Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, of O’Donnell + Tuomey - Gandon Medal, 2025

On 19 November, 2025, the RIAI awarded its lifetime achievement award, the RIAI Gandon Medal, to architects Sheila O’Donnell FRIAI and John Tuomey FRIAI for their outstanding contribution to architecture in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

Having established their practice O’Donnell + Tuomey in Dublin in 1988, Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey have left an enduring legacy with a human-centred architecture that celebrates local and historic context, while positively impacting our social and cultural infrastructure. A major housing project by the practice is Timberyard on Dublin’s Cork Street.

They have delivered educational buildings for world-leading academic institutions – including the London School of Economics and the CEU campus in Budapest – while clients in Ireland include TCD, UCD, UCC, ATU/Letterfrack and St Angela’s College Cork. They are currently completing Liverpool University’s new School of Architecture and TU Dublin’s impressive Academic Hub on the Grangegorman campus. They won their first RIAI Gold Medal for the Ranelagh Multidenominational School.

O’Donnell + Tuomey have created iconic homes for renowned cultural institutions such as The Photographers’ Gallery London; the Glucksman in Cork; Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, the Irish Language Cultural Centre, Derry and in Dublin’s Temple Bar the IFI, Gallery of Photography and National Photographic Archive. The RIAI awarded a rare second Gold Medal to the practice for the Lyric Theatre Belfast. 

In 2015, O’Donnell + Tuomey, working with Allies and Morrison, won the international design competition for a new cultural and residential quarter at the site of London 2012 Olympic Games, now the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It is one of the most ambitious urban renewal programmes in Europe and represents the biggest ever cultural investment by the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, with support from the British Government and the four Olympic boroughs.

O’Donnell + Tuomey are delivering three major projects for East Bank, including the 2025 completed dance theatre Sadler’s Wells East, which the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan described as a “fantastic example of what we will achieve as we build a better London for everyone.” In 2026, the practice will complete the new V&A East museum, while a new residential tower, The Prow, is currently at detailed design stage.

Speaking at the award of the Gandon Medal to O’Donnell + Tuomey, RIAI President Sean Mahon FRIAI said:

Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey have, over the past 40 years, produced some of the most thoughtful, inventive, and culturally engaged architecture, consistently demonstrating a deep respect for context and craft, balancing intellectual rigor with poetic sensitivity.

Their work in Ireland and abroad illustrates that buildings are not isolated objects, but active participants in the making and remaking of place. It allows us to reflect on how great architecture can foster connections between past and the present, between buildings and streets, and, above all, between people and the places they inhabit. Further, their commitment to teaching, writing, and mentoring has shaped generations of architects in this country and beyond. It is a great honour to award them the RIAI’s highest individual honour, the Gandon Medal.

Receiving the award, Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey said:

We feel honoured to receive this award. It means so much to us, after four decades in practice together, working closely with many colleagues down the years, to see the collective efforts of our studio so generously recognised by our peers. We believe in the poetical and practical purpose of architecture. Architects play a strategic role in shaping the world we all share.

About O’Donnell + Tuomey

O’Donnell + Tuomey is a studio-based architectural practice, with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland and London, UK. Committed to the craft and culture of architecture, they have worked on numerous urban design, cultural, social and educational projects and have a reputation for engagement with complex urban situations and sensitive landscapes. They have completed schools and universities, theatres and cinemas, community centres and social housing, art galleries and libraries in Ireland, the UK and Europe. They have exhibited six times at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Winners of more than 160 awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, their buildings include The Glucksman, Cork; Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, the Irish Language Cultural Centre, Derry; the LSE Student Centre in London; The Photographer’s Gallery in London; and the Central European University, Budapest. Forthcoming projects include the Academic Hub at TU Dublin’s Grangegorman campus, Liverpool University School of Architecture and the Culture House Swords.

The practice has also realised three experimental projects – Hedge Theatre, Stone Vessel and Passage House – in collaboration with the renowned Irish furniture designer Joseph Walsh and on the site of Joseph Walsh Studio in Fartha, County Cork, Ireland. 

For more details on O’Donnell + Tuomey, see odonnell-tuomey.ie and @odonnell-tuomey.