The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 34 winning projects of its RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2026 (from a shortlist of 52), recognising the world's best new architecture across 15 countries. From a carbon-neutral furniture factory in Norway to a performing arts centre inside one of the world's largest refugee settlements in Uganda, this year's cohort reflects the full breadth of what architecture can achieve when it rises to meet the challenges of our time. All of the winners are now in contention for the prestigious RIBA International Prize, to be announced at a ceremony in London on 15 October 2026.

Several themes run through this year's selection, which serves as a snapshot of the concerns and ambitions that define architecture in 2026.

Breathing new life into old structures

One of the most striking threads is the imaginative reuse of existing buildings. In Kristiansand, Norway, Mestres Wåge, Bax and Mendoza Partida have transformed a former grain silo into a contemporary art museum, Kunstsilo. In Berne, BHSF Architektur & Städtebau's Transformation Warmbächli converts a disused Chocolat Tobler warehouse into cooperative housing.

David Chipperfield Architects and Arquitectonica have reimagined a historic Shanghai neighbourhood as Rockbund, a new cultural district. And in Jingdezhen – China's porcelain capital – two abandoned ceramic factories have been reborn as the Taoxichuan Ceramic Culture Industrial Park, by Jie Zhang, Beijing An-Design Architects and THUPDI.

Designing for a changing climate

Climate-responsive design has always been central to good architecture, but it carries particular urgency in 2026. In Courthézon, France, Studio Mumbai and Studio Méditerranée’s Château de Beaucastel winery relies entirely on natural airflow and shade for cooling. Parikrama by Spasm Design Architects, in Nandgaon, India, uses shaded walkways and natural ventilation to counter intense regional heat. On Australia's exposed coastline, Wardle's Burnt Earth Beach House uses handmade terracotta to create a resilient, multi-generational family home.

In Ho Chi Minh City, VTN Architects' Urban Farming Office wraps its façade in greenery – cooling the building while also growing food in the urban core. Perhaps the boldest sustainability statement of all comes from Norway, where Bjarke Ingels Group's The Plus is a carbon-neutral furniture factory and public park built from local timber, which cuts energy demand by up to 90 per cent through solar power and rainwater harvesting.

Architecture in service of community

Several winners demonstrate architecture's capacity to strengthen the communities it serves. Hassell's Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre brings a dedicated cultural space to the Yumbe District of Uganda, home to one of the world's largest refugee settlements. In Sydney, Fjcstudio's Darlington Public School weaves indigenous heritage into a contemporary learning environment. Woha's Brac University in Dhaka transforms a former landfill into a vibrant, climate-conscious campus. And Schmidt Hammer Lassen's Shanghai Library East reimagines the public library as an open, connective landscape which functions as a gathering place for the city while housing 4.8 million books.

Awards group chair Neil Gillespie captured the spirit of the selection: ‘These projects demonstrate a confidence in architecture's ability to create delight and dignity while working within existing constraints – whether environmental, social or economic. Rather than relying on spectacle, they show the value of thoughtful, enduring design that is rooted in context and capable of enriching everyday life.’

The Riba International Prize shortlist will be announced ahead of the ceremony on 15 October.

Smiljan Radić Clarke has won the 2026 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The prestigious accolade, widely considered one of the highest honours in the global architecture community, marks the celebrated Chilean architect as the 55th Pritzker laureate – following architects such as Liu Jiakun (Pritzker Prize 2025), Riken Yamamoto (2024), and David Chipperfield (2023).

Smiljan Radić Clarke: 2026 Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate

When we profiled the architect in 2014, on the occasion of his Serpentine Pavilion reveal, he told us he sees his work as fluid and mindful – 'I am not a creator of new shapes,' he said. It is a quality the 2026 Pritzker Prize also highlights, underlining the architect's flair for flexibility and experimentation. Tapping into the power of the human experience and his own ability for empathy and a 'quiet emotional intelligence,' as the Pritzker team aptly puts it, his designs are responsive to site, environment and need.

His work is, unsurprisingly, equally varied, spanning the Restaurant Mestizo (Santiago, Chile 2006), Pite House (Papudo, Chile, 2005), and Chile Antes de Chile, the extension of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art (Santiago, Chile, 2013). He has also created the winery for VK retreats in Millahue, Chile (2014) and his own home studio, Pequeño Edificio Burgués (Santiago, Chile, 2023).

'Architecture exists between large, massive, and enduring forms – structures that stand under the sun for centuries, waiting for our visit – and smaller, fragile constructions – fleeting as the life of a fly, often without a clear destiny under conventional light. Within this tension of disparate times, we strive to create experiences that carry emotional presence, encouraging people to pause and reconsider a world that so often passes them by with indifference,' Radić said at the Pritzker news release.

The 2026 Pritzker Prize jury said in its citation: 'Through a body of work positioned at the crossroads of uncertainty, material experimentation, and cultural memory, Smiljan Radić favours fragility over any unwarranted claim to certainty. His buildings appear temporary, unstable, or deliberately unfinished – almost on the point of disappearance – yet they provide a structured, optimistic and quietly joyful shelter, embracing vulnerability as an intrinsic condition of lived experience.'

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The RIBA International Awards 2026 shortlist has landed, unveiling a truly global celebration of architectural excellence. The biennial award's list contains 52 projects, hailing from a whopping 18 countries and five continents.

Who made the RIBA International Awards 2026 shortlist?

The award candidates represent a broad range of architectural typologies, from cultural and public spaces to education work, housing and infrastructure. The projects range from a grain silo-turned-art museum in Norway, Kunstsilo, to a mosque in Bangladesh and from a post-hurricane infill housing model in Mexico – Kon-tigo – to Paris' biggest timber-framed structure, Wood Up.

Meanwhile, many of the world's most well-known contemporary architecture practices feature in the list, including David Chipperfield Architects (UK/Germany), Foster + Partners (UK), Snøhetta (Norway/USA), Hassell (Australia), WOHA (Singapore) and Studio Mumbai (India).

Neil Gillespie, Awards Group Chair, said: 'The RIBA International Awards for Excellence celebrate incredible diversity and creativity across the world. These projects show how architects can respond to complex social, cultural, and environmental challenges, from revitalising communities and preserving heritage to pioneering sustainable and technologically innovative solutions. They demonstrate the power of architecture to connect people, strengthen identity, and create inclusive, resilient places for future generations.'

The winners will be announced on 11 June 2026.

The RIBA International Awards 2026 shortlist

• Architects' Studio, O'Donnell + Tuomey, Dublin, Ireland
• Beijing Library, Snøhetta, East China Architectural Design & Research Institute, Beijing, China
• Beijing Performing Arts Center, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, and Perkins & Will, Beijing, China
• Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre, Hassell, Yumbe District, Uganda
• BRAC University, WOHA, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Burnt Earth Beach House, Wardle, Anglesea, Australia
• Chapel of Music, Vector Architects, Qinghuangdao, China
• Château de Beaucastel, Studio Mumbai & Studio Méditerranée, Courthézon, France
• Church of the Living God, Angelo Candalepas and Associates, Hurstville NSW, Australia
• Darlington Public School, fjcstudio, Sydney, Australia
• Dokebi Platform, Plot Architects, Seoul, Korea
• DY Patil Centre of Excellence, Foster + Partners, Maharashtra, India
• Foreign Language School Affiliated to Longhua Academy of Educational Sciences, Unitinno Architectural Technology Development Company Limited, Shenzhen, China
• Gold Creek, Brian Steendijk, Glenn Murcutt in collaboration, Brookfield, Brisbane, Australia
• Green Hill (transforming closed technological industrial remains into an open and shared ecological complex), Tongii Architectural Design (Group) Co, Ltd, Shanghai, China
• House of Memories, Studio Gravitas in collaboration with Eleemente & Bodh Design Group, Tumkur, India
• Jingyang Camphor Court, Vector Architects, Jingdewzhen, China
• KinderKunstLabor, Schenker Salvi Weber, St. Pölten, Austria
• Kon-Tigo, Manuel Cervantes Estudio, Guerrero, México
• Kunstsilo, Mestres Wåge, BAX, Mendoza Partida, Kristiansand, Norway
• Mezcal Production Palenque, Estudio ALA I Armida Fernández and Luis Enrique Flores, Jiquilpan de Juárez, Michoacán, México
• Monospinal, Makoto Yamaguchi Design, Taito-ku, Japan
• Multi-Disaster Reduction Engineering Complex, Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co, Ltd Jiading District, Shanghai, China
• Nedarag Guesthouse, Next Office [Studio of Architectural Research & Design], Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran
• Oh Ho Residence, Play Architecture, Bangalore, India
• Parikrama, Spasm Design Architects, Nandgaon, India
• Ras Houses, Sanjay Puri Architects, Ras, Rajasthan, India
• Revitalization of Village Heritage in Yong’an Village, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Dali City, China
• Rockbund Shanghai, David Chipperfield Architects (Historical Buildings), Arquitectonica (New Buildings), Shanghai, China
• Royale Belge, Caruso St John Architects and Bovenbouw and Architectuur with DDS+, Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels, Belgium
• School at Joram, Arunachal Pradesh, India, Studio Advaita, Joram village, Arunachal Pradesh, India
• Service Station Under Wuning Road Bridge, Suzhou Creek, Atelier Z+, Shanghai, China
• Shanghai Library East, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, Shanghai, China
• Shenzhen Energy Ring, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, Gottlieb Paludan Architects, Shenzhen, China
• Sondara Gurukulam, Studio Advaita, Domri, Dist Beed, India
• Štvanice Footbridge in Prague, Petr Tej, Marek Blank and Jan Mourek, Atelier Bridge Structures, Prague, Czech Republic
• Taoxichuan Ceramic Culture Industrial Park, Jie Zhang, Beijing An-Design Architects, THUPDI, Jingdezhen City, China
• Tenjincho place, Hiroyuki Ito Architects, Tokyo, Japan
• Terra Cotta Workshop, Tropical Space, Quang Nam, Viet Nam
• The GEAR, KAJIMA DESIGN, Singapore, Singapore
• The Plus, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Magnor, Norway
• The Porter House Hotel, Angelo Candalepas and Associates, Sydney, Australia
• The White Renovation, Olgoo Architects, Tehran, Iran
• Transformation Warmbächli, BHSF Architektur & Städtebau, Zurich / Munich, Berne, Switzerland
• Urban Farming Office, VTN Architects, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
• West Wusutu Village Community Center in Hohhot, Inner Mongolian Grand Architecture Design Co., Ltd., Hohhot, China
• Wood Up – 132 housing units, a climbing gym and a neighbourhood café in Paris 13th, LAN - Local Architecture Network, Paris, France
• WVDM Living Lab, Maker architecten, Brussels, Belgium
• Yaoli Village Courier station, SuiPingYiLi Architecture Studio, Nanping, China
• YIMBY (Yes In My BackYard) – social and urban infill project, MAKER architecten, Kortrijk, Belgium
• Z33, Francesca Torzo Architetto, Hasselt, Belgium
• Zebun Nessa Mosque: A Spiritual-Social Space between Land and Water, Saiqa Iqbal Meghna / Studio Morphogenesis Ltd., Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh

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It’s an unprecedented time for the Smithsonian, the constellation of American museums and research institutions that includes beloved sites such as the National Portrait Gallery and the National Zoo. Last year, under an executive order titled ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,’ President Donald Trump took direct aim at the Smithsonian, prohibiting ‘programmes that degrade American values’ – particularly when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is proving that diversity, across medium, discipline and geography, is precisely what makes design in the US so exceptional. Today (25 February), the New York-based museum announced its 2026 National Design Awards, one of the most prestigious honours in America's creative fields. This year’s group of ten honourees work in all scales – their fields ranging from architecture to typography; clothing to computational research – and hail from places as far-flung as Mexico City and the Appalachian foothills.

