Meet the visionary young architect who's reshaping London, one project at a time

If you first came across Jayden Ali through his blockbuster show designs, such as ‘Fashioning Masculinities' at the V&A in London in 2022, or even earlier in 2021, when we profiled him among the most exciting emerging London architects, and thought these might have been his beginnings in terms of architectural output, you'd be wrong. Ali had been entrenched in architectural thinking long before the world ‘discovered' his work, and his practice was formalised as a business in the traditional sense.

From his restless teenage explorations in constructing stories and space to his ever-present political lens and his desire to create moments of gathering, the east London-born architect has always been interested in cities and how urban space is created. ‘Who makes cities?' he had asked while still at college, and after trying his luck with work experience at a council planning office, his maths teacher found him a two-week stint at architecture studio Allies and Morrison. He never looked back. Preparations for the London 2012 Summer Olympics were in full swing, and experiencing that placemaking process and the creative energy on his home turf proved to be a formative experience. Ali went on to pursue architecture, studying at Leeds and the University of East London, before setting up his studio, JA Projects, in 2017, soon after graduating.

Still, 2020-2021 was a pivotal time for him. While he had been working for some time at that point, ‘the post-Covid era has correlated with an injection of energy into the studio,' says Ali from his home in north London, a converted old stables that he recently bought with a view to redesigning it. ‘I was taking a step back from teaching [at Central Saint Martins] at that time. But there was a slow progression, a slow move towards what I do now for a long time before that,' he continues. ‘I feel proud of the stuff we do and the way we do it. It's incredible to have the range of projects that we do. They have this special quality; they are deeply creative, deeply inventive, and in some moments, relatively prestigious, but they always have this social justice underpinning them, which is really grounding. And it's not lost on me that I'm an east London school kid, in my soul. That's kind of amazing.'

He is being incredibly modest. Ali brings a dynamism and welcome optimism to his architecture practice. He is open, approachable and warm – ready to share a drink and chat about life, as much as about work. He is also politically attuned and open to questioning everything, which makes him perfectly placed to take on a challenge with fresh eyes. One of his early built projects was the redesign of The Cherry Trees, a school for boys with complex behaviour difficulties in the east London suburb of Bow, where he worked as a youth play worker until 2015. When the head teacher suggested they were looking to remodel, Ali threw his hat in the ring. He won the commission, and his design, The Barn, based on his analysis of the existing experience, led to a significant decrease in major incident reports at the school. His moves seemed simple – fewer corridors, more connections with the outdoors. The results were dramatic.

All this was before Ali had even completed his Part II architectural training. Was he naive about taking it on so early in his career? ‘I still live in that world of naivety all the time,' he says. ‘That's how you get things done.' He credits winning ‘Fashioning Masculinities' in 2020 with helping his studio come out of a slow period. He was working at Central Saint Martins, and his desire to build a team led him to work out how many staff he could afford to pay from his salary. He didn't pay himself for two years to help JA Projects grow. It was a smart gamble, as the studio skyrocketed and Ali was soon announced to be part of the team (alongside Joseph Henry, Meneesha Kellay and Sumitra Upham) to curate the British Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Their contribution to the world's biggest architectural festival was awarded a Special Mention for National Participation.

The exhibition presentation for ‘Nike: Form Follows Motion' at Germany's Vitra Design Museum followed in 2024. More recent projects include the reimagining of Camberwell Station Road in south London, realised in close consultation with local schoolchildren and the area's community in 2025; Queen's Market and Square, the redesign of an important public space in Newham later the same year; and the architectural concept for 2026 Matter and Shape in Paris' Jardin des Tuileries. He's been serving as one of the London mayor's design advocates since 2022, and is part of a team, led by Allies and Morrison, reimagining Regent Street and the surrounding areas. JA Projects is specifically responsible for leading the Piccadilly Circus redesign, which is currently ongoing. It's hard to imagine a more high-profile open-space project in London.

Ali's portfolio is varied, but upon closer inspection, a theme emerges. His designs always have strong roots in their context – not merely physically, but in a broader sense, as they are born not simply from their list of requirements and briefs, but importantly, from the conditions and people that form the universe around them. It's a tricky and intangible balance, but he pulls it off. His projects feel permeable as they spread out, inviting the city in, reaching out for connections in all directions. This is true in most of his work, from the Nike show (‘the openness here comes from drawing on popular references,' he says) to his urban realm work in London and his most recent completion in the capital, the V&A East Museum's permanent ‘Why We Make' galleries, which open in April in Stratford in a building designed by O'Donnell + Tuomey.

JA Projects worked with creative studio A Practice for Everyday Life and artist Larry Achiampong to craft the gallery spaces over two floors, dedicated to both creativity and young people. Ali's work not only aims to bring to the fore timely and important topics, such as representation and identity, but also to draw in the area's local communities, opening up to the surrounding streetscape and all its people and uses. ‘We want 16 to 24-year-olds to feel comfortable walking in and spending time here,' he says.

Despite its broad output, Ali's Southwark studio remains on the smaller side, with a staff of ten, but it is agile, ambitious and international. He recently expanded his teaching activities to the US, taking on the post of visiting professor at Columbia University in New York, an experience that he feels constantly enriches his practice – also, ‘about 50 per cent of our revenue in the past four years has been international,' he says. It may not have been the plan from the get-go to be where he is, but it's not an accident either. ‘I'm really a follow-the-energy type of person,' he says. ‘I like to be in dialogue with others.'

His projects may not bear an obvious, common aesthetic language, but, ultimately, they are all about creating the architecture that holds the life you want. ‘My favourite architects are multifaceted world builders, the Steve McQueens of the world,' says Ali. ‘There are people who make physical things, who make digital things, who rally people around stories and hold a mirror up to the way we live, and help us to live in different ways. Architecture is a really big vessel that can hold a lot of elements.'

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