Dezeen Magazine

Sadie Morgan awarded OBE in Queen's New Year's Honours

Jamie Fobert, Peter Saville and Sadie Morgan recognised in Queen's New Year Honours list

Architect Jamie Fobert and graphic designer Peter Saville have received CBEs in the New Year Honours 2020, while designer Sadie Morgan and design advocate Hilary Cottam received OBEs and Forensic Architecture's Eyal Weizman has been made a MBE.

Canadian-born British architect Fobert, who designed the cliffside extension to the Tate St Ives, has been made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE), in the Queen's biannual honours programme, which "recognises the outstanding achievements of people across the United Kingdom".

Sunk into the side of a Cornish cliff, the Tate St Ives extension was shortlisted for the 2018 RIBA Stirling Prize. Fobert also designed an extension for a Kettle's Yard, an art gallery in Cambridge.

Jamie Fobert is made CBE in the New Year Honours List
Jamie Fobert has been made a Commander of the British Empire. Photo by Laura Pannack

Graphic designer Saville was also made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE). Saville, who won the London Design Medal in 2013, is best know for designing covers for bands including Joy Division, Roxy Music, Pulp and Suede.

English designer Morgan, who is co-founding director of architecture studio dRMM, has become an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the advocacy of design in the built environment, and British-Israeli architect and founder of Forensic Architecture Weizman has been made a Member of the British Empire (MBE).

Design advocate Cottam has also awarded an OBE for services to the British welfare state and British car designer Gerry McGovern received an OBE for services to automotive design.

Cottam, who was named a UK Designer of the Year by London's Design museum in 2005, is the author of Radical Help: how we can remake the relationships between us and revolutionise the Welfare State, while McGovern is the current chief creative officer of car brand Land Rover.

RIBA Stirling Prize 2018 Shortlist
New Tate St Ives by Jamie Fobert Architects with Evans & Shalev. Photo by Nick Hufton

Fobert founded his eponymous practice in 1996, after working for David Chipperfield, and has designed residences for artists including Anthony Gormley and Christopher Le Brun. He is a trustee of The Architecture Foundation and Camden Arts Centre.

In 2002 the practice created the display for The Upright Figure exhibition in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, installing sheets of hot-rolled steel on the walls and floors to display sculptures by Gormley and Rodin.

Fobert has also worked on iconic British retail projects, including designing the shoe gallery for Selfridges department store and built a new stone floor for the Burlington arcade.

Hastings Photograph is by Francesco Montaguti

Morgan is known for her often innovative projects designed as part of dRMM, including Hastings Pier, which won the Stirling Prize in 2017. She has also held leadership roles on several national bodies including being design chair for rail line High Speed Two and commissioner of the government's National Infrastructure Commission.

Morgan is also the current professor of professional practice at the University of Westminster and was the president of London university the Architectural Association between 2013 and 2015.

"Having dedicated my career to promoting design integration within UK projects at every scale, this recognition validates and gives tangible credence to the value I believe great design can bring to a country," said Morgan.

"I am beyond honoured."

Morgan founded dRMM in 1995 with Alex de Rijke and Philip Marsh. The studio is best known for its Stirling Prize-winning Hastings Pier. It has been nominated for the Stirling Prize two further times, first for its extension to Clapham Manor Primary School in 2010 and then in 2016 for its Trafalgar Place housing at Elephant and Castle in London.

"My career has been defined by collaboration – I am grateful to my fellow directors, colleagues, and team for their collective spirit, talent, and shared desire to elevate the importance of design."

"I am also thankful for the support I receive from my family and friends, who have constantly reinforced my drive to promote gender diversity at every level within this great industry."

Forensic Architecture is using footage of the Grenfell Tower Fire to help the enquiry

Weizman is professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, where he founded the Centre for Research Architecture. In 2010 he set up Forensic Architecture, an agency that uses architectural skills to investigate claims of human rights violations.

Forensic Architecture has done research for Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors without Borders (MSF), the Red Cross (ICRC), and the United Nations. It has done work defending a human rights organisation against allegations of colluding with people smugglers, as well as investigating ethnic cleansing by ISIS in Iraq.

Its investigators have also put together a 3D video model of the 2017 Grenfell Tower Fire using donated smartphone footage to help the ongoing enquiry into the disaster.

In 2018, Forensic Architecture was shortlisted for the Turner Prize for its wrap-around film, The Long Duration of a Split Second, which pieced together the events of a fatal Israeli police raid on the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran.

The Queen's New Year Honours are awarded each year in December, in addition to the Birthday Honours in June. Other people recognised in the design field include architect Phillip Jones who was awarded an OBE for services to architecture and decarbonisation and KLC School of Design principal Jenny Gibbs who was warded an OBE for services to higher education and the interior design industry.

Last year John Pawson become a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), while David Adjaye received a Knighthood in 2017.