Each honoree, selected by a jury chaired by Aric Chen, director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, will be honoured at a gala in New York this May, in time for America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

Get to know this year’s winners below.

Design Visionary: Robert Earl Paige

Chicago-based artist Robert Earl Paige has taken home the Cooper Hewitt’s Design Visionary award, an honour that recognises ‘an individual, company or organisation that has made a profound contribution to advancing the field’.

Before Paige was an artist, he worked in the Chicago office of SOM. But corporate architecture wasn’t for him, so he moved into product and fashion design for various companies, including, notably, Sears, where he introduced mainstream consumers to colourful African-inspired accessories and decor. Paige is a pioneering figure in the Black Arts Movement and is today known for his joyful mixed-media works, which he creates from his studio on Chicago’s South Side.

Climate Action: UCSD Community Stations by Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman

The National Design Award for climate action is bestowed to practitioners who are at the forefront of the global climate crisis. This year, it goes to Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman, both professors at the University of California, San Diego, who developed a network of civic ‘stations’ on each side of the US-Mexico border wall. Each space is located in a low-income neighbourhood and seeks to spark dialogue about resiliency and climate change.

Emerging Designer: Mattaforma

Each year, the Cooper Hewitt recognises a designer who demonstrates ‘profound talent in the early stages of their career’. This year, that honour goes to Lindsey Wikstrom, founder of the New York-based practice Mattaforma. The studio works at the intersection of architecture, policy and sustainability, with a particular focus on sustainability through innovations in mass timber, plants and other plant-based materials. Mattaforma’s projects range from elegant desert residences to greenhouses, including a space for plants at the Brooklyn-based performance space, Public Records.

Architecture: Frida Escobedo Studio

Since establishing her studio 20 years ago, Frida Escobedo has not only established herself as one of the most influential architects working in Mexico, but also in the world, through projects that range from a new wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to the renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Her Mexico City and New York-based studio is known for its sensitive approach, leveraging elemental forms and organic materials found in her native Mexico, across projects spanning ground-up buildings and furniture as well as research, publications and exhibition design.

Communication Design: Thought Matter

In addition to built work, the National Design Awards also recognises innovation in ‘information sharing, messaging and overall communication’. This year, the award for Communication Design goes to Thought Matter, an independent New York-based design studio led by designers Tom Jaffe and Jessie McGuire. Working under the tagline ‘We believe imagination is a radical act’, Thought Matter has used design not only to create impactful brand messaging for big-name clients, like Procter & Gamble and The Met, but also as a political tool, through campaigns promoting free speech and social justice. ‘We believe in design as a force for connection, collaboration and questioning the status quo – a force that inspires people to engage, reflect and act,’ the studio says.

Digital Design: Laura Kurgan

The Cooper Hewitt’s award for digital design goes to ‘an individual or firm for the innovative design of digital products, environments, systems, experiences and services’. This year, that’s Laura Kurgan, a digital designer whose work leverages data visualisation and cartography to expose inequality. Through pioneering uses of tools like GIS, Kurgan, who was trained as an architect and is currently a professor at Columbia GSAPP, has shed light on pressing topics including mass incarceration, migration and urban violence. Her work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Fashion Design: Josh Tafoya

If you think of the style of the American Southwest, you typically think of cowboy details like fringe, pearl buttons and plaid. Textile artist Josh Tafoya, the recipient of the National Design Award for fashion design, is challenging those notions through the lens of his Genizaro, Spanish and Chicano heritage. Tafoya cut his teeth in New York, but returned to Taos, New Mexico to launch his own label, mixing techniques learned from his grandmother, a weaver, with a contemporary sensibility. According to the Cooper Hewitt, Tafoya’s work is notable for ‘celebrating cultural heritage while embracing a raw, grungy spirit’.

Interior Design: Charlap Hyman & Herrero

Since founding their firm in 2014, Adam Charlap Hyman and Andre Herrero have become one of the most talked-about names in interior design for their deeply researched yet surrealist approach to space. With offices in New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City, the firm’s work is decidedly interdisciplinary and spans everything from buildings to sets and a ruffled doghouse slipcover. Especially notable are Charlap Hyman & Herrero’s interiors for private residential clients and labels, including Thom Browne, Batsheva and Aesop. ‘Through a rigorous creative process, the firm poetically engages with memory and the hidden histories of interiors, while producing radically striking, distinctly contemporary spaces,’ the Cooper Hewitt says.

Landscape Architecture: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects

Every year, the Cooper Hewitt spotlights a landscape architect for their ‘meaningful contributions to the integration between the built, urban and natural environments’. Award-winning Austin-based firm Ten Eyck Landscape Architects (TELA) fit the bill this year. The firm was founded by Christine Ten Eyck, who was inspired to start her own practice after a memorable rafting trip down the Colorado River. TELA has since focused on how water conservation, native plants and man-made design can work in tandem. The firm’s work enhances college campuses, private residences and public parks for clients, including the San Antonio Botanical Garden and the Hotel Saint Augustine in Houston. ‘Our approach evaluates landscape through a holistic lens, creating environments that are historically and ecologically sensitive while fostering a resilient and accessible future for all who inhabit them,’ the firm says.

Product Design: Berea College Student Craft

Berea College, based in Kentucky’s famed Bluegrass region, has the distinction of being the first co-educational and interracial college in the South when it was founded 170 years ago by abolitionist Reverend John G Fee. Central to its mission was craft, in keeping with its rich Appalachian heritage, an ethos that is maintained today through its Student Craft programme. Today, students are given design training and the opportunity to test and develop their own products, which results in some 4,000 items each year, ranging from blankets to instruments to pottery, which are released to the public in small-batch ‘drops’.

Irish architect Níall McLaughlin has been awarded the 2026 Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), recognising his positive impact across architectural thinking, writing and education. During a career of more than 30 years, McLaughlin’s work within architecture’s religious, educational, health and housing contexts has attracted consistent praise – he was honoured as a Royal Academician in 2019, and a Stirling Prize winner in 2022.

Níall McLaughlin is awarded the 2026 RIBA Royal Gold Medal

'A humble visionary, his dedication to architecture as an art and professional practice has left an enduring mark on the discipline – one that will undoubtedly transcend trends and time,' remarked RIBA president Chris Williamson, chair of the award jury, which also included 2025 Royal Gold Medal recipient Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA.

Reflecting on his body of work in an interview with Wallpaper*, McLaughlin explains, 'I think what binds these buildings together is this need for architecture to create meaning for communities, and to help hold communities together through framing their communal experience. A building is the frame that allows that community to thrive.'

For McLaughlin, who studied architecture in Dublin and established his own practice in London in 1990, the key to this is empathy, an emotion and skill that he believes defines the origin of architecture. His process is grounded in listening and research, which enable him to then imagine and craft a ‘world’ of moments for an individual, which speak to the humanity shared by a community.

His own immense personal curiosity enables him to observe the world far beyond its physical qualities. He translates the abstract sensations of daily rituals, as much as his memories of transcendent historical architecture, into buildings to share with others.

When designing the Bishop Edward King Chapel in Oxford (2013), he materialised the grounding yet uplifting sensation of flying a kite. When designing The New Library for Magdalene College in Cambridge (the Stirling Prize 2022 winner), he imagined how walls can disappear around you under the magic of a good book.

'Empathy and intersubjectivity are absolutely central to our discipline, you have to have the confidence to imagine a world for other people, and at the same time, a degree of humility,' he says, which lies in accepting the limitations of empathy.

While working on the Alzheimer’s Respite Centre in Dublin (2011), McLaughlin spent ten years trying to understand the experience of people with dementia. It was impossible to comprehend, yet the emotive weight and scientific knowledge of trying resulted in an exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2016, 'exploring the extraordinary miracle of how we place ourselves in space and time'.

'Other people might not experience the world the way that I do, but you can test that through the design process,' he says. 'We [architects] have to hold a very broad and diffuse range of desires, needs, aspirations and problems together, and make something coherent out of the maze of information that’s produced by any project.'

Rather than impose his own ideology on that information, he allows ideology to emerge from those insights. 'I think of practice as an ordinary activity, and theory as a rumination of that activity that is often a hard-earned lesson, because it’s engaged with the world.'

For McLaughlin, teaching provides that necessary balance between practice and theory. He has held the position of professor of architectural practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, for more than 25 years. With the complexity, high stakes, and often adversarial conditions of construction today, he describes how this engagement, as well as maintaining a fulfilling, positive culture for his students and employees, is essential.

In the face of today’s complexity, McLaughlin returns to the 'basic little molecules of interaction that help build communities'. In a visit to Darbishire Place (2014), the Peabody housing estate in London’s Whitechapel (nominated for the 2015 Stirling Prize), he might quietly observe parents in their daylight-filled, well-ventilated kitchens with one eye on their children outside in the playground. 'The interesting thing about architecture is that it is both subliminal and has a huge impact on our ability to thrive.'

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When Africa Hall opened in Addis Ababa 64 years ago, it was unlike anything the Ethiopian capital had seen. Notably, the sweeping modernist complex, designed by Italian architect Arturo Mezzedimi, had no fences. That simple design gesture symbolised the building’s role, contributing to an open and unified continent as the headquarters for the UN Economic Commission for Africa and as a critical player in the formation of the African Union.

