Yvonne Farrell will address the graduating class of the Harvard Graduate School of Design during Class Day exercises on Wednesday, May 27.
Farrell is co-founder of Grafton Architects, established with Shelley McNamara in 1978. They shared the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2020. Their work includes major academic and civic buildings such as Università Luigi Bocconi (2008) in Milan; Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC, 2015) in Lima; and Town House (2019) at Kingston University, London. In 2018, Farrell and McNamara curated the Venice Architecture Biennale, where they presented “Freespace” as the exhibition theme.
Teaching has been a significant part of Farrell’s career. She taught at the School of Architecture, University College Dublin—her alma mater—from 1976 to 2002 and was later appointed adjunct professor there in 2015. She and McNamara held the Kenzō Tange Chair at the GSD in 2010. Currently, she is a professor at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland.
Farrell’s work has received extensive international recognition. In addition to the 2020 Pritzker Prize, with McNamara, she was awarded the inaugural Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Prize in 2016 for UTEC, the 2020 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, and the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture—Mies van der Rohe Award for Town House at Kingston University.
Farrell will deliver her Class Day address in the Gund Hall backyard. For schedule updates and information about live streaming, please visit the GSD’s commencement page.