Sadie Morgan and Jamie Fobert land New Year Honours

Sadie Morgan and Jamie Fobert are among the big-name recipients of New Year Honours from the design and architecture profession.

Fobert, whose eponymous practice is Building Design’s 2019 Architect of the Year, has been awarded a CBE in the 2020 honours while Morgan, who co-founded Stirling Prize-winning practice dRMM and won this year’s inaugural AYA Female Architectural Leader award, receives an OBE.

Fobert’s CBE comes in recognition of “services to architecture” and follows the shortlisting of his practice’s Tate St Ives for the 2018 Stirling Prize, as well as plaudits for Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.

Morgan’s honour came in recognition of “services to the advocacy of design in the built environment” and follows a range of high-profile appointments – such as being design chair for HS2 – and dRMM’s 2017 Stirling Prize win for Hastings Pier.

Morgan, who is also professor of architecture and cities at the University of Westminster, said she was “beyond honoured” with the award.

“Having dedicated my career to promoting design integration within UK projects at every scale, this recognition validates and gives tangible credence to the value I believe great design can bring to a country,” she said.

Cardiff University’s chair of architectural science and the Low Carbon Research Institute Phillip Jones also received an OBE for “services to architecture and decarbonisation”.

Elsewhere, Bethnal Green Memorial architect Harry Paticas, of Arboreal Architecture, was awarded an MBE for “services to the community” in east London for the project, which won three RIBA awards in 2018 and is also known as Stairway to Heaven.

Eyal Weizman, who is founding director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, also received an MBE for services to architecture.

Across the wider design and development sector, Peter Freeman, who co-founded King’s Cross developer Argent with brother Michael in 1981, was awarded a CBE for services to housing and communities.

In addition to Argent, Freeman is a director and investor in Mayfields Market Towns, which is promoting a 7,000-home new town in Sussex.

Paul Harbard, co-founder of developer Pocket Living was awarded an MBE for services to “innovative housing delivery” and charity.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s director general for housing, planning and building safety Jeremy Pocklington was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for public service.

National Planning Policy Framework policy lead Michael Bingham received an OBE for services to planning.

The Cabinet Office said a total of 1,097 people received an award in the latest list, more than half of them female. It added that 9.1% of the successful candidates come from a BAME background; 11% describe themselves as having a disability; and 3.3% identified as being LGBT+.