Michael Hopkins

Sir Michael Hopkins is one of the leading international practitioners of high-tech architecture. Through his continuous re-evaluation of design solutions and his contribution to the debate about the delicate relationship between modernity and tradition he has developed into one of the most sensitive exponents in Northern Europe of architectural practice in both historic centres and the landscape.
Since 1976, the year his studio was founded, his work was characterized by a sophisticated use of glass and steel in residential and industrial buildings that followed the principles of the radical modernists and as well as being in the forefront of technology.
In the mid Eighties Hopkins changed emphasis onto what he called the ‘updating of the traditional materials’. This influenced the second generation of his projects such as the Mound Stand, Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, the Queen’s Building, Emmanuel College in Cambridge, the Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham and above all Portcullis House, the building for the British Parliament in London.
For Hopkins, progress is no longer a break with the past but rather an act of continuity where he deftly and intelligently integrates traditional elements such as stone and wood, with advanced and environmentally responsible technology.
 
Sir Michael Hopkins will receive the Laurea ad Honorem in Ingegneria Edile (Building Engineering) by the Poliecnico di Torino on the 9th of November 2006 in Turin.
 
Cristina Donati studied architecture at Florence University where she graduated in 1989 and gained a ‘dottorato di ricerca’ (Ph.D) in contemporary architecture in 1999.
After her degree, she moved to the UK and lived in Oxford where she worked freelance for international architectural magazines. She currently teaches the course of “Theories of Architecture” for the Florence Program of Kent State University, College of Architecture and Environmental Design.