Join us for an evening of architectural exhibitions, special performances and art installations celebrating our Royal Gold Medallist 2024 Professor Lesley Lokko OBE.
You’ll hear Lokko reflect on her career’s legacy as she receives the newly minted Royal Gold Medal which was approved personally by His Majesty the King in recognition of her lifetime’s work in the advancement of architecture. Plus experience an art installation from LionHeart (a multi-disciplinary artist, and RIBA Honorary Fellow) and hear a set from Touching Bass (south London-based musical movement).
Lesley's work to “democratise architecture” has been hailed by the RIBA Honours Committee 2024 as a “clarion call for equitable representation in policies, planning, and design that shape our spaces”. And, in recognition of the Lokko’s role in pushing forward inclusion and equity, we are proud to announce that new for 2024 everyone is invited to book and attend.
Event highlights
- Hear from our host RIBA President Muyiwa Oki
- See the Royal Gold Medal awarded to Lokko and hear her acceptance speech, 'Architecture: a love letter'
- Hear from Lokko’s nominators Tara and Lanre Gbolade from Gbolade Design Studio as they discuss the importance of Lokko’s career as a ‘trailblazer for bold and progressive discourse about society, architecture and culture, radically transforming architectural education for generations to come’
- Experience an art installation, Those With Walls for Windows, from the multi-disciplinary artist, poet and visionary director, LionHeart. A meditation and exploration into the “laws of freedom,” the work investigates the space of diaspora through poetry - a place where forgetting, remembering, and reimagining act as architectural devices in the urban planning of the diasporic psyche
- Hear a DJ set from South London-based musical movement and curatorial platform, Errol and Alex Rita (Touching Bass)
“Professor Lesley Lokko OBE is an educator, author, and curator. For over two decades Lokko has been rightly recognised for her groundbreaking contributions to architectural education, dialogue, and discourse from a Global South perspective – relentlessly pursuing inclusivity and equity in the field. Not only is Lokko the first African woman to receive this honour, but she also now takes her place among architecture’s defining figures.” - RIBA President Muyiwa Oki
Event information
Throughout the evening, you can also learn about Lokko’s inspiring career in a display on the second floor Practice Space, visit our new exhibition in the Architecture Gallery with a unique programme for the Royal Gold Medal celebration, and make the most of our bookshop’s late opening with an exclusive 15% discount on the evening.
Tickets include a complimentary drink followed by a pop-up bar selling alcoholic and non-alcoholic refreshments.
This event is supported by Champagne Taittinger.
RIBA would like to thank the African Futures Institute for their sponsorship of Those With Walls for Windows.
Accessibility information
We want our events to be accessible and inclusive for all, and for everyone to feel welcome and included. There is no typical RIBA attendee and everyone attending our events has different needs.
There is no dress code for this event, and we encourage you to embrace your personal style, dressing in any way you feel comfortable and enables you to express your authentic self.
Read our accessibility and inclusion information to plan your journey to 66 Portland Place, London and also view virtual tour of the building.
This event takes places across several floors in the building with the main activity in the Florence Hall and Jarvis Lecture Theatre. These are both accessed via the stairs or passenger lift only (Lift dimensions: Width 0.75m x Depth 0.90m x Height 2.15m).
If you are a wheelchair user you can let us know your wheelchair dimensions on booking or email us at events@riba.org.
If you would like to discuss your attendance and inclusion and/or access needs to attend the event comfortably, please get in touch at events@riba.org.
