The renowned Irish architects Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey have received the 2015 Royal Gold Medal, the world's most prestigious architecture award. Given in recognition of a lifetime's work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty The Queen and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence "either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture."
"We're delighted to have been chosen for this unexpected honour," Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey commented. "We're humbled to find ourselves in such a company of heroes, architects whose work we have studied and from whose example we continue to learn. We believe in the social value and the poetic purpose of architecture and the gold medal encourages us to prevail in this most privileged and complicated career."