Rahel Belatchew Lerdell was appointed Architect of the Year by receiving "Det Stora Formpriset" (Swedish for "The Great Design Award") from "Residence", the most influential design magazine in Sweden.
"The jury, chaired by Residence's Editor-in-Chief Mårten Nilehn, recognized that some authors write the same book over and over again or return to the same character year after year. And some architects return to the same forms in an on-going greatest hits collection. Rahel Belatchew Lerdell does not belong to them. If you want to be a trademark, a Frank Gehry, a superstar who signs his or her autograph in steel and concrete against the metropolitan skylines, it is an advantage to have certain characteristics and manners that are easy to distinguish.
Another way to create a trademark is to deliberately try to drown your own attributes and creative tics, and start every building project from a blank sheet of paper. In which case a personal undertone is most often maintained, and for Rahel Belatchew Lerdell it is a certain continental elegance that shines through her buildings. They could as easily be situated in Paris as in Stockholm.
As a Swedish version of Herzog & de Meuron she surprises with all her projects. Her architecture has got that certain something that you recognize when you see it but which is very hard to capture -- our age. Rahel Belatchew Lerdell's design is contemporary and lasts long."
"I am delighted and honoured, and especially pleased about the jury's motivation that captures the essence of my work where I try to avoid the most obvious repetitions, and instead aim to identify the uniqueness within each project," commented Rahel Belatchew Lerdell.