decarbonisation. Her pioneering work in founding the African Futures Institute and being the first woman of African descent to curate the Venice Biennale places mobility and diasporic identity at the forefront of architectural discourse and design. The Royal Gold Medal for Architecture represents one of the highest honours an architect can receive, and her colleagues at The Bartlett School of Architecture and UCL have nothing but pride and admiration for her accomplishments."