MADELON VRIESENDORP, Hon FRIBA Hon AA Dip, was born in 1945 in Holland. In 1964 she studied in Amsterdam at the Rietveld Academy and later worked on the restoration of old frescoes and as a designer of stage costumes, books and jewellery. Five years later she enrolled at Central St. Martins School of Art in London. She exhibited her work at the Workshop and the Serpentine Gallery, among others. 

In 1972 she moved to Ithaca and then New York. While in New York, Vriesendorp co-founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture with Koolhaas, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis. Paintings she produced at the time were used for book and magazine covers, notably Flagrant Delit on the cover of Delirious New York in 1978 by Rem Koolhaas. 

Over the last ten years she has worked in collaboration with Charles Jencks, producing drawings and models to accompany many of his publications, and with her daughter, Charlie in Room for Thought in Lausanne’s Lucy Mackintosh Gallery in 2012, and on several books and art projects.

She collaborated with Noemi Blager, Tapio Snellman and Assemble on Lina Bo Bardi: Together, which went on a worldwide tour from 2012 – 16, starting in London and ending up in Sao Paolo, funded by Arper. Again with Assemble, she worked on the Colombo Art Biennale in 2016.

In June 2017 the Architectural Association awarded her an Honorary Diploma ​“in recognition of her extraordinary contribution to the imagination of architecture.”

Winner of the 2018 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, awarded by The Architects’ Journal and The Architectural Review, London, ​’18. Paul Finch remarked: ​‘Madelon Vriesendorp is a rarity: a true artist who has a deep understanding of architecture and its protocols, and whose observant and witty work has provided a thoughtful visual counterpoint to the world of bricks and mortar.’