Peter Barber is the Soane Medal 2022 winner

The Soane Medal 2022 winner has been announced – and it's respected London-based architect Peter Barber. The founder of Peter Barber Architects is to receive the coveted accolade of Sir John Soane’s Museum today, during a ceremony including the architect giving the annual – and fifth – Soane Medal Lecture. Barber's work in housing and urban planning is being recognised for its graceful balance of high-quality design, affordability and functionality. 

'I am so thrilled to have been awarded this year’s Soane Medal. To be part of such an illustrious group of winners was both a lovely surprise and an honour. Soane was an inventive architect, and I hope that we continue to build on his legacy of experimenting with classical ideas and styles. At a time of such uncertainty, it’s really great to see social housing centre stage,' says Barber. 

This is not the first award Barber has received for his innovative approach to urban housing. The architect has accepted a lifetime achievement award from the Architects’ Journal and the RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing 2021, and was also awarded an OBE for services to architecture last year and elected as a Royal Academician in January 2022. 

This gong was conceived to ‘encourage a better understanding of the central importance of architecture in culture and society’, say the museum’s representatives. The Soane Medal 2022 winner, Peter Barber, follows in the footsteps of inaugural Soane Medal winner Rafael Moneo (2017), Denise Scott Brown (2018), Kenneth Frampton (2019) and Marina Tabassum (2021). 

'Housing is a major problem of our time. Peter has devoted his life to resolving this crisis with dedication, ingenuity and aplomb. He has designed new affordable homes where no one else could be bothered to build, reinventing historic typologies of working-class British housing. All of his work is motivated by his determination to help people to live safely, comfortably, productively and with dignity, making him a very worthy Soane Medallist,' says Alice Rawsthorn, author, design critic and member of the Soane Medal jury. 

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