British-Iranian architect, educator and writer Farshid Moussavi has been awarded the Jane Drew Prize for Architecture 2022, an award recognising an architectural designer who, through their work and commitment to design excellence, has raised the profile of women in architecture.

Moussavi was a co-founder of Foreign Office Architects, famous for the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal which opened in 2002, and founded Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA) in 2011. The practice’s works include the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland as well as two housing projects in France – Îlot 19 in Nanterre from 2016 and La Folie Divine in Montpellier a year later – and is currently working on the Ismaili Center Houston, due to complete in 2024.

It is a very great honour for me to receive the Jane Drew Prize, which has done so much to draw attention to the achievements of women in the field of architecture,’ Moussavi said. ‘There are relatively few role models for women in architectural practice and I believe that this allows them freedom to be more creative in responding to the urgent challenges facing architects today, whether these challenges are finding new and more generous uses for buildings, as well as new languages in which to engage a larger and more diverse public, or addressing climate change to protect future generations.’

The lack of a prescriptive style is Moussavi’s strength. Ambivalent about role models but interested in gender and difference as much as in detailing and micropolitics, Moussavi is resolutely turned towards the future and she will continue to surprise us.