Royal Gold Medal

The medal was first awarded in 1848 to Charles Robert Cockerell, and its second recipient was the Italian Luigi Canina in 1849. The winners include some of the most influential architects of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1864), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941), Le Corbusier (1953), Walter Gropius (1956), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1959) and Buckminster Fuller (1968). Candidates of all nationalities are eligible to receive the award. Not all recipients were architects. Also recognised were engineers such as Ove Arup (1966) and Peter Rice (1992), who undoubtedly played an outstanding role in the realisation of some of the 20th century's key buildings all over the world. Repeatedly, the prize was awarded to influential writers on architecture, including scholars such as the Rev Robert Willis (1862), Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1967), and Sir John Summerson (1976), as well as theoreticians such as Lewis Mumford (1961) and Colin Rowe (1995). It honoured archaeologists such as Sir Austen Henry Layard (1868), Karl Richard Lepsius (1869), Melchior de Vogüé (1879), Heinrich Schliemann (1885), Rodolfo Lanciani (1900) and Sir Arthur Evans (1909), and painters such as Lord Leighton (1894), and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1906). Another notable exception was the 1999 award to the city of Barcelona.

• Year — Recipient — Nationality • 2026 — Níall McLaughlin — Ireland • 2025 — Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA) — Japan • 2024 — Lesley Lokko — Ghana/Scotland • 2023 — Yasmeen Lari — Pakistan • 2022 — Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi — India • 2021 — Sir David Adjaye — UK/Ghana • 2020 — Grafton Architects (Practice co-founded by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell) — Ireland • 2019 — Sir Nicholas Grimshaw — UK • 2018 — Neave Brown — U.S./UK • 2017 — Paulo Mendes da Rocha — Brazil • 2016 — Dame Zaha Hadid — Iraq/UK • 2015 — Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey (Co-founders of O'Donnell & Tuomey) — Ireland • 2014 — Joseph Rykwert — UK • 2013 — Peter Zumthor — Switzerland • 2012 — Herman Hertzberger — Netherlands • 2011 — David Chipperfield — UK • 2010 — I. M. Pei — China/U.S. • 2009 — Álvaro Siza Vieira — Portugal • 2008 — Edward Cullinan — UK • 2007 — Herzog & de Meuron — Switzerland • 2006 — Toyo Ito — Japan • 2005 — Frei Otto — Germany • 2004 — Rem Koolhaas — Netherlands • 2003 — Rafael Moneo — Spain • 2002 — Archigram — UK • 2001 — Jean Nouvel — France • 2000 — Frank Gehry — U.S. • 1999 — City of Barcelona — Spain • 1998 — Oscar Niemeyer — Brazil • 1997 — Tadao Ando — Japan • 1996 — Harry Seidler — Austria/Australia • 1995 — Colin Rowe — UK/U.S. • 1994 — Michael and Patricia Hopkins — UK • 1993 — Giancarlo De Carlo — Italy • 1992 — Peter Rice — Ireland • 1991 — Colin Stansfield Smith — UK • 1990 — Aldo van Eyck — Netherlands • 1989 — Renzo Piano — Italy • 1988 — Richard Meier — U.S. • 1987 — Ralph Erskine — UK • 1986 — Arata Isozaki — Japan • 1985 — Sir Richard Rogers — UK • 1984 — Charles Correa — India • 1983 — Sir Norman Foster — UK • 1982 — Berthold Lubetkin — UK/Georgia • 1981 — Sir Philip Dowson — UK • 1980 — James Stirling — UK • 1979 — Charles and Ray Eames — U.S. • 1978 — Jørn Utzon — Denmark • 1977 — Sir Denys Lasdun — UK • 1976 — Sir John Summerson — UK • 1975 — Michael Scott — Ireland • 1974 — Powell and Moya — UK • 1973 — Sir Leslie Martin — UK • 1972 — Louis I Kahn — U.S. • 1971 — Hubert de Cronin Hastings — UK • 1970 — Robert Matthew — UK • 1969 — Jack Coia — UK • 1968 — Buckminster Fuller — U.S. • 1967 — Sir Nikolaus Pevsner — UK • 1966 — Ove Arup — UK • 1965 — Kenzo Tange — Japan • 1964 — Edwin Maxwell Fry — UK • 1963 — William Holford, Baron Holford — UK • 1962 — Sven Markelius — Sweden • 1961 — Lewis Mumford — U.S. • 1960 — Pier Luigi Nervi — Italy • 1959 — Ludwig Mies van der Rohe — Germany/U.S. • 1958 — Robert Schofield Morris — Canada • 1957 — Alvar Aalto — Finland • 1956 — Walter Gropius — Germany/U.S. • 1955 — John Murray Easton — UK • 1954 — Sir Arthur George Stephenson — Australia • 1953 — Le Corbusier — France • 1952 — George Grey Wornum — UK • 1951 — Emanuel Vincent Harris — UK • 1950 — Eliel Saarinen — Finland • 1949 — Sir Howard Robertson — UK • 1948 — Auguste Perret — France • 1947 — Sir Albert Richardson — UK • 1946 — Sir Patrick Abercrombie — UK • 1945 — Victor Vesnin — USSR • 1944 — Sir Edward Maufe — UK • 1943 — Sir Charles Herbert Reilly — UK • 1942 — William Curtis Green — UK • 1941 — Frank Lloyd Wright — U.S. • 1940 — Charles Voysey — UK • 1939 — Sir Percy Thomas — UK • 1938 — Ivar Tengbom — Sweden • 1937 — Sir Raymond Unwin — UK • 1936 — Charles Holden — UK • 1935 — Willem Marinus Dudok — Netherlands • 1934 — Henry Vaughan Lanchester — UK • 1933 — Sir Charles Reed Peers — UK • 1932 — Hendrik Petrus Berlage — Netherlands • 1931 — Sir Edwin Cooper — UK • 1930 — Percy Worthington — UK • 1929 — Victor Laloux — France • 1928 — Sir Guy Dawber — UK • 1927 — Sir Herbert Baker — UK • 1926 — Ragnar Östberg — Sweden • 1925 — Sir Giles Gilbert Scott — UK • 1924 — No award — N/A • 1923 — Sir John James Burnet — UK • 1922 — Thomas Hastings — U.S. • 1921 — Sir Edwin Lutyens — UK • 1920 — Charles Girault — France • 1919 — Leonard Stokes — UK • 1918 — Ernest Newton — UK • 1917 — Henri Paul Nénot — France • 1916 — Sir Robert Rowand Anderson — UK • 1915 — Frank Darling — Canada • 1914 — Jean-Louis Pascal — France • 1913 — Sir Reginald Blomfield — UK • 1912 — Basil Champneys — UK • 1911 — Wilhelm Dörpfeld — UK • 1910 — Sir Thomas Graham Jackson — UK • 1909 — Sir Arthur Evans — UK • 1908 — Honoré Daumet — France • 1907 — John Belcher — UK • 1906 — Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema — Netherlands • 1905 — Sir Aston Webb — UK • 1904 — Auguste Choisy — France • 1903 — Charles Follen McKim — U.S. • 1902 — Thomas Edward Collcutt — UK • 1901 — No award — N/A • 1900 — Rodolfo Lanciani — Italy • 1899 — George Frederick Bodley — UK • 1898 — George Aitchison — UK • 1897 — Pierre Cuypers — Netherlands • 1896 — Sir Ernest George — UK • 1895 — James Brooks — UK • 1894 — Lord Leighton — UK • 1893 — Richard Morris Hunt — U.S. • 1892 — César Daly — France • 1891 — Sir Arthur Blomfield — UK • 1890 — John Gibson — UK • 1889 — Sir Charles Thomas Newton — UK • 1888 — Baron Theophil von Hansen — Austria • 1887 — Ewan Christian — UK • 1886 — Charles Garnier — France • 1885 — Heinrich Schliemann — Germany • 1884 — William Butterfield — UK • 1883 — Francis Penrose — UK • 1882 — Heinrich von Ferstel — Austria • 1881 — George Godwin — UK • 1880 — John Loughborough Pearson — UK • 1879 — Marquis Melchior de Vogüé — France • 1878 — Alfred Waterhouse — UK • 1877 — Charles Barry — UK • 1876 — Joseph-Louis Duc — France • 1875 — Edmund Sharpe — UK • 1874 — George Edmund Street — UK • 1873 — Thomas Henry Wyatt — UK • 1872 — Friedrich von Schmidt — Germany/Austria • 1871 — James Fergusson — UK • 1870 — Benjamin Ferrey — UK • 1869 — Karl Richard Lepsius — Germany • 1868 — Sir Austen Henry Layard — UK • 1867 — Charles Texier — France • 1866 — Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt — UK • 1865 — Sir James Pennethorne — UK • 1864 — Eugène Viollet-le-Duc — France • 1863 — Anthony Salvin — UK • 1862 — Rev Robert Willis — UK • 1861 — Jean-Baptiste Lesueur — France • 1860 — Sydney Smirke — UK • 1859 — Sir George Gilbert Scott — UK • 1858 — Friedrich August Stüler — Germany • 1857 — Owen Jones — UK • 1856 — Sir William Tite — UK • 1855 — Jacques Ignace Hittorff — France • 1854 — Philip Hardwick — UK • 1853 — Sir Robert Smirke — UK • 1852 — Leo von Klenze — Germany • 1851 — Thomas Leverton Donaldson — UK • 1850 — Sir Charles Barry — UK • 1849 — Luigi Canina — Italy • 1848 — Charles Robert Cockerell — UK