Farshid Moussavi OBE RA has been awarded the 2026 Soane Medal, recognising her contribution to the practice, history and theory of architecture.
The architect, writer and educator will receive the award at The Royal Academy in London on 24th November 2026, where she will also deliver the annual Soane Medal Lecture, open to the public.
Moussavi divides her time between her London- and Paris-based practice, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, and her role as Professor in Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
She founded FMA in 2011, with projects including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, La Folie Divine in Montpellier, Îlot 19 at La Défense-Nanterre in Paris and the Harrods Toy Department in London. Her largest project to date, the Ismaili Center Houston, was completed in November 2025. She also designed Victoria Beckham’s Mayfair flagship store.
The Soane Medal was established in 2017 and continues Sir John Soane’s interest in architecture as a public and cultural force. Moussavi joins a list of previous recipients including Madelon Vriesendorp, Hanif Kara, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, Peter Barber, Marina Tabassum, Denise Scott Brown, Kenneth Frampton and Rafael Moneo.
Moussavi said:
“To be recognised by an institution whose founder understood so clearly that architecture is never only about architecture is, for me, the most meaningful kind of acknowledgement.”
She added that Sir John Soane’s Museum had long represented
“a building [that] can be simultaneously a home, a practice, and a way of thinking about the world.”
Amin Taha, architect and Chair of the Soane Medal jury, said Moussavi had demonstrated over nearly four decades that “ethics in architecture is not a matter of proclamation but of practice”, praising the way her work moves between building, teaching and writing.
Vicky Richardson, curator, architect and juror, also highlighted Moussavi’s ability to connect architecture with wider cultural fields, describing her work as rooted in its time and place while continuing to challenge convention.
The 2026 Soane Medal Lecture and drinks reception take place at The Royal Academy, London, on 24th November 2026. Tickets can be purchased HERE.
About
Farshid Moussavi OBE RA is an internationally acclaimed architect, writer and educator. She is founder and principal of the practice Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA), which is responsible for award-winning projects around the world including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, USA. Her largest project to-date, the Ismaili Center Houston in Texas, was recently completed in 2025. Moussavi’s ideas and work are at the forefront of critical debate about architecture. Author of four books, her most recent, Architecture and Micropolitics (Park Books, 2022), sets out her vision for architecture as a form practice that is responsive rather than deterministic. Moussavi has pursued teaching in parallel to practice for more than 30 years, seeing it as the opportunity for developing critical thinking on subjects including the design of social housing and approaches to adaptive reuse. She is currently Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. For further information, go to www.farshidmoussavi.com
