Brian MacKay-Lyons wins RAIC Gold Medal

John Hill

9. February 2015

Two Hulls House, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects (Photo: Greg Richardson)

One year after MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects won the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Architectural Firm Award, Brian MacKay-Lyons has been named the recipient of the Gold Medal, the organization's highest honor.

Although the RAIC has not yet released a formal announcement on the Gold Medal, the news comes via Twitter, specifically Globe and Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic. As can be seen in the tweet below, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple (MLS Architects) has confirmed the news. Congratulations to Brian MacKay-Lyons! We'll update this post as more news on the medal becomes available.

It's true! “@alexbozikovic: The @arch_canada honours Brian MacKay-Lyons with its Gold Medal. https://t.co/ryorN0H4ul pic.twitter.com/YC9im6NhJY”
— MLS Architects (@MLSArchitects) February 9, 2015

Update: The RAIC’s formal announcement for the 2015 Gold Medal indicates that a five-member jury* selected MacKay-Lyons, stating: "His work is universally recognized as pure, dignified, poetic and beautiful. His work comes from an intimate connection with his communities." Further, they called the architect "an authentic and original voice in the development of a contemporary expression of traditional regional architecture."

The RAIC and jury recognize his houses, university and commercial projects with MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, but also the Ghost Lab program he hosted at his farm in Nova Scotia from 1994 to 2011, and his teaching at Dalhousie University.

MacKay-Lyons is quoted in the announcement: "It is a great honur to be recognized by one’s peers. In an increasingly globalized world it’s nice to reaffirm a way of making architecture about place – its landscape, climate and material culture. The RAIC Gold Medal is all the more meaningful because it recognizes a body of work rather than the fashion of the day."

He will receive the Gold Medal in a formal ceremony at the RAIC/AAA Festival of Architecture, which takes place in Calgary in early June.

*The jury: Peter Busby, FRAIC, Past Gold Medalist; Paule Boutin, AP/FIRAC, RAIC Past President; Tyler Sharp, MRAIC, Past Recipient of the Young Architect Award; Siamak Hariri, FRAIC, and Martin Houle, MIRAC, founder of the architecture website Kollectif.net