‘Today … the peoples of Africa can, at long last, deliberate on their own problems and future,’ Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, observed at the time.

Over the decades, like many structures of the age, Africa Hall fell into disrepair. Following a $60 million, decade-long restoration led by Australian firm Architectus that was completed in 2024, the building was meticulously restored to serve as an emblem of progress once again. Today the renovation has received what is considered the top honour in the realm of preservation – the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize.

The award, a joint initiative of the World Monuments Fund (WMF) and Knoll, is granted every two years to extraordinary projects that safeguard threatened modernist buildings. Past honorees have included a once-abandoned concrete residence in Argentina; a crumbling French school dedicated to Karl Marx; and even a bus station in Preston, UK.

The prize, said Bénédicte de Montlaur, president and CEO of the World Monuments Fund, was created to ‘highlight exemplary preservation efforts around the world. The renewal of Africa Hall by Architectus embodies this mission, honouring the original architect’s vision while ensuring the building can continue to serve as a vital place for cultural exchange and African unity.’

Between 2014 and 2024 Architectus worked carefully to preserve the building while transforming it into a contemporary hub for diplomacy. In addition to addressing critical work like the building’s concrete structure, the firm restored decorative elements, including 13 million mosaic tiles, a dazzling 1,600 sq ft stained glass window by Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekle, and some 500 pieces of original, bespoke furniture.

The renovation also included important new upgrades, such as more seating for member states in the soaring Assembly Hall, updated AV and mechanical systems, as well as a new museum, visitors’ centre and café.

Africa Hall ‘stands as one of the most important expressions of modern architecture on the continent’, said prize jury chair and professor Barry Bergdoll. ‘The recent restoration has allowed the clarity of Messedimi’s design to speak again, revealing the ambition, craftsmanship, and symbolic power that have made the building a landmark of modernism and a continuing stage for African diplomacy.’

Architectus will receive the award, which comes with a $10,000 cash prize, at a special ceremony on 18 February 2026 during Modernism Week in Palm Springs, California.

The 2025 RIBA Asia Pacific Awards have been announced, marking the launch of the organisation's brand new accolade, entirely dedicated to excellence in architecture in the region. These honours follow hot on the heels of the – also new – 2025 RIBA Middle East Awards, which were published in November.

The inaugural RIBA Asia Pacific Awards and their ten categories were conceived to reward impactful, mindful architecture – and the winning schemes have just been revealed at a gala ceremony during the RIBA Architecture Festival Asia (RAFA) in Shenzhen.

The 2025 RIBA Asia Pacific Awards

RIBA president Chris Williamson said of the event: 'The RIBA Asia Pacific Awards celebrate the extraordinary creativity and leadership of architects across this dynamic region. The winning projects are diverse in scale and context but share a common goal: to design for people, place, and planet. They exemplify architecture’s power to tackle complex challenges and inspire meaningful change.'

The RIBA Asia Pacific Awards winners

Adaptive Reuse Winner & RIBA Member Award & Urban Regeneration Award: Taoxichuan Ceramic Culture Industrial Park

Created by Beijing An-Design Architects & THUPDI (Jingdezhen, China), this is an ambitious masterplan set in the heart of China’s 'porcelain capital'. The project cleverly mixes new builds with adaptive reuse to minimise its carbon emissions.

AI Powered Design Award: Rui Xue Multi-Hall

Rui Xue Multi-Hall is the work of China's Tongji University (Chengdu). A rural timber structure, it takes its cues from melting snow, blending craftsmanship with modern robotic fabrication.

Design for Living Award: House of Memories

This project is a collaboration between Studio Gravitas and Eleemente & Bodh Design Group (Karnataka, India). The multigenerational home was designed as a modern take to the traditional ‘Thotti Mane’ courtyard style.

Future Projects Award: Qianhai Museum

Set on Shenzhen's waterfront and designed by Architectural Design and Research Institute of SCUT Co (Shenzhen, China), the project represents a new cultural landmark for the city, spanning art, nature, and technology.

Mixed Use Award: CapitaSpring

The brainchild of Bjarke Ingels Group, led by Bjarke Ingels, CapitaSpring stands 280 meters tall in Singapore, offering an urban, vertical oasis. Its levels are home to more than 38,000 plants.

Social Architecture Award: West Wusutu Village Community Center in Hohhot

This scheme was conceived by Inner Mongolian Grand Architecture Design Co (Hohhot, China) and it brings a beloved beating heart to a small village – to be enjoyed by visitors of all ages.

Sustainability and Resilience Award: BRAC University

BRAC was designed by WOHA (Dhaka, Bangladesh) and transforms a former waste ground into a busy educational hub through a carefully layered design.

Temporary Architecture Award: Seaside Pavilion on Chai Shan Island

This waterside pavilion, created by GN Architects (Zhoushan, China), may not be a permanent piece of work, but it single-handedly breathes new life into a disused dock, swaying in the breeze and welcoming visitors.

The RIBA House of the Year 2025 has just been announced. The institute has been drip-feeding the seven nominated houses over the past few weeks, showcasing each design on the British TV show Grand Designs and building up to tonight’s big reveal; and the winner is Izat Arundell’s Caochan na Creige, a masterfully sited self-build house on a remote site in the Outer Hebrides.

Step inside the RIBA House of the Year 2025, a masterful self-build in the Outer Hebrides

Designed and built by architects Eilidh Izat and Jack Arundell for their own use, and developed along with local contractors and building materials, the house was the unanimous choice of the judging panel, chaired by architect David Kohn.

RIBA House of the Year 2025: Caochan na Creige by Izat Arundell

‘Caochan na Creige addressed every issue – challenging climatic conditions, the relationship to vernacular architecture and a tight budget – with a rare mixture of sensitivity and boldness,’ says Kohn.

Alongside Kohn were judges Gill Lambert of AOC, Amalia Skoufoglou of O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects and Livia Wang, creative director at Van Gogh House London.

‘[The house’s] enigmatic form, recalling large castles and defensive structures, belies its intimate scale,’ Kohn continues. ‘All these things make it an exemplary home which will have much to contribute to future debates around domestic architecture in rural contexts.’

The six other shortlisted houses for RIBA House of the Year 2025

Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects

The house, which was also shortlisted for this year's RIBA Stirling Prize (losing out to Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann) follows on from earlier domestic projects like the house reconfiguration in Peckham, south London.

An existing extension was replaced with a series of galvanised steel units that step the multi-terraced rear garden. Each of these new rooms is given large timber sliding doors, while the existing retaining wall is paired with a new concrete slab yet retains the scars of use over the centuries. It’s a series of interventions that enhances the original house without scouring the site of its history, with contemporary materials and details providing a strong contrast to what went before.

Triangle House by Artefact

Artefact Studio’s Triangle House, which Wallpaper* featured last year, is a playful but pitch-perfect take on the traditional suburban home. With an unprepossessing 1950s house as a starting point, the architects have extended the floorplan with a rear garden wing and created an explosion of colour throughout the rest of the property. Materials include triangular blue blocks and a warm yellow ceiling, with a specialist gardener creating an exterior planting scheme to add to the warm, tropical feeling.

Amento by James Gorst Architects

This new house by James Gorst and his team occupies a plot long earmarked by the owners as a place to downsize their empty nest. The brief called for a futureproof single-story dwelling that didn’t succumb to traditional bungalow iconography and could be adapted and occupied as the owners grow older.

Jankes Barn by Lynch Architects

From the exterior, this traditional barn in rural Essex looks much like it was before Lynch Architects undertook a sensitive but extensive restoration. The heart of this project is the original timber structure, which has been preserved and given fresh life as the focus of the full-height living space.

The architects retained the original barn doors, now framing a glazed screen, while restored elements are paired with new oak insertions. The latter are left squared off and new, unlike their time-worn counterparts, with timberwork overseen by local expert and master carpenter Dr Joseph Bispham.

Housestead by Sanei + Hopkins Architects

This experimental UK home was designed as a ‘laboratory for a living prototype’. Housestead, designed by Sanei + Hopkins (and also owned by the couple, who are partners in work and life), was conceived as the personal residence of studio co-founders Amir Sanei and Abigail Hopkins, and their family of seven. The project is idyllically set within the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), situated within the grounds of a generous, 400-acre estate.

London Brut by Pricegore Architects

This robust and handsome 1960s Chelsea townhouse has been given a modern makeover by London architects Pricegore, preserving the tough character of the original architecture and adding functionality, texture, colour and even an element of brutalist charm. Located in Chelsea, the modernist terraced house spent many decades under its original ownership before the current clients bought it in 2020. Pricegore was appointed to give the structure its first major overhaul since it was built by Morgan and Branch Architects.

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IzatArundell.com

Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen is named the winner of the 2025 Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS). The regeneration project, designed by Stallan-Brand Architecture + Design and LDA Design, is located in the heart of the city and proudly stands as an inclusive, cultural landmark.

Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen is 2025 Best Building in Scotland

It has been nearly 150 years since Union Terrace Gardens, a valuable open space for the city, first opened to the public, in 1879. The refurbishment project, which cost £28.3 million, injected verdant new life into the space.

New pavilions take on a lantern-like form, in a gentle nod to the city’s historic trams. Through the three pavilions, featuring a new café, a restaurant and a wine bar, visitors are invited, metaphorically, to explore the landscape. The restoration project also had a heavy emphasis on conserving the historic nature of the place. The architects made sure to restore statues, railings, arcade arches and Victorian toilets.

Union Terrace Gardens is situated at the heart of a cluster of cultural institutions, including Aberdeen Art Gallery, His Majesty’s Theatre and Aberdeen Central Library. The project has brought life back into the gardens, with architectural interventions such as accessibility and restored historic features creating an inclusive public space for all to enjoy.

This year's jury consisted of architect Mary Duggan (founder, Mary Duggan Architect), Richard Waite (news editor, The Architects’ Journal) and Gordon Murray (research and design consultant, Gordon Murray Architects), all of whom looked at the contending projects’ architectural integrity, usability and context, delivery and execution, and sustainability.

All building typologies are eligible for the annual award, and the 2025 shortlist was one of the most diverse in its history. Alongside Union Terrace Gardens, the shortlist featured a new road bridge in the Cairngorms, new facilities for the University of Edinburgh, and a restored historic tower house in the Highlands.

