Alvar Aalto Medal 2024 awarded to Belgian architect Marie-José Van Hee
Jef Jacobs
The triennial international award was presented at the Alvar Aalto Symposium to an architect whose work was described by the jury as sensitive, considerate and humane. Marie-José Van Hee is the first female recipient of the prestigious award.
The fifteenth Alvar Aalto Medal has been awarded to Belgian architect Marie-José Van Hee. Her body of work covers a wide range of projects from private houses to public spaces and cultural buildings. Van Hee's works beautifully emphasise respect for architecture, nature and handicraft, as well as an understanding of traditional and folk building methods.
“Marie-José Van Hee’s work shows a consistently sensitive, contextual, and finely crafted approach. Her architecture is rooted in its context and the surrounding landscape – not only reflecting but contributing to a Flemish local vernacular over the course of her career. Her work is characterised by a beautifully understated command of natural materials, light and proportions, producing quiet, intimate spaces, designed around daily life,” the Medal jury said in its statement.
The Alvar Aalto Medal was presented to Marie-José Van Hee at a ceremony in the University of Jyväskylä’s main building on 22 August, coinciding with the Alvar Aalto Symposium. Van Hee is the first woman to receive the Medal in recognition of her personal accomplishments as an architect.
Human-scale spaces that encapsulate human warmth
To counteract today’s torrent of media images, the Alvar Aalto Medal jury wanted its choice to highlight buildings and spaces that touch visitors both physically and emotionally.
“Van Hee's work is universal and highly personal. It is beautifully understated, relevant, rooted in place. Her ability to translate a sense of place is rare. Her buildings contain sensitively choreographed spaces with carefully considered choices for movement. Her spatial intuition fuses with a forensic understanding of human needs. Central to her work is the constant recognition of the human scale spaces where people feel good,” says Jury Chair Yvonne Farrell in the jury statement.
‘I’m honoured and humbled to be awarded the Alvar Aalto Medal. I would like to thank the selection committee for their appreciation of the work and everyone who helped me achieve it. I was fortunate to experience several of Aalto’s buildings in Finland and France about ten years ago. His architectural language remains close to my heart, a silent influence and source of inspiration,” Van Hee says.
Marie-José Van Hee (b. 1950) graduated as an architect from Ghent’s Sint-Lucas School of Architecture in 1974. In 1990, she established her own practice in Ghent. Van Hee was Professor of Architectural Design at her alma mater (1991–2015) and Visiting Professor at ETH Zurich (2016–2017). Until 2022, she was a guest critic and lecturer at universities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland. Van Hee’s best-known works include the Fashion Museum “Modenatie” (2003) in Antwerp, her own home, House Van Hee (1998), and House V-D (2020) in Ghent, and House HdF (2011) in Zuidzande, the Netherlands. Van Hee has received several Belgian and international awards for her work.
An exhibition of Marie-José Van Hee’s work will open on 7 February 2025 at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum in Helsinki. The exhibition will be shown at the Aalto2 Museum Centre in Jyväskylä in the following autumn.
The medal designed by Academician Alvar Aalto and bearing his name was founded in 1967 to honour creative architecture. It can be awarded to any living person who has significantly distinguished themself creatively in the field of architecture. The Alvar Aalto Foundation, the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum, the Finnish Society of Architecture, the Association of Finnish Architects and the City of Helsinki award the internationally esteemed prize every three years.
The winner of the Alvar Aalto Medal 2024 was chosen by a jury including Professor Sharon Johnston (Johnston Marklee & Associates, Los Angeles) from the USA; architect Finn Williams (Public Practice, Malmö) from Sweden; and architect and journalist Tarja Nurmi and architect Erkko Aarti (AOR Architects) from Finland. The jury was chaired by architect Yvonne Farrell (Grafton Architects, Dublin) from Ireland. Read more about the Alvar Aalto Medal and the 2024 jury through this link.
