Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang has been named Architect of the Year at the Women in Architecture awards, with Gabriela Etchegaray winning the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture.

The judges heralded the duo for demonstrating “excellence in design and a commitment to working both sustainably and democratically with local communities.”

While the judges particularly praised the architects for their social and commercial work, both have also designed a number of bold leisure buildings. Gang has recently completed a high-profile performing arts centre in Chicago and is developing a US$325m (€298.7m, £211.1m) cave-like expansion for New York’s American Museum of Natural History.

Etchegaray, with her studio Ambrosi Etchegaray and the GMexico Mine Company, is designing cultural plazas and sports infrastructure in local communities throughout Mexico.

Also celebrated at the 2016 awards were French architect Odile Decq, winner of the Jane Drew Prize, and Julia Peyton-Jones, who has received the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize.

The former accolade is awarded to a figure whose commitment to design excellence has raised the profile of women in architecture, while the latter recognises individuals working in the wider architectural industry who have made a significant contribution to the built environment.

Decq – the designer of the Fangshan Tangshan National Geopark Museum in Nanjing, China – was described as “a creative powerhouse, spirited breaker of rules and advocate of equality.” Meanwhile, Peyton-Jones was celebrated for the accessibility and “incredible global impact” of her annual Serpentine pavilion project in London – which will this year feature the first UK structure of Bjarke Ingels Group.

Previous winners of the Architect of the Year award include Mecanoo’s Francine Houben, who will be interviewed in the forthcoming issue of CLADmag.

The Architecture Review is the organiser of the awards, which were founded to promote equality and the role of women in the industry. The publication recently released a survey which showed that many women working in architecture have experienced discrimination, harassment or victimisation during their career.