Architect Mary Duggan, who chaired the RIAS Doolan Award jury, says: ‘Union Terrace Gardens draws people in without intimidation: an open invitation that promotes a sense of community through a genuine public offering, and delivers precisely the opposite of what the space had become through years of neglect. Beyond its architectural and horticultural precision, the project is a demonstration of civic governance, endurance and responsibility.’

rias.org.uk

stallanbrand.com

lda-design.co.uk

If numbers were enough to inspire action, perhaps the Holcim Foundation Forum wouldn't exist. The stats around climate change are compelling. At the triennial global summit organised by the Swiss organisation this week (the foundation is a non-profit, supported by the global sustainable architecture materials company Holcim), a slew of experts in the environmental realm, from climate scientists and policy makers to architects and engineers, presented studies and projects that hope to move the needle when it comes to sustainable action across the board. Their research is powerful and necessary, and it brings evidence to the table that feels hard to refute.

Yet, humanity is slow to catch on. The first mention of the greenhouse effect was in the mid-19th century by German geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, as climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf reminded us during his opening keynote speech. Still, currently, temperatures are rising so fast that the increase during the last 100 years almost beats that of the entire past millennium; extreme rainfall is experienced more often than ever in recorded memory; and the rise in sea level has been accelerating since the 1980s, an urgent and site-appropriate concern considering the Holcim Foundation Forum took place in Venice, the Italian city known for its vulnerability to changes in the water behaviour and ecosystems of its lagoon site.

The Holcim Foundation Forum, and its awards, explained

Taking place in Venice in mid-November, coinciding with the closing of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, which tackles challenges in the same realm (curator Carlo Ratti recently discussed his takeaways with us), the Holcim Foundation Forum is a fascinating coming together. In its folds, some of the industry's brightest minds meet, exchange ideas and discuss the future of all things sustainable when it comes to buildings, cities and urban space. The event takes place every three years, culminating in the announcement of its Grand Prizes – five super-winners, one from each of five territories, chosen from the 20 projects honoured with the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 last month.

The creatives and scientists taking part are acutely aware of the world's urgent need for action, yet complex global systems and slow take-up when it comes to change are not helping bring the necessary environmental transformations fast enough. Chicago architect Jeanne Gang, who served as jury chair for the awards' North America territory (other chairs included Sou Fujimoto, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Sandra Barclay, and Lina Ghotmeh), highlights how important awards like these are to the profession and global developments in eco-sensitive design, too: 'Sustainability is a passion of mine. In fact, I won a prize one time myself, very early in my career.' (Gang was awarded by the Holcim Foundation in 2011 for her Ford Calumet Environmental Center in Chicago.)

'The projects [that enter the awards] always have multiple solutions for sustainability, but it's more about how [the architects] make it into a story about the project that is interesting, instead of just saying, “we did this” and then going through some checklist. It is about making the project relevant. And of course, all these are real projects that are going to be built. An award like this helps maintain those sustainability features. It also acknowledges new blood, as many emerging studios enter too.'

The jurors look at a large variety of works across huge chunks of the world (territories judged are Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa), comparing different scales and typologies and spotting innovation and new takes. Four key goals are highlighted: Healthy Planet, Thriving Communities, Uplifting Places, and Viable Economics. Was there an inspiring trend that jumped out to Gang in this judging cycle?

'Ten years ago, projects just had technical solutions to sustainability, like a building management system or photovoltaics, or air distribution. Now, these projects are much more connected to a bigger strategy, possibly because there's more of a focus on embodied energy, which means you have to think about where the materials come from,' she says. 'Also, they reached out to their communities, they connect to their sites and people. They link up to bigger systems; they are more holistic. It feels like a good place to be.'

Awards do make a difference, Gang stresses. 'It is really important for people to see the proof of the concept. I recently just finished the David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University, and it's just this glimpse into the future of how you do a totally mass timber project in an institutional setting. It's so important to have this demonstration, and then the next project is that much easier, and then it gets easier and easier.'

20 Holcim Foundation Awards for 2025

The Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 (we previously spoke to Asia Pacific jury chair Sou Fujimoto about the event's process and meaning) picked 20 winners from a truly diverse list. One winner, however, works particularly hard at inspiring change at multiple levels. Nigeria's Studio Contra was honoured for its Brookside Secondary School, an education project for students who board. It's for a private client, but a true passion project, explains practice co-founder Jeffrey Adjei.

Made out of clay bricks in a truly all-encompassing way (the same material in walls, floors and ceilings), the project becomes a showcase for building with brick, aiming to inspire and move construction fashions away from the region's current, environmentally heavier go-to, concrete. At the same time, by training builders and craftspeople to work with clay brick, the architects hope to bring new skills to the region – while showing the project's young users that beautiful and innovative things can also happen in their own country, instead of pushing them to look abroad for their future.

'For us, it's resuscitating a skill that's almost dying out in Nigeria,' Adjei says. 'It is a legacy project that we are using as a catalyst to bring back brick-making to this particular community. It is about sustainability in the broader sense.' The award comes at a critical stage, as works are about to commence, and such a recognition helps highlight the project's soul and global importance.

Holcim Foundation Grand Prizes – meet the 5 super-winners

• Asia Pacific: Old Dhaka Central Jail Conservation – Form.3 Architects (Bangladesh)
• Europe: Art-Tek Tulltorja – Rafi Segal A+U, Office of Urban Drafters, Org Permanent Modernity, Studio Rev (Kosovo)
• Latin America: Schools for Flood-Prone Areas – Andrade Morettin Arquitetos Associados, Sauermartins (Brazil)
• Middle East & Africa: Qalandiya: the Green Historic Maze – Riwaq – Centre for Architectural Conservation (Palestinian Territories)
• North America: Moakley Park – Soss Landscape Urbanism (USA)

Rafi Segal's post-conflict urban revival project in Kosovo's Pristina, an industrial space turned cultural and entrepreneurial hub, was among the Grand Prizes this year. Set in an old brick factory, Art-Tek Tulltorja has the potential to become a true catalyst for urban change, the European jury highlighted. It also fully responds to the brief for sustainable change and imaginative approaches, the Holcim Foundation flagged.

'This year’s Grand Prize winners turn constraint into capability,' explained Laura Viscovich, executive director at the foundation, who hosted the Venice events. 'They reuse, regenerate, and invite people in, showcasing resourceful design solutions that city planners and local communities alike can adopt for a better tomorrow.'

Segal highlights the dramatic positive change his design aims to bring to Pristina and its young population. 'It is a city-funded project, and it will include art spaces, galleries, dance centres, community centres, adult education and start-ups. Part of the project is also stabilising the land, creating green space for the neighbourhood. It is meant to be porous, a community part that ties back into the city centre through a set of pedestrian connections.

'Kosovo is a very young country, in terms of age, but also in population. Fifty-one per cent are under 26 years old. We want them to stay in the country, be encouraged and give them a place to work, be inspired, that can lead somewhere.'

forum.holcimfoundation.org

holcimfoundation.org

Announced tonight (13 November), the Archiboo Awards 2025 celebrate this year's most forward-thinking voices in the way architecture and its intentions are projected and introduced to the world – from launches of emerging studios, to communications, podcasts and activism in architecture, there is plenty to talk about when it comes to this industry accolade, which was established nine years ago alongside the rise of digital technologies within the industry.

The winners for 2025 have just been revealed at a big bash in central London – and as always, a highlight of the event was the Activism Award, which was this year won by Narrative Practice.

Archiboo Awards 2025: Activism winner

Entries this year came from across the world, from as far as India and Australia. Judges praised Narrative Practice for its ‘bottom-up approach, driven by a personal connection to the cause’, calling its work 'vital if architecture is to achieve its stated goal of becoming more equitable and inclusive'.

The studio focuses on mentoring and research work, with the wider goal of opening up the field and spearheading diversity and equity strategies and representation.

Another highlight this year was the launch of a new category – flagging the use of AI in architecture. Best Use of AI and Immersive Technology was scooped by Foster + Partners.

Amanda Baillieu, founder of the Archiboo Awards, said: 'This year’s winners reflect the wider shift in how every creative business is having to adapt the way they tell their story in the age of AI and algorithmic feeds. This year's winners are those who've successfully navigated this shift, recognising the vital importance of a unique identity that people can truly connect with.'

Archiboo Awards 2025: more winners

Best Podcast: Duro Design Disruptors (Host: Suneet Zishan Langar, Creative Agency: Epistle, Producer: Duroply)

Best User Experience: BDP (Creative agency: Peter & Paul)

Best Brand (1–10): Whaleback (Creative agency: Ana Bea Studio)

Best Brand (11+): SD Engineers (Creative agency: TM Studio)

Best Use of Video (1–10): Intervention Architecture (Videographer: Dion Barrett)

Best Use of Video (11+): Multitude of Sins (Directors: Smita Thomas and Sohaib Ilyas)

Best Visual Design (1–10): Chris Romer-Lee (Creative agency: Linda Byrne)

Best Visual Design (11+): Tuckey Design Studio (Creative agency: A Common Purpose)

Best Written Content: Architextures (Writer: Vanessa Norwood)

archibooawards.com

The 2025 RIBA Middle East Award winners have just been announced, the inaugural honorees in one of the organisation’s two new territory accolades.

The new RIBA awards, launched this year as part of the UK institution's International Awards expansion, focus on two territories – the Middle East and Asia Pacific – freshly added to its prestigious roster. As revealed today (5 November), nine buildings share the 2025 RIBA Middle East Award top spot, while the Asia Pacific winners will follow in a few weeks.

The 2025 RIBA Middle East Award winners

These Middle East awards, which will be celebrated at an event on 7 November 2025 during Dubai Design Week, were created to put a spotlight on the region's creativity and pioneering architecture. The winners span from the world’s first purpose-built women-only mosque in Qatar, to the world’s largest city park, in Riyadh. Scroll down for the full list.

Discover the winners

• Adaptive Reuse Winner: The Serai Wing, Sharjah – Bait Khalid Bin Ibrahim by Anarchitect
• Design for Living Winner: Al Wasl Plaza, Dubai – Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
• Future Project Winner: King Salman Park, Riyadh – Gerber Architekten is leading a joint venture with two engineering partners, Buro Happold, and Setec
• RIBA Member Winner: Buhais Geology Park Interpretive Centre, Al-Madam Plan – Hopkins Architects
• RIBA Member Winner: Expo 2020 Thematic Districts, Dubai –Hopkins Architects
• Social Architecture Winner: Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women, Doha – conceived by Her Highness, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
• Sustainability & Resilience Winner: Jafar Centre, Dubai College, Dubai – Godwin Austen Johnson
• Temporary Architecture Winner: Singapore Pavilion, World Expo 2020, Dubai – WOHA
• Temporary Architecture Winner: World Food Waste Teahouse: Arabi-an, Dubai – Mitsubishi Jisho Design

RIBA's new awards: an explainer with president Chris Williamson

We caught up with RIBA president Chris Williamson to discuss the institution's new territory awards – their significance, the RIBA International Awards expansion, and how to submit.

