Indian architecture firm wins the 2022 Royal Academy Dorfman Award

30 Sep 2022 CW Team

Indian architecture firm Wallmakers and its Principal Architect Vinu Daniel have won the esteemed Royal Academy Dorfman Award 2022. Given once a year the coveted prize is reserved for architectural firms which exemplify the potential industry offers by the way of creativity and ground-breaking concepts. The £10,000 award is given by founding partners The Dorfman Foundation and London's Royal Academy.

The judges selected Wallmakers, for its energy, originality and willingness to take risks while constructing sustainable buildings that fit harmoniously within the landscapes and ecologies in which they are created.

In response to the climate catastrophe, Wallmakers' work "engages with challenges with a creative intensity and urgency that will push architects to evaluate the impact of their work in regard to ecology and the consumer economy," according to chair Farshid Moussavi RA. After reaching a stage where he had all but abandoned architectural practise as it was being taught, Vinu Daniel started working with Wallmakers. The jurors were fascinated by Vinu's determination to tread gently on the environment as well as his willingness to improvise and explore riskier interventions.

The other members in the jury panel included Farrokh Derakhshani, Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture; Hisham Matar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Cornelia Parker RA; Zoë Ryan, Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; and Peter St John RA. Wallmakers fought off competition for the other three finalists, Apparata from the UK, Dot Architects from Japan, and Semillas from Peru.

Considering the fact that Wallmakers is a young architectural firm, this award will not only encourage others to reassess their work but rekindle the fact that being an architect is also a social responsibility.

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