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Fall 2016 Honorary Degree Recipient

Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)

Australian architect and teacher Glenn Murcutt's ecologically sensitive house designs have earned international acclaim and inspired legions of architects around the world to consider landscape and the environment as essential elements in the architectural process. Although he has worked primarily on private homes in Australia over his more than 50 years in the field, Mr. Murcutt’s influence has spread beyond borders, thanks in part to his extensive teaching and lecturing abroad.

Mr. Murcutt was born in London, England in 1936, to Australian parents. He spent the first five years of life in Papua New Guinea before his parents moved the family to Sydney, Australia. Following a diploma in architecture from the Sydney Technical College, Mr. Murcutt set up his own private practice in 1969.

Working as a sole practitioner has provided Mr. Murcutt the freedom and control to experiment with wind patterns, materials, light and climate, and to cater projects to clients’ needs and their ecological surroundings. By paying attention to such details, he has been able to design houses that respond to their unique Australian environment and climate. His homes are built using materials manufactured with as little energy as possible and designed to operate with the same principle in mind.

Among Mr. Murcutt’s dozens of awards are some of the highest honours in his field, including Finland’s Alvar Aalto Medal and the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal. He was also the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2002, widely regarded as the Nobel Prize of the architecture world.