Wallpaper*: Why establish The Asia Pacific Award and the Middle East Award?

Chris Williamson: The establishment of these awards marks an exciting new chapter for RIBA’s international engagement. Both the Asia Pacific and the Middle East are regions of extraordinary architectural ambition and diversity, where innovation, heritage and rapid transformation coexist. Launching these regional awards is part of RIBA’s mandate to celebrate design excellence wherever it is found and to be a supportive platform to projects that address pressing global challenges in their local contexts.

These awards are the first phase of our expanded international awards programme, recognising the architectural creativity shaping two of the most dynamic parts of the world today. They create new pathways for projects to gain global recognition and contribute to RIBA’s long-term aim of connecting architects across regions through shared learning, sustainability, and cultural exchange.

W*: What were you hoping to see in the submissions and shortlists?

CW: This year’s process was led by our Middle East and Asia Pacific Award jury panels, whose collective expertise and regional insight have been invaluable in shaping the results.

We hoped to see work that truly reflects the spirit of its place and understands its cultural, climatic and social context while pushing the boundaries of architecture. Both the Asia Pacific and Middle East shortlists deliver exactly that.

They demonstrate how architecture is addressing universal challenges, climate change, urbanisation, and social inclusion, through intelligent and contextually attuned design. What stands out is how architects are drawing on tradition, technology and local materials to create spaces that not only respond to their environments but actively enrich them.

W*: Are there specific highlights and innovations that you would flag as exceptional from the two shortlists?

CW: The juries’ assessments revealed rich and diverse forms of innovation across both regions. In the Middle East, [winning] projects such as the Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Qatar were recognised for advancing new social models through architecture, spaces that integrate spiritual, educational and communal functions in ways that reflect contemporary shifts in society. The King Salman Park masterplan in Riyadh was also commended for its scale and ecological ambition, transforming the city’s public realm and setting new benchmarks for urban sustainability.

In the Asia Pacific [shortlist], the jury identified a distinct movement toward socially and environmentally responsive design. BRAC University in Dhaka exemplifies this with its flood-resilient, low-energy campus that connects learning with nature and community. The Shenzhen Energy Ring reimagines industrial infrastructure as public architecture, turning a waste-to-energy facility into an expressive civic landmark.

As observed by the jury, these projects reflect a regional shift toward architecture that is both technologically advanced and deeply responsible to people and place.

W*: What does the foundation of these two new awards mean for the other RIBA awards’ categories, such as the International Awards, for instance? How do the new honours sit within the RIBA awards cycle?

CW: These new regional awards represent an evolution of RIBA’s International Awards. They strengthen the entire awards ecosystem by providing a more localised and inclusive structure for recognising excellence.

All built projects from the Asia Pacific and Middle East Awards will be eligible to progress towards the RIBA International Prize in 2026, the world’s most eminent prize for architecture.

This creates a more layered, global awards journey, recognising regional talent first before elevating the very best projects to an international stage. It adds depth, context and diversity to the International Awards cycle, ensuring that significant architecture from every region is celebrated, understood and showcased worldwide.

W*: How are the new awards judged, and what do architects need to submit?

CW: The prestige of the RIBA Awards rests on the rigour and integrity of the judging process. Every built project, regardless of size or style, is visited and analysed by an architect with extensive knowledge of the specific region, ensuring that our awards are grounded in first-hand assessment.

The new regional awards follow the same principles. Each jury comprises award-winning architects with deep experience working in the respective regions, capable of evaluating projects within their cultural, climatic and economic contexts.

For this cycle, architects were asked to submit projects they’ve completed between 2020 and 2024 and provide supporting sustainability data. Entries span up to ten categories, from Adaptive Reuse and Social Architecture to AI-powered Design and Sustainability & Resilience.

Ultimately, we assess design excellence in its broadest sense: how a project meets its brief, serves its community, responds to climate, and contributes positively to its environment and future generations.

riba.org

The RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner has just been announced: Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects has been crowned the best building of the year. The social housing complex for over-65s was awarded the UK's top gong at a dedicated ceremony this evening, praised for its 'radical' and 'gentle reimagining of later living as a collective experience'.

Judging the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025

The shortlist this year was especially rich and varied – featuring a national icon, private homes and anything in between. Judging the buildings to select the winner might have been a challenge – yet, Ingrid Schroder, who is director of the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture and served as the chair of the RIBA Stirling Prize jury this year, highlights that 'every project is valued on its own merits'.

She adds: 'We have an amazing ten-point list that includes issues of sustainability, of response to context, of kind of social and public function, and we weigh all of this up, and I think what's really reflected in the winner is a sense of [its] being an incredible place to be.'

'To judge the Stirling is a huge responsibility,' Schroder stresses. 'It is calling out the "something exceptional" within the world of architecture. And then, of course, because we build within a wider society, it has repercussions. It does send a message.'

Asked what an award like this might signal for architecture today, Schroder says, 'I think it's less about the winner than it is about the spectrum of the shortlist. It is the diversity that is the most significant single signal for architecture today, and the capacity to think across a broad set of scales and briefs; to recognise what is important, critical and exemplary within the world of architecture at the moment.'

RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner: Appleby Blue Almshouse

Appleby Blue Almshouse is situated in Bermondsey, south London. The housing development for over-65-year-olds responds with immense thoughtfulness to the challenge of people wanting to stay in the city, and neighbourhoods they know and love, as they get older – offering a blueprint for later living.

The project was delivered by United St Saviour’s Charity (which will manage the block in perpetuity), Southwark Council and developer JTRE. It was conceived to give older people more choices in terms of retirement living than simply being 'pushed or incentivised to the city’s edge or the coast', explained Stephen Witherford, co-founder of Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the practice behind the building’s design, when we interviewed him for a story as the scheme launched in 2023. Martyn Craddock, CEO of United St Saviour’s added at the same time: 'We wanted something that was definitely not your typical sheltered housing block.'

Witherford Watson Mann previously won the Stirling in 2013, for Astley Castle. The studio was also shortlisted in 2023 for the Courtauld Institute of Art and in 2019 for Nevill Holt Opera.

RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist

Alongside the eventual winner, a refreshed national treasure (the home of Big Ben), a medical innovation centre, a 21st-century education building, and two innovative private homes also featured on the shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025.

Elizabeth Tower by Purcell

Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects

London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison

Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects

The Discovery Centre (DISC) by Herzog & de Meuron / BDP

More RIBA awards

• United St Saviours Charity won the RIBA Client of the Year Award 2025 for Appleby Blue Almshouse
• Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects won the RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing 2025
• Sheerness Dockyard Church by Hugh Broughton Architects won the RIBA Reinvention Award 2025
• St Mary’s Walthamstow by Alex Spicer at Matthew Lloyd Architects won the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2025

Announced in the same ceremony, the four aforementioned RIBA awards celebrated different architectural expressions and key elements that are important to the development of the built environment.

The RIBA Reinvention Award jury chair and managing director at Marks Barfield Architects, Julia Barfield, said of the category she headed: 'Fifty-one per cent of RIBA UK award winners this year are for refurbishment or conservation projects. The Reinvention Award aims to boost this further by shining a light on the most exceptional and truly transformational reinvention projects because this is the direction of travel that our industry needs to go in – reducing waste, reusing materials and retrofitting – instead of demolishing.'

riba.org

The shortlist for the Brick Award 26 has been announced. The biannual celebration is a platform to showcase innovative buildings that have been constructed using timeless brick and ceramic materials while embodying forward-thinking architecture. All 50 nominees will be included in Brick 26, a book dedicated to this year's standout designs.

The award is divided into five categories: Feeling at home (single houses and small projects); Living together (urban residential developments); Working together (commercial and industrial buildings); Sharing public spaces (public buildings and spaces); and Building outside the box (innovation).

Since 2004, the award has spotlighted outstanding brick buildings around the world, with this year's shortlist spanning five continents and 21 countries. A pre-jury panel whittled through 849 submissions before selecting the final 50 designs.

Shortlisted entries from the Middle East include the Shafagh Tomb in Iran, by 35-51 Architecture Office, a contemporary take on a mausoleum that doubles as a cemetery gateway.

Among those representing Asia, there’s the Aga Khan Academy in Bangladesh, a four-storey brick-clad residential school arranged around a green outdoor space, designed collaboratively by Shatotto Architecture for Green Living, Rafiq Azam and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios; Metallic Bellows, a factory office in India, by KSM Architecture that was inspired by local brick kilns; Kengo Kuma’s UCCA Clay Museum in China, shortlisted for its distinctive roof, which references a nearby mountain; and the Tianjin Zhongshuge bookstore by X+Living Architecture and Interior Design, also in China, noted for its ‘wave’ design, comprising bricks and ironwork.

In Europe, another wave-like façade is seen on Amsterdam’s historic Hooftstraat shopping street. Designed by Dutch architecture practice Studio RAP, the effect was achieved with 3D-printed ceramic tiles. Meanwhile, the Leipzig Cogeneration Plan in Germany, by Atelier ST, features a fired-clay curtain façade; and a former industrial hall-turned-temporary theatre in Slovenia, by Vidic Grohar Arhitekti, which incorporates both permanent and temporary elements, the latter designed to be reused elsewhere.

Brutalist haters look away as Park Hill in the UK’s Sheffield – Europe's largest listed building, where a second phase of regeneration, completed by Mikhail Riches, preserved infill brickwork – has been shortlisted.

Noted from Oceania, Kerstin Thompson Architects’ Melbourne Holocaust Museum in Australia, an expression of remembrance and resilience, saw the use of some 25,000 bricks.

In North America, the hand-laid brick masonry façade and arched windows of 64 University Place in Greenwich Village, New York, captivated the pre-jury. Mexico’s Clase Azul La Hacienda Jalisco warehousing and offices, by Atelier ARS, use local ceramics and stone to reference the location's volcanic context.

In Africa, Cape Town’s Mountain House, by Chris van Niekerk, is an expression of the earth’s colour and textures.

In South America, White Bricks House in Brazil, by Bloco Arquitetos, is a case study of brickwork used to produce intricate patterns resulting in a unique handcrafted character.

