Four Irish studios announced winners in prestigious Architecture MasterPrize awards that honour designs in the disciplines of architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture.
Lead pic: Peter Molloy
The Architecture MasterPrize celebrates the creative thinking and execution of ideas from practices across the globe.
Considered the Oscars of the architecture and design worlds, the 2025 event featured entries from 72 nations – the cream of each country represented.
All the winning projects are listed on the website, and you can see how the three Irish names that won five awards demonstrate global standards of excellence and are deserving winners.
The three names are architectural practice O'Donnell + Tuomey, Róisín Lafferty and Max Fedorov.
O'Donnell + Tuomey’s award was in the architectural design category, for its contribution to cultural architecture with its Sadler’s Wells project.
The practice has offices in Dublin, Cork and London.
In the interior design category, Lafferty and Fedorov won gongs in the residential interior and hospitality interior sections.
Fedorov’s hospitality win was for his work on the Grindstone Coffee shops at Bolands Mills and Dublin Landings through his Dublin practice, Third Mind Design.
His second award was for his own home, Casa Rose, through Rain Ann Design, which he runs with his wife Emily and which has offices in Dublin and the Algarve, Portugal.
Lafferty’s wins were in the same categories as Fedorov’s.
The Montenotte Woodland Suites (MWS) in Cork won a hospitality interior award, while Infinity House, a coastal Georgian villa transformed with modern additions, won a residential interior award.
Dublin Design Studio did the architecture on Infinity House, while Henry J. Lyons was the architectural practice behind MWS.
The same firm recently completed Dion, the much-talked-about restaurant in the sky on Central Plaza on Dublin’s Dame Street.
A booking here is the hottest ticket in town right now.
Lafferty won a best of the best award in the 2023 ceremony for The Farm project through Kingston Lafferty.
Expect more great things from Lafferty in 2026.
A designer whose work has already graced the pages of Architectural Digest, four different editions of Elle Decoration, Dezeen, Living Etc., Vogue Living, Marie Claire Maison and Living Corriere, her new appointment-only studio on Fitzwilliam Square is a showcase of her talents.
Her paint collection, Prestige by Fleetwood, is also on the walls in the Georgian property, and there will likely be more collaborations in the next 12 months.
To date, Fedorov’s profile has been more low-key.
But international judging panels have already noted his talent.
The Wellington, a previous Dublin 4 project, garnered an honourable mention in the MasterPrize 2024 awards.
Architectural practice O’Donnell + Tuomey has been garnering accolades for its thoughtful work since Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey set up business in 1988.
This year alone, it won the RIAI Award for house/office for its architect’s office and the RIAI Gandon Medal, a lifetime achievement award for its contribution to Irish, British and European architecture.
Their MasterPrize win is for Sadler’s Wells dance theatre in London.
The organisation is dedicated to dance in all its forms.
The Irish firm worked on an additional mid-scale space in East London, as part of a new cultural and education district in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Sadler’s Wells East involved the regeneration of a former industrial brownfield site with its saw-tooth roofline taking inspiration from local warehouses and factories.
The building provides a dedicated, flexible space for contemporary dance in London and houses a theatre and six choreography studios.
It includes a choreographic school, hip-hop academy, and an L-shaped public ‘living room' with a community dance area.
It aims to foster creativity and community engagement, with a focus on new dance work, education and local access.
