2012 Fellows - Royal Architectural Institute of Canada

Edward Cullinan
Honorary Fellow
RIBA Royal Gold Medallist Ted Cullinan is an inquisitive, inventive and passionate
composer and maker of buildings. He was educated at Cambridge, the Architectural
Association and Berkeley. He trained with Denys Lasdun where he designed the
student residences at the University of East Anglia before setting up his own
practice in 1959. While teaching at Cambridge in 1965, he established Edward
Cullinan Architects as a co-operative.
Ted has taught and examined extensively in this country and abroad, being
awarded five Professorships: Banister Fletcher Professor at the Bartlett (1978-79),
Graham Willis Visiting Professor at Sheffield (1985- 87), George Simpson Visiting
Professor at Edinburgh (1987-90), Visiting Professor at MIT (1985), and currently
at the University of Nottingham. He has been awarded honorary doctorates at
the Universities of Lincolnshire and Humberside (1996), East London (2000) and
Sheffield (2001).
Ted received a CBE in 1987 for services to architecture, and was elected a Royal
Academician in 1989 and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of
Architects in Scotland in 1995. In 2005, he achieved a Special Commendation:
Prince Philip Designers Prize, for his outstanding achievement in design. In 2008,
he was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in recognition of a lifetime’s work in
architecture and in 2010 the RSA made him a Royal Designer for Industry. He has
been an active trustee of Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Construction Industry for
Youth Trust, the Building Experiences Trust and the Koestler Award Trust for art
in prisons.
Ted’s tenacious commitment in striving for excellence in design continues to
inspire our practice. He delights in trying out design ideas through the handson
experience of construction. With the help of friends and students, Ted has
designed and built six houses, including Gib Tor Farm as a family retreat in north
Staffordshire.
18