These are just a few examples of the shortlisted entries. See the full Brick 26 shortlist below, and expect the winners’ announcement following the official awards ceremony taking place on 11 June 2026 in Vienna.

brickaward.com

Brick Award 2026 Shortlist

Feeling at home

• Blockmakers Arms, London, UK, by Erbar Mattes
• Ca na Birgit, Calvià, Spain, by TEd'A arquitectes
• House 1616, Barcelona, Spain, by Harquitectes
• Kurth Residence, Liege, Belgium, by Olivier Fourneau Architects
• Los Guayabos, Cuernavaca, Mexico, by Rodriguez + De Mitri
• Manel and Montse House, Sant Esteve de Palautordera, Spain, by Obo Estudi Arquitectura
• Mountain House, Cape Town, South Africa, by Chris van Niekerk
• Valley House, Torres Vedras, Portugal, by Volume - Architecture Lisbon Studio
• Verandah House, Nhavi Sandas, India, by studioPPBA
• Villa BW, Vught, Netherlands, by Mecanoo
• White Bricks House, Brasilia, Brazil, by Bloco Arquitetos

Living together

• 11 social housing units, Palma, Spain, by Carles Enrich Studio
• 64 University Place, New York, USA, by Kohn Pedersen Fox
• Social and urban infill project, Kortrijk, Belgium, by Maker architecten
• Fixfabriken Spanjoletten, Gothenburg, Sweden, by Olsson Lyckefors Arkitekter
• Luise 19E, Werder, Germany, by undjurekbrüggen
• O 14, Madrid, Spain, by Burr Studio
• Park Hill Phase 2, Sheffield, UK, by Mikhail Riches
• Social Atrium - 54 dwellings in the Besòs, Barcelona, Spain, by Peris + Toral Arquitectes & L3J

Working together

• Leipzig Cogeneration Plant, Leipzig, Germany, by Atelier ST
• Firemen tower in Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain, by Carles Enrich Studio
• Håndværkskollegiet i Horsens, Horsens, Denmark, by Cubo Arkitekter & Danø Architecture
• Lindemans Brewery, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium, by A2D architects
• Metallic Bellows Factory Office, Chennai, India, by KSM Architecture
• Mezcal Production Palenque, Jiquilpan de Juárez, Mexico, by Estudio ALA
• Recast | Lao Ding Feng Beijing, China, by Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
• Sara Weill-Raynal nursing home, Paris, France, by Avenier Cornejo Architectes
• Substation Ijburg, Amsterdam, Netherlands, by Powerhouse Company
• Warehouse/offices for Clase Azul La Hacienda Jalisco, Tepatitlán, Mexico, by Atelier ARS

Sharing public spaces

• Academia Atlas, Zapopan, Mexico, by Sordo Madaleno
• Aga Khan Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh, by Shatotto & Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
• Đạo Mẫu (Mothergoddess) Museum & Temple, Hanoi, Vietnam, by Arb Architects
• District school Kirchwerder, Hamburg, Germany, by Thomas Kröger Architekten
• Het Steen Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, by noAarchitecten
• La Chênaie Public School, Saint Etienne de Montluc, France, by Raum
• Melbourne Holocaust Museum, Melbourne, Australia, by Kerstin Thompson Architects
• Mercado Nicolas Bravo, Quintana Roo, Mexico, by Aidia Studio
• Park Brialmont Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, by Cluster landscape & urbanism
• Performing Arts Centre Brighton College, Brighton, UK, by KRFT
• Primary School Edison Antwerp, Netherlands, by Korteknie Stuhlmacher Architecten
• Schoenenkwartier Shoe Museum, Waalwijk, Netherlands, by Civic Architects
• Temporary space for Slovenian National Theatre, Ljubljana, Slovenia, by Vidic Grohar Arhitekti
• UCCA Clay Museum, Yixing, China, by Kengo Kuma and Associates

Building outside the box

• Ceramic House, Amsterdam, Netherlands, by Studio RAP
• Endless Brick Playground, Hangzhou, China, by China Academy of Art
• La Cruz 13-40, Cuenca, Spain, by Taller Alexis Schulman & Surreal Estudio
• Mary‘s Mantle Chapel, Freising, Germany, by Brückner & Brückner Architekten
• Shafagh Tomb, Ardakan, Iran, by 35-51 Architecture Office
• The Lady, Amsterdam, Netherlands, by Dok architecten
• Tianjin Zhongshuge, Tianjin, China, by X+Living Architecture and Interior Design

The RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist is here, revealing a list of six buildings, all now contenders for this year's top architecture gong – the best UK building for 2025.

Established in 1996, the award is widely acknowledged for its prestigious status, highlighting the country's finest architecture. The highly respected accolade is traditionally announced in October and has in the past included a major London infrastructure scheme, the Elizabeth Line (2024), and a residential and nursing facility, the John Morden Centre (2023). This year's winner will be revealed in a ceremony at the Roundhouse in London on 16 October 2025.

Explore the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist

The shortlist spans scales and typologies – from private homes to community living in later life; and from a pharmaceutical giant's headquarters in Cambridge (designed by one of the most recognisable names in contemporary architecture – Herzog and de Meuron) to the restoration of a British landmark, the home of Big Ben. Scroll down to pick your favourite, before the jury announces theirs.

Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects

Appleby Blue Almshouse in Bermondsey, south London is a social housing development for over-65-year-olds that responds with immense thoughtfulness to the challenge of people wanting to stay in the city, and neighbourhoods they know and love, as they get older. The project, which was delivered by United St Saviour’s Charity (which will manage the block in perpetuity), Southwark Council and developer JTRE, was conceived to give older people more choices in terms of retirement living than simply being 'pushed or incentivised to the city’s edge or the coast', explains Stephen Witherford, co-founder of Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the practice behind the building’s design.

Elizabeth Tower by Purcell

You may know it more as the home of Big Ben, the instantly recognisable London landmark. The Elizabeth Tower was completed in 1859, designed by architect AWN Pugin as part of his work for the Houses of Parliament building. It has since been restored every 30 or so years. Heritage specialist Purcell led the latest refresh, which has been praised by the Stirling jury: ‘This latest programme of restoration was planned to rectify previous mistakes and extend the cycle of future repair works. This project is a veritable masterclass in conservation and craftsmanship. The most comprehensive programme of works in the more than 160 years since the tower was built, it represents an astonishing achievement in upgrading and preserving this monument for the benefit of future generations.'

Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects

A respectful renovation of a 19th-century structure, Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects breathes new life into an ageing hillside home. The building has been sensitively refreshed to 21st-century standards through raw but honest materiality and a sturdy, yet minimalist feel. Functionality meets modern aesthetics in this Victorian reimagining with a timber-framed addition.

London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison

Set in the heart of Queen Elizabeth Park in Stratford, London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison is a 'vertical campus'. Catering to the needs of some 6,000 staff and students, the building's minimalist, gridded exterior gives way to a high-drama interior, filled with swirling concrete staircases and a flexible, flowing interior. The jury explains: 'The resulting building bills itself as the tallest higher-education building in the UK, and offers stunning views. This vertical legibility is reinforced by a material language: three materials are rigorously applied throughout – concrete for the structural skeleton, maple for the parts of the building one can touch, including doors and details such as integrated window seats, and dark metal for soffits and services.'

Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects

'Niwa' means 'garden' in Japanese, and this home surely embodies its name – offering at the same time a masterclass in accessible residential design. The project, created by Takero Shimazaki Architects for a family that includes a wheelchair user, needed not only to address the clients' current circulation and mobility requirements, but also to ensure smooth use in the future, too. The single-storey structure includes 'carefully designed and located courtyards that puncture the lower level and flood the bedrooms and circulation areas with natural light, creating lovely vignettes of gardens and sky. The quality of light throughout the home is breathtaking,' the jury explains in its citation.

The Discovery Centre (DISC) by Herzog & de Meuron / BDP

Relatively low, finely carved and elegant-looking, this new research and development hub is part of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) and designed by Herzog & Meuron for pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. Modern on the inside, subtle on the outside, The Discovery Centre's design credentials cleverly belie its size. This and a need for flexibility were key drivers for the design, explains Herzog & Meuron partner Stefan Marbach: ‘We wanted to consciously keep the building low, at three floors, to ensure there are easy connections within. Because of the round shape, it never feels too big. At the same time, it's a landscape of different situations.'

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2025 winners have just been announced. The top spot is shared among seven winners – all projects which 'explore architecture’s capacity to serve as a catalyst for pluralism, community resilience, social transformation, cultural dialogue and climate-responsive design,' the organisation explains.

Established in 1977 by His late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the award was designed to celebrate excellent architecture of 'communities in which Muslims have a significant presence.' Now in its 16th edition (each has a two-year cycle), this prize is one that also rewards the engineers, consultants, artisans and clients - as opposed to focusing on the architects- behind works that can 'be a catalyst for hope.'

Meet the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2025 winners

The seven awarded projects span six countries in Asia and Africa, and share the honour this year – as well as a $1 million award between them. Scroll down to find out who they are.

Khudi Bari, Bangladesh

Architect Marina Tabassum and her team in Dhaka, Bangladesh, started working on the Khudi Bari house model in 2018. Meaning 'little house' in Bengali, the project was designed as a response to Bangladesh's recurrent and frequent flooding disasters, a result of climate change. The country's positioning on the Bengal Delta, at the mouths of three large rivers, makes it prone to flooding as the Himalayan glaciers melt due to Earth's rising temperatures. A staggering 80 per cent of Bangladesh is floodplain. The simple structure uses chevron-braced bamboo, which is joined together with steel connectors, and can be easily assembled and disassembled if its owners need to move due to rising water levels.

West Wusutu Community Centre, China

'The West Wusutu Village Community Centre shifts the paradigm of contemporary architectural design beyond object-based and aesthetic end-results, orienting it towards translating users’ daily community needs into a well-conceived architectural vehicle. The dynamics of this project significantly enhance social interaction, cultural experience, and environmental resilience,' writes the jury citation on the Inner Mongolia project by the Inner Mongolian Grand Architecture Design Co., Ltd group, including lead architect Zhang Pengju. The panel praised the scheme's multifunctional nature and fluid spaces, which create an 'inclusive communal microcosm within a rural human macrocosm.'

Revitalisation of Esna, Egypt

Created by the Takween Integrated Community Development, this project in the city of Esna, Egypt, employs urban strategies and physical interventions to revitalise a neglected part of the historic city and address challenges produced by cultural tourism. The jury explains: 'The initiative to revitalise historic Esna goes beyond the usual limits of an urban conservation project that is formally framed in advance and instead presents a bottom-up strategy through an inclusive, socially structured programme to gradually improve the heritage environment. Hence, residents play a major role in maintaining the urban synergy through its living.'

