Gold Medal
Sean Godsell
The Gold Medal is the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour. It recognizes distinguished service by architects who have designed or executed buildings of high merit, produced work of great distinction resulting in the advancement of architecture, or endowed the profession in a distinguished manner. The 2022 recipient of the Gold Medal is Sean Godsell.
Godsell’s body of work, publications, exhibitions, and speaking and teaching engagements have been accoladed in Australia. But for a small-practice architect who has completed a relatively modest number of dedicated projects, his level of international recognition is unparalleled. Godsell’s work has contributed significantly by expressing, on a global stage, an architectural response to Australia’s unique landscape.
Godsell was born in Melbourne in 1960 and graduated with first-class honours from the University of Melbourne in 1984. He spent much of 1985 travelling in Japan and Europe, and worked in London for Denys Lasdun from 1986 to 1988. In 1989, he returned to Melbourne and,in 1994, formed Godsell Associates Pty Ltd Architects.
He obtained a master of architecture degree from RMIT University in 1999, with a thesis titled “The appropriateness of the contemporary Australian dwelling.” His work has been published in many of the world’s leading architectural journals, including The Architectural Review (UK), Architectural Record (US), Domus and Casabella (Italy), A+U and GA Houses (Japan), Detail (Germany), Le Moniteur (France) and Arquitectura Viva (Spain).
In 2003, Godsell received a citation from the
