An engineer, not an architect, is this year’s Sir John Soane Medal recipient. Hanif Kara—the go-to structural engineer for Zaha Hadid Architects, David Chipperfield, Herzog & de Meuron, Norman Foster, BIG, Grafton Architects, and Francis Kere—is the prize’s 2024 winner dolled out annually to individuals making notable contributions in their field.
Kara was born in Uganda in 1958. He founded his structural engineering firm, AKT II, in 1996. Since then, Kara’s worked on numerous high-profile commissions including four Stirling Prize–winning projects.
“I am delighted to be awarded this year’s Soane Medal. Soane used his work and collection to inspire future generations of builders and designers, something I hope to continue through my own work,” Kara shared in a statement.
“The scale of ecological, economic and social challenges we face today requires a transdisciplinary approach,” Kara continued. “It is impossible to solve the problems we face without interdisciplinary collaboration and thinking. Only through curiosity and continual enquiry—questioning practices and norms—will we find the solutions that are so urgently required.”
The selection committee chose Kara for myriad reasons, including his dedication to mentorship as professor at Harvard GSD, and thought leadership in the field of adaptive reuse. Kara’s philosophy that he calls “advanced reverse design” is at the core of his practice, an innovative approach to reducing construction’s carbon impact.
“With his enthusiastic championing of interdisciplinary collaboration, outspoken advocacy of reuse and material innovation, and generous mentorship of emerging architects, Hanif is the very embodiment of the medal’s values,” David Chipperfield said of the engineer.
“He operates as a true consultant, always interested in defining and expanding the ambitions of a project and understanding the evolution of design as a participatory process,” Chipperfield continued. “Hanif is an ever-present contributor to the architectural debate, and as we better understand the evolving and complex responsibilities of our profession, his example is more important than ever.”
Hanif joins a list of prominent architectural and design figures who were named past recipients, among these Anne Lacaton and Jean-Phlippe Vassal, Denise Scott Brown, and Kenneth Frampton.
The Sir John Soane Medal will be officially presented to Kara on November 26 at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.
