Rafael Moneo has been named the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, the highest award given by the board of La Biennale di Venezia (The Venice Biennale). Moneo will receive the Golden Lion at a May 22 ceremony, kicking off the 17th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Moneo’s award was decided upon by the board of directors of the La Biennale di Venezia, at the recommendation of Venice Architecture Biennale curator Hashim Sarkis.
At Harvard GSD, Moneo was the first Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture, and was chair of the Department of Architecture from 1985 until 1990. Born in Tudela, Spain, in 1937, Moneo established his eponymous studio, Rafael Moneo Arquitecto, in Madrid in 1965, and began teaching at Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid, where he served as chaired professor of composition from 1980 to 1985. He continues to lecture at Harvard GSD as the Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture, Emeritus.
The Golden Lion joins a roster of awards and honors that Moneo has garnered over his career, including the 1996 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2003 Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. Among Moneo’s best known completed works are the Bankinter Building in Madrid, the Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, the L’Illa building in Barcelona, the Pilar and Joan Miró Museum in Palma de Mallorca, the “Kursaal” Auditorium and Congess Center in San Sebastián, the extension of the Prado Museum in Madrid, as well as the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.
Read more about Moneo’s Golden Lion honor, including remarks from Hashim Sarkis, via Architects Newspaper.