Farshid Moussavi wins the 2026 Soane Medal

British-Iranian architect Farshid Moussavi has been awarded the 2026 Soane Medal. Sir John Soane's Museum set up the prize in 2017 to celebrate its founder's belief that architecture matters in everyday life, and Moussavi is its tenth winner.

The jury, chaired by architect Amin Taha, praised the way her ethics show up in practice rather than in statements: in the many small decisions that shape how a building feels to the people who use it. Taha described her approach as attentiveness, a middle path between chasing spectacle and giving up, and a way of designing with humility and curiosity for other people's lives.

You may know her buildings without knowing her name. Her studio, Farshid Moussavi Architects, founded in 2011, designed the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, the Ismaili Center in Houston, Victoria Beckham's London flagship and Harrods' toy department. Earlier, with Foreign Office Architects, she completed the futuristic Yokohama International Port Terminal in 2002.

Born in Shiraz in 1965, Moussavi now teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. She says the Soane Museum has always felt to her like a building that is a home, a practice and a way of thinking all at once. She'll receive the medal at the Royal Academy in London on 24 November.

Our summary of a story from Dezeen, published 28 September 2026. Read the original

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