Belgian architect receives prestigious international prize
Marie-José Van Hee, a Belgian architect, has been awarded the prestigious Alvar Aalto Medal.
First awarded in 1967, the medal was founded “to honour creative architecture.” The jury considers her work to be “beautifully understated, relevant, rooted in place.”
One of her most famous buildings is the ModeNatie building in the heart of Antwerp, home to the fashion museum. So are her own House Van Hee in Ghent and House HdF in the Netherlands.
Van Hee learned the tricks of the trade at the St. Lucas school of architecture in Ghent (in the province of East Flanders), graduating in 1974. She started her own practice nearly three and a half decades ago.
She has also given back to the school where it all started for her, serving as professor of Architectural Design from 1991 to 2015, after which she had a stint as visiting professor at ETH Zurich.
A woman to learn from! Congratulations to Marie-José Van Hee for this important recognition of a remarkable career.