The UIA Gold Medal and Prizes are awarded, every three years, during the International Union of Architects world Congress. The UIA Prizes are honorary. They were created in 1961, to give recognition to professionals whose merits, talents and activities place them on the international scene. In 1984, the UIA Council decided to create a Gold Medal, to honour an architect having distinguished himself through his work and professional practice, through the quality of his realisations and commitment in favour of communities, society and the artof architecture. The UIA Member Sections select the candidates for these honours.

UIA GOLD MEDAL
In creating this medal, the UIA wished to endow it with a prestige equal to that of the Nobel Prize in the artistic, scientific and social fields. It is the supreme honour that the UIA can award, the highest distinction that an architect can receive from his fellow architects.

UIA PRIZES
The four UIA Prizes each carry a specific theme and are dedicated to the memory of the Union’s first presidents.

• Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize, for town planning and territorial development
• Auguste Perret Prize, for applied technology to architecture
• Jean Tschumi Prize, for architectural criticism, research or education
• Sir RobertMatthew Prize, for the improvement of settlements

VASSILIS SGOUTAS PRIZE
The Vassilis Sgoutas Prize was first launched in 2008, on the initiative of the UIA Past President whose name it carries. It is designed to highlight actions or realisations by architects that contribute efficiently to the struggle against misery in communities living below the poverty line. Two prizes are awarded: an individual prize and a collective prize.

AWARDS CEREMONY AT THE UIA CONGRESS TOKYO 2011
Candidatures selected by UIA Member Sections for the UIA Gold Medal, the UIA Prizes and the Vassilis Sgoutas Prize 2011 will be submitted to an international jury composed of the UIA Bureau members at a meeting on 11 April 2011, in Nianjing, China. The results will be officially at the awards ceremony, during the 24th World Congress of Architects in Tokyo, Japan, on 27 September 2011.

See the list of all the recipients of the UIA Gold Medal and UIA Prizes