Melbourne architect Kerstin Thompson has been awarded the Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal for 2023.
Thompson is the fourth woman to have received the prestigious prize in its 63-year history. The eponymous design practice she established in 1994 was described by the Institute as “a significant and innovative reference point in Australian architecture and urban design.”
The Gold Medal is the Institute’s highest honour and is presented to a distinguished architect who has contributed to the advancement of the profession, produced work of great distinction or otherwise contributed to the industry in a distinguished manner.
The Victorian College of the Arts, Broadmeadows Town Hall, Bundanoon Art Museum and Bridge and the Melbourne Holocaust Museum are some of Thompson’s most recognisable works.
Kerstin Thompson Architects won the Victorian Architecture Medal in 2020 and was awarded the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture in 2022.
“Through her work in academia and as a role model for women in the profession, she is an inspiration to the profession as a whole and to future generations of architects,” Gold Medal Jury Chiar and Past AIA National President Shannon Battisson FRAIA said.
Thompson is also Adjunct Professor at RMIT and Monash Universities and is a Panel Member on the Office of the Victorian Government Architect’s Design Review Panel.