At an award ceremony last night, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) presented fourteen new Honorary Fellowships.

Fellowships were recieved by men and women from a wide range of backgrounds, including art, engineering, health, journalism and the environment.

Honorary Fellowships reward the particular contributions people have made to architecture in its broadest sense: its promotion, administration and outreach and its role in the nation's cultural life and progress towards sustainability. The lifetime honour is conferred annually.

The RIBA's 2009 Honorary Fellows are:

• Peter Ackroyd – writer
• Stephen Bayley – architecture and design critic
• Loren Butt – mechanical engineer
• David Fisk – engineer
• Michael Ingall - developer
• Doreen Lawrence - supporter of architecture and founder of the Stephen Lawrence Trust
• Laura Lee – client and oncology nurse, involved in developing Maggie's Centres
• Duncan Michael – engineer
• Jonathan Porritt - environmentalist
• Allain Provost – landscape architect
• Andrew Scoones – supporter of architecture
• Richard Sennett – writer
• James Turrell – artist
• Madelon Vriesendorp - artist

RIBA President Sunand Prasad, said: "This year's RIBA Honorary Fellows form a distinguished list and I am delighted to welcome them into the Institute.


"In addition to being highly influential and inventive within their respective fields, they have had a significant impact on the architectural profession and I am very much looking forward to working with them over the coming months to marry their work with that of architects."

This year's RIBA Honorary Fellows jury was chaired by the President of the RIBA, Sunand Prasad and made up of: Peter Davey OBE, writer, Sir Jeremy Dixon, Dixon Jones Ltd, Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, Columbia University, Despina Katsikakis, DEGW; Pankaj Patel, Patel Taylor and Jane Wernick Hon FRIBA, engineer.

At the ceremony the RIBA also presented one of the world's most prestigious architecture prizes, the Royal Gold Medal for architecture, to Alvaro Siza.

The 2008 International Fellowships will also be awarded to seven non-UK architects and partnerships who have made an outstanding contribution to architecture.

2009 marks the 175th Anniversary of the RIBA. In celebration of this milestone, the RIBA has commissioned a poem by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, which will be unveiled at this evening's ceremony.

(GK/JM)