Jahad Metro Plaza, Iran

Designed in Tehran, by KA Architecture Studio, this was once a dilapidated metro station. Now, the building has been revived using locally handmade bricks that transformed it into a textural, urban landmark. 'The redevelopment of the station entrance transformed a once conventional and modest access point into an open public space: a plaza that encourages passage, encounters and events. Unlike the former structure, which closed off stairways at ground level, the new design opens the station to the sky and neighbourhood, converting former stair areas into a pedestrian zone with direct street access and improving accessibility,' says the jury.

Majara Residence and Community Development, Iran

This colourful complex provides sustainable accommodation for tourists who wish to visit the unique landscape of Hormuz Island. The jury citation explains: 'The project can be understood as a vibrant and colourful archipelago of varying programmes that serve to incrementally define a truly alternative model for tourism in this context and beyond. Following on from its first new structure – the simple viewing and interpretation organisation called Rong Cultural Centre – the Majara Residence presents an offer within a growing global industry. Choosing not to follow a hyper-luxurious and resource-demanding typology, it leans instead towards a pluralist and inclusive framework that counters excess and becomes part of a community-driven evolutionary process of growth.'

Vision Pakistan, Pakistan

DB Studios is behind this colourful, multistorey office facility in Islamabad, which houses a charity aiming to empower disadvantaged youth through vocational training. The design's defining feature, its facade, impressed the jury: 'The architectural expression of this new building is provided by its concrete screen, held in front of the two street facades. This applied grid of 9 squares high and 10 squares long both protects the interior and expresses this contemporary building to the city. It does this by reinterpreting the familiar and historic jaalis, metal screens, both in various geometric patterns and in different colours. This combination of interpreting history to provide a visually controlled, yet joyful facade gives this building an easily recognisable and distinct surface.'

Wonder Cabinet, Palestine

The Wonder Cabinet in Bethlehem, Palestine, was conceived to foster creativity and cultural production in its region. The building, a piece of brutalist architecture in raw concrete, was designed by AAU Anastas, a practice headed creatively by architects Elias and Yousef Anastas. The structure acts as a hub for craft, design and innovation. The scheme's use of material had an impact on the jury: 'Borrowing from the contemporary language of the concrete frame construction prevalent in Bethlehem and its environs, the project demonstrates that spatial complexity and richness can be achieved through the judicious application of standardised construction methods and minimal material use. The concrete grid becomes an inhabited infrastructure of cultural production as well as a domestic monument – anonymous in its expression and scale, yet monumental in its impact.'

The 2025 Obel Award winner has just been announced. Non-profit organisation HouseEurope! has scooped the prestigious accolade, which celebrates and rewards individuals and groups who best showcase architecture's potential to 'act as tangible agents of change.' And isn't this year's winner a fitting choice. HouseEurope! was set up as a policy lab and citizen-led initiative, flagging the need for a shift in the way construction and housing works in Europe.

Meet 2025 Obel Award winner, HouseEurope!

'HouseEurope! demonstrates the scale, agency, and responsibility inherent in architecture. As architects, we are not merely practitioners who receive and execute instructions – we can and should act as civic agents within the political and social frameworks to work towards the common good,' said MVRDV's co-founder Nathalie de Vries, chair of the OBEL Jury.

Architecture should be seen as a tool for the public good, say HouseEurope! Part of the group's goals include rethinking the way renovation and building transformations happen - making them 'easier, affordable and socially just.' The organisation is currently collecting signatures, aiming at one million in total across all EU member states, in order to bring its case in front of the relevant authorities and make an impact through change.

'Every minute, a building in Europe is destroyed – not by natural disasters, but by financial speculation. And while a few profit, we all pay the price: with rising rents and rising temperatures. We’re running out of time! HouseEurope! is a call to action: sign and support now to stop the demolition drama and renovate, don’t speculate!' said Olaf Grawert and Alina Kolar, co-initiators and campaign managers at HouseEurope!.

Past Obel Award winners have included last year's announcement of 36x36 by Colectivo C733 in Mexico; Scape and its founder Kate Orff in 2023; Seratech’s innovative sustainable cement in 2022; Carlos Moreno and 15-Minute City in 2021; a Bangladeshi community building by Anna Heringer in 2020; and Art Biotop Water Garden by Junya Ishigami in 2019, which was the inaugural year.

Sign the petition here

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When SANAA's Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were announced the winners of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 in February this year, the accolade felt a well-deserved fit. The Japanese duo have defined the architecture scene far beyond their home country since the turn of the century, and were acknowledged by the RIBA for their work in reshaping 'the global design landscape, creating spaces that bring simplicity, light and elegance to the fore'. We caught up with the pair in London, ahead of their Royal Gold Medal 2025 evening of celebration at RIBA's headquarters on Portland Place, today (1 May 2025).

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa: in their own words

When winning an award for excellence and overall achievement in a field, such as the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, one might expect to be prompted into reflection and introspection – around work, past, present and future. Yet, on seeing the physical confirmation of this award, the SANAA pair were struck instead by a sense of responsibility. Sejima says: 'We saw the RIBA wall, carved with the names of past winners, including Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, and saw how our name is now carved there, sculpted in stone, and we felt so honoured. In Japan, it would be written somewhere, but the reality of this carving was so impressive. We are also feeling great responsibility.'

Architecture awards can be complex beasts, and judging them brings out sometimes more questions than answers, as 2024 RIBA Gold Medal winner Lesley Lokko highlighted in January, when reviewing the past year for us. For Sejima and Nishizawa, an award, in a similar way to architecture itself, brings together the physical and the conceptual space, and this duality deserves acknowledging. Sejima explains: ‘Architecture is about the physical space, and to have the media to celebrate this physical realm is very important. Of course, architecture also has another aspect to it, which is very abstract.’

In a busy year that saw them launch several projects – from a pavilion at the Expo Osaka 2025, to an Alaïa store in Paris, the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building at MIT, and New Kagawa Sports Arena in Japan – it was the last one that perhaps best represents where their mind is currently at. The scheme, in Kagawa prefecture, comprised three different smaller arenas and an expansive and complex programme – and being in '[renowned local architect Kenzo] Tange’s place', Kagawa, was equally important to the pair too. They were challenged to reach their design solution and are happy to have achieved a way for the building 'to communicate with its surroundings', in a way that brings harmony to the wider environment and the experience of architecture.

It is this sense of connection, fluidity and continuity that stands out in SANAA’s often ethereal-looking work and, unsurprisingly, it is something the pair value tremendously too. Nishizawa explains: 'There are two kinds of architecture. There is one that divides and protects what is inside and what is outside. And then, there is the one that creates continuity between the landscape and the building.' In this context, SANAA stands firmly in the latter camp.

It feels like a take that might resonate with more people in their country. Sou Fujimoto has spoken about looking at the world, and architecture within it, as a forest, and it's an approach he took when masterminding the Osaka Expo 2025 site. Osaka and Tokyo (where SANAA is based) might be very different settings, but they both need more connection with green spaces, Nishizawa points out.

The architects highlight that every piece of work they do, and every piece of feedback they receive, inspires them to reflect on their work – its development and values. The RIBA win becomes part of a wider journey in which they hope to evolve.

As for slowing down? 'The good thing about being an architect,' Nishizawa says, 'is that you never have to retire.' There's always more on the horizon for the pair, and the current to-do list includes a complex, multi-layered project in Taiwan, which combines a museum and a library ('They are both about learning,' Sejima highlights), and a new school on the island of Inujima.

The other great thing about being an architect is that you can always look forward, try new ideas and build – 'construct' – things, Sejima says. And her business partner agrees: 'Architecture can be very complicated. The start, especially, is always very nice, a great place of hope. Architecture is special as it can show you the future, and help move forward.'

Their talk tonight will touch on all this, and their work around hamorny and continuity – and indeed, hope.

sanaa.co.jp

architecture.com

Liu Jiakun has been named the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. The Chinese architect, based in Chengdu, China and the founder of Jiakun Architecture, established in 1999, has become the 54th winner of the highly coveted architecture honour.

The architect was celebrated by the Pritzker Prize organisers and jury for his elegant balance and interweaving of seemingly contrasting notions – past and present, collectivism and individuality, and utopia and the everyday.

Meet Liu Jiakun, 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate

Through his career, spanning over 25 years, Jiakun has turned his hand to a variety of typologies, from public space, to cultural work, office and housing. Key projects include West Village (Chengdu, China, 2015) a large scale multi-use complex; design for education, such as the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Department of Sculpture (Chongqing, China, 2004); The Renovation of Tianbao Cave District of Erlang Town (Luzhou, China, 2021); and the headquarters for Novartis (Shanghai) Block - C6 (Shanghai, China, 2014).

Blending local and global, history and modernity, the architect has found contemporary expressions for his region's architecture through works that find harmony between materials and shapes that feel transcendent in their scope and reach.

'Through an outstanding body of work of deep coherence and constant quality, Liu Jiakun imagines and constructs new worlds, free from any aesthetic or stylistic constraint. Instead of a style, he has developed a strategy that never relies on a recurring method but rather on evaluating the specific characteristics and requirements of each project differently,' the 2025 Jury Citation says in its essay.

'That is to say, Liu Jiakun takes present realities and handles them to the point of offering sometimes a whole new scenario of daily life. Beyond knowledge and techniques, common sense and wisdom are the most powerful tools he adds to the designer’s toolbox.'

Jiakun said, in response to his win: 'Architecture should reveal something – it should abstract, distill and make visible the inherent qualities of local people. It has the power to shape human behaviour and create atmospheres, offering a sense of serenity and poetry, evoking compassion and mercy, and cultivating a sense of shared community.'

jiakun.com

The winners of the Young Climate Prize 2025 have been announced, celebrating a new generation of creatives with innovative design ideas to help build a better world. The mentorship and award initiative launched in 2020 by the non-profit organisation The World Around has a two-year long cycle, making this year's '25 under 25' list of candidates only the second cohort of young creatives going through its process. The aim? To find the world's newest 'changemakers' and not only spotlight the next generation's fresh ideas but indeed help make them a reality.

Young Climate Prize 2025: the basics

The programme is designed to empower designers, activists, and innovators under the age of 25. Each of the young minds in every cycle's cohort is matched with a mentor from the creative industries, submitting a cause, idea or design to the competition, across six categories, including themes such as 'Building Community', 'Seeding Change', 'Making Matters', 'Sourcing Energy', 'Saving Water', and 'The New Narrators'. A series of meetings ensues, where mentors support the development of each project and its evolution into a viable product, campaign or piece of work, poised to foster change in the candidate's chosen topic - and bringing its young author's idea to life. It's a dynamic and fascinating process; and one that this writer experienced first-hand this year, as part of the group of mentors enlisted to help this cycle's candidates.

