Well-known Australian architect Philip Cox was recently honoured with an international fellowship by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The lifetime honour is given every year by RIBA in recognition of the contributions made by non-UK architects to architecture. Cox was one of 12 architects to receive the honour this year.

Described by the jury as “the doyen of Australian architecture”, Cox was presented with his international fellowship recently at a special ceremony in London.

The citation noted: “His career has spanned the range of late-twentieth-century architecture from rustic early houses of the ‘Sydney School’, via hi-tech to tensile structures. Nowadays Cox’s practice employs more than 350 staff and has completed projects in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, China and South-East Asia where he has designed the Helix Bridge and the Marina Bay Promenade, both in Singapore, and the Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.”

Cox co-founded Ian McKay and Philip Cox Architects in Association in 1963 before establishing his own firm, Philip Cox and Associates (now Cox Architecture), in 1967. Past honours for Cox include the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Gold Medal awarded in 1984; the RAIA Life Fellowship in 1987; Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects in 1987; and an Order of Australia for services to architecture in 1988.

Recipients of RIBA’s 2017 Life Fellowships also include Johan Celsing (Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor, Sweden), Izaskun Chinchilla (Izaskun Chinchilla Architects, Spain), Frederick Cooper (Cooper Graña Nicolini Architects, now CGGMS architects, Peru), Tom de Paor (dePaor, Ireland), Francisco Vieira de Campos and Cristina Guedes (Menos é Mais, Portugal), Bijoy Jain (Studio Mumbai, India), Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf (Helen and Hard, Norway and Austria), Vo Trong Nghia (Vo Trong Nghia Architects, Vietnam) and Marie Jose Van Hee (MJose Van Hee Architecten, Belgium).

Past Australian recipients of RIBA International Fellowships include Peter Stutchbury (2016) and Richard Leplastrier and Peter Wilson (with Bolles and Wilson partner Julia Bolles) (2015).

Image: Philip Cox (Photo: Cox Architecture)