OBEs for Jane Duncan and Farshid Moussavi

Former RIBA president Jane Duncan and Iranian-born London-based architect Farshid Moussavi have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for their contribution to architecture.

Duncan, whose two-year term at RIBA’s helm ended in September last, was awarded an OBE for services to diversity in the architecture profession.

In a social media message on Saturday, she thanked colleagues and friends at RIBA “for making diversity happen” before adding “more still to achieve”. She also updated her Twitter description to incorporate the OBE.

Duncan was RIBA’s equality and diversity champion before she became president. She is now leading its work on the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Farshid Moussavi started her London-based but international-focused practice in 2011, since when it has completed projects such as the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art in the United States and a residential scheme in Paris’ La Défense district.

Moussavi earlier co-founded the Foreign Office Architects practice. She is also a professor of architecture at Harvard University and curated the architecture room at last year’s RA Summer Exhibition.

Elsewhere, Royal Academy of Arts chief executive Charles Saumarez Smith was awarded a knighthood for services to art, architecture and culture in the UK. Saumarez Smith was the client behind David Chipperfield’s recently completed expansion of the RA.

Aecom associate director Roma Agrawal was awarded an MBE for services to engineering.