Architects awarded top British honour

One of Richard Leplastrier's designs, Angophora House, Sydney. Photo: Michael Nicholson

A Sydney architect credited with being "the key philosophical influence" behind much of Australia's best architecture today has become one of two Australians to receive Britain's highest architectural honour.

Richard Leplastrier and Melbourne-born Peter Wilson will receive Royal Institute of British Architects International Fellowships in London next month. The pair are the only Australians to be awarded the prize since its introduction in 2011.

Leplastrier is lauded internationally as one of the world's leading architects recognition achieved despite his aversion to media and publicity, and a body of exquisite little-seen and 'humble' residential work.

Richard Leplastrier, one of the country's most awarded architects. Photo: Andrew Goldie

"This is a great honour for Rick, who is respected around the world for the humanitarian qualities of his work and teachings," close friend and fellow architect Peter Stutchbury said. "He's devoted his life to an architecture in which people are worth more than buildings, to a philosophy of responsibility."

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Despite being Australia's second most awarded architect, the 75-year old 'national living treasure' remained as humble as his work, Stutchbury said. Glenn Murcutt remains the country's most awarded.

Leplastrier is celebrated for creating buildings and spaces that respond particularly sensitively to their site and culture, as well as being one of the nation's most respected architectural educators, mentoring many of the profession's current crop of practitioners.

Announcing the honour, the Royal Institute said Leplastrier "provided the backbone of thinking and belief" of much of the best work seen in Australia, noting his "extraordinary apprenticeship with Jorn Utzon, with whom he worked at the time of the Sydney Opera House".

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Architects awarded top British honour