Shiraz-born architect Farshid Moussavi awarded the 2026 Soane Medal

Farshid Moussavi, the Shiraz-born architect whose practice is based in London, has been awarded the 2026 Soane Medal, Architectural Record reports. The annual honour from Sir John Soane's Museum in London recognises work that has furthered understanding of architecture and its role in society. Moussavi will receive the medal and give the Soane Medal Lecture at the Royal Academy in London on November 24. She founded Farshid Moussavi Architecture in 2011 and is Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Her projects include the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, completed by her former firm Foreign Office Architects, the La Folie Divine apartments in Montpellier and the Ilot 19 housing in Paris. Her largest project to date, the Ismaili Center Houston, was completed in November 2025. The jury, led by architect Amin Taha, cited nearly four decades of work across practice, teaching and writing, and her attention to the people who use buildings rather than to spectacle. Moussavi has written four books, among them Architecture and Micropolitics (2022). Earlier medallists include Denise Scott Brown, Kenneth Frampton and Rafael Moneo. Photo: Columbia GSAPP, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.