Boris Johnson scoops RIBA honorary fellowship

Johnson was among 14 well-known names given the prestigious title today including dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and Civic Trust Awards boss Malcolm Hankey.

His mayoral predecessor Ken Livingstone landed a FRIBA five years ago.

The RIBA Honorary Fellowships are given out annually to people thought to have made a ‘particular contribution’ to architecture.

Other winners this year included City of London chief planning officer Peter Rees, former CABE chief executive Richard Simmons and RIBA British Architectural Library assistant director Robert Elwall.

RIBA president Angela Brady said: ‘Each of this year’s Honorary Fellows has made an enormous contribution to architecture, whether as a practitioner, designer, curator, writer or policy maker.

‘The RIBA values everything that they have brought – in their very different ways – to the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the world of architecture. I look forward to presenting them with their Honorary Fellowships in February.’

RIBA international fellowships were also awarded to Momoyo Kaijima and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto of Atelier Bow-Wow in Japan; Carlos Ferrater of Office of Architecture in Barcelona, Spain; Sou Fujimoto of Sou Fujimoto Architects, Japan; Germany’s Anna Heringer; Switzerland’s Christian Kerez and Francisco Mangado of Spain.

This year’s honours committee was chaired by Brady and included architects David Adjaye, Yvonne Farrell, Niall McLaughlin, Sarah Wigglesworth, and Terence Conran.