A RENOWNED Winchester architect has been recognised for her achievements in the field with a coveted award.

Kate Macintosh won the 2024 AJ100 Contribution to the Profession award after topping a poll of AJ100 practice employees.

Previous winners include Peter Barber, Grafton Architects founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, Pooja Agrawal of Public Practice and Zaha Hadid.

Ms Macintosh, 87, of West End Terrace, West Hill, studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and worked for Denys Lasdun on the National Theatre before moving into the public sector with the London Borough of Southwark. Here, while still in her 20s, she designed her tour-de-force, the landmark Dawson’s Heights in East Dulwich, south-east London.

Later, at the London Borough of Lambeth, she completed the celebrated sheltered housing development of 269 Leigham Court Road. Now Grade II listed, it has been renamed Macintosh Court in her honour. Like Dawson’s Heights, which includes a mix of differently sized family units, the scheme succeeds on both an architectural and social level.

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Kate Macintosh with her award (Image: Contributed)

After moving out of London, Ms Macintosh designed many civic buildings for East Sussex and Hampshire county councils, including schools, fire stations, playgrounds and social housing.

Ms Macintosh was presented with her award at the AJ100 gala event on Friday June 21 in London. 

She said: “It's very thrilling. I keep on campaigning in defence of social housing. There are increasing challenges around demand to cater for the housing needs of poorer people and public servants.”

On the ceremony itself, Ms Macintosh said: "It was very celebratory. It was so gratifying to see so many young women in the industry. It's about a 50/50 split now of male and female architects.

"When I started my career in 1961, there were only about four percent of women. 

"However, women have a bigger drop-out rate now because of the culture of working long hours and the costs of childcare. In Scandinavia, there are more female architects because childcare is cheaper." 

Established in 1995, the AJ100 survey is the definitive annual record of the UK’s largest architecture practices measured by the number of architects employed in the UK.