My experience as a Young Climate Prize mentor

'What do I know about birds?' was my first thought when I heard about the young trailblazer I was matched with. American university student Karinne Tennenbaum may be only 20 years old, but had been passionate about birding and promoting youth environmentalism through the magic of birdwatching for years – building a community, creating a dedicated podcast, immersing herself in the activity itself, and leading workshops and events to introduce more people to its value and fun.

What followed with a rich, and deeply rewarding experience where Karinne and I discussed her vision and campaign in detail, and identified goals, next steps and wildcard action pieces which might help her make her ambitions a reality. Supporting someone with as much passion and drive as this young student was interesting beyond the project's fascinating subject matter (of which, in the course of three sessions and several email exchanges, I learned a lot).

It soon became apparent that the scope of the mentorship scheme spanned marketing, content production, outreach, as well as communications and handling press - all subjects we slowly developed with my fresh eyes, her specialist insights, and an open, inquisitive mind.

I can take no credit for Karinne's keen sense of resolve, boundless energy and hard-working ethic – nor for her deep knowledge of her subject. Every meeting, when we logged off, I worried we'd made a list longer than she could ever possibly action in the handful of weeks before our next check-in; and every time she came back having done everything on that list and then some. In such a varied and impressive cohort (in terms of territory and areas of focus), it was apparent that the judges had a tough job ahead of them.

'Despite each of us in the cohort being from vastly different backgrounds and working on a wide variety of projects, we realised we faced similar challenges. We connected over struggling to access resources to expand our work and contemplated together how best to convey our unique stories to a global audience,' says Tennenbaum.

In the course of the mentorship stages, I hope that challenges became opportunities for Karinne, and new roads have opened ahead – regardless of the end result and the Prize's final announcement. Every single project in the 2025 group of candidates deserves support to achieve its goals and define the best way forward. With the expansive list of expert mentors employed across the board for the Prize, I am confident this was achieved.

'With the insight of my mentor and the cohort, the Young Climate Prize helped me combine all of my efforts in ornithological research, conservation, and education into a single cohesive narrative—one that I have been trying to weave for the last six years and can now share with the world,' says Tennenbaum.

Young Climate Prize 2025: the winners

This year's winners stood out for their transformative projects that show great potential to change lives. The award statement explains the projects span 'farm addressing food insecurity in a desert refugee community, a stove that reduces the effects of indoor air pollution while generating power to light energy-deprived homes, a youth movement that mobilizes climate action through the development of a community park, and a conservation initiative applying indigenous ecological knowledge to restore a polluted wetland reserve.'

The accolades - Young Climate Visionary, Young Climate Designer, Young Climate Voice, and a Jury Prize honoree - come with a $5,000 cash prize, along with airfare and accommodation for a trip to New York City to attend the Young Climate Prize awards ceremony during The World Around Summit 2025.

Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali (23, Algeria)

Mentored by Brendan McGetrick, Mohamed Ali looks at desert agriculture through an experimental garden in Algeria’s Smara refugee camp, titled 'The Nomad Garden.' 'Farming in the desert is such a huge problem, and it touches on so many skills. Mohammed is thinking about it at his scale, which is really important because there are a lot of people in his same situation who don't have the knowledge to grow their own fruits or own crops to sustain themselves. The fact that he created his garden alone in order to solve a very basic human need, he has become a hero for his community and others,' says jury member Sheikha Reem Al Thani.

Kenneth Uche (24, Nigeria)

Battling Nigeria's indoor air pollution, Uche made a smokeless stove using recycled agricultural waste to fuel “briquettes” in an energy-efficient design created by locally sourced, recycled and affordable materials. He was mentored by Suchi Reddy. 'So many Africans today live without 24-hour power. Creating sustainable solutions allows us to exist in modernity, and Kenneth’s system that enables people to not just cook, but to charge phones, has so much potential to advance. This is such a brilliant project that builds off knowledge that existed already and learns from existing technologies to adapt and improve them. It’s something really novel, it's such a powerful personal story, and it's such a legible project,' says jury member Tosin Oshinowo.

Amara Nwuneli (17, Nigeria)

Mentored by Joseph Zeal-Henry, Nwuneli worked towards 'transforming an underutilised plot of land in a low-income Lagos community into a park, which will later serve as a hub for climate education, activism, and recreation. Jury member Aric Chen says: 'Amara is a powerful communicator who is using the strength of her voice and ability to communicate in order to create a movement. She has the advocacy to act on what she's discussing, which can allow her to expand so much bigger, and bring in a lot more people with more ideas than she could have had herself. Amara’s use of media, her charisma, and her ability to articulate her cause all embolden her activism.'

Dayana Blanco Quiroga (25, Bolivia)

Dayana Blanco Quiroga, an Aymara indigenous woman, and her Uru Uru Team have been hard at work ecologically treating the heavily polluted Uru Uru Lake in the Bolivian Andes. She was mentored by Sebastián Acampante. 'Dayana is engaged in a community of people interested in the same goal: applying traditional knowledge from very local historical and economical contexts, and using scarcity to produce a solution. This notion of using the natural world is very specific in terms of cultural impact, the understanding of belonging, and making systemic change,' says jury member Abraham Cruzvillegas.

theworldaround.com

SANAA has been revealed as the winner of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025. The collaborative practice of Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa has been leading in its field with its ethereal, user-centric designs, which can be found in their native country and across the globe. The accolade, one of architecture's highest honours internationally, is presented on behalf of His Majesty the King and has been offered to SANAA for their 'work to reshape the global design landscape, creating spaces that bring simplicity, light and elegance to the fore,' the RIBA explains in a statement.

RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 winner: SANAA

The studio has been honoured with the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 for its expert place-making and commitment to crafting architecture that inspires connection and collaboration. The studio responded to the announcement, saying: 'We are delighted and very honoured to receive the Royal Gold Medal. We have always believed that architecture can transform and repair environments, helping us to relate to our surroundings, nature and each other.

'Throughout our careers, we have tried to make spaces that bring people together, inviting them to imagine new ways of living and learning collectively.  Architecture is always teamwork, and we are very grateful to everyone that has given us opportunities to develop these ideas over the years, and to all those people that have worked tirelessly with us to realise them. This is a very happy moment for us, thank you.'

Starting their joint practice in 1995, just a year before Wallpaper's own launch in 1996, the studio was honoured in our 20th-anniversary issue in 2016. A version of the article celebrating the work of its founders, originally published in our October 2016 edition and featuring an interview with Sejima, follows below. It highlights the studio's important contribution to the global architecture field.

SANAA: an appreciation

By the early 1990s, Kazuyo Sejima already had experience at Toyo Ito’s office, her own studio and a Young Architect of the Year award from the Japan Institute of Architects under her belt. But it was after setting up SANAA with Ryue Nishizawa in 1995 that her career really took off, upscaling to major cultural commissions which transformed the duo into an international go-to choice for mesmerizingly barely-there, ethereal architecture.

Their signature style of strong shapes and clean lines that at the same time appear flowing and delicate has helped define 21st-century Japanese architecture. It is all about the experience for SANAA, although priorities have shifted somewhat since the early days of the practice.

‘Our designs are not driven by what you can do with architecture itself, but by an interest in the way people experience space as a relationship between programme, city and surrounding landscape,’ Sejima says. ‘In the past, I would try to understand the overall character of a building’s environment and use this abstract idea to develop a design. Today, I try to create spaces that are more precisely adapted to the variable character of a neighbourhood.'

The practice has produced gems such as the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Rolex Learning Center, the Louvre-Lens and Grace Farms. The SANAA-designed New Museum in New York (2007) and the Zollverein School in Germany (2006) added to their international portfolio.

From there, commissions and honours poured in; from SANAA’s Serpentine Pavilion in London in 2009 and Sejima's appointment to direct the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale to their joint Pritzker Prize win in the same year, and participation in the Rolex Mentor scheme in 2012.

The latter also flagged up their interest in nurturing young talent; Sejima has been involved in teaching since the early 2000s. ‘Young people come up with new ideas constantly – and this can, of course, be exciting,’ she says. ‘But I have recently realised there are things we can imagine only as we grow older, making these relationships very effective during a design process.’

Now approaching 70 and 60 respectively, Sejima and Nishizawa show no sign of slowing down. More recent projects include La Samaritaine department store in Paris; the Hitachi City Hall in Sejima's home prefecture of Ibaraki; and the Inujima Art House Project, aimed at encouraging people to settle on the small island in the Seto Inland Sea. Their New Kagawa Sports Arena in Japan is expected to open later in 2025.

sanaa.co.jp

Six Columns in south London just won RIBA House of the Year 2024. London-based architecture studio 31/44 often works with tight, under-used or unloved urban plots, transforming them into spectacular homes that serve their residents through a quiet brilliance that stands out but doesn’t shout its genius. Architect and practice co-founder William Burges’ own home, Six Columns, is a case in point - and one so expertly executed that it battled off stiff competition from the shortlist's other five brilliant homes to win the UK’s most prestigious accolade in the field.

The project in south London was led by Bruges – he and studio co-director Stephen Davies were flagged in the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2016 for their flair as an emerging firm. They have gone from strength to strength ever since, picking up the Manser Medal and RIBA National and Regional Awards along the way.

RIBA House of the Year 2024 winner: Six Columns

The RIBA House of the Year 2024 is more than just another feather in the studio’s cap. Conceived and designed as Burges’ own home, it is a project that is personal and richly layered, crafted through a deep understanding of its users’ needs and benefiting from unique insight into the four-strong family’s past, present and future. As a result, it fits its residents ‘like a snug glove’, states the citation of the jury (a group made up of architects and experts that includes this writer). At the same time, ‘the space allows [each of] their personalities to shine through.’

It is a home created to fit the family’s changing needs, with built-in flexibility and a future-facing approach (the upstairs children’s bedrooms can double as guest rooms once they move out, and the cosy loft at the top can be a bedroom, study, or gaming room, depending on requirement). It’s a building located in an awkwardly shaped urban plot, comfortably, accomodating the design difficulties it presented. It sits on a narrowing, sloping trapezoidal site, the structure twisting and stepping down from the street and garden level to make the most of orientation and preserve the users’ and neighbours’ privacy.

Architectural references abound in this home that blends brutalist architecture with creative details, such as pink mortar that matches the Tudor Black bricks’ tones, different levels, a stepping wall, a wild garden and green marble panels. Exposed brickwork, spruce wood and concrete make up a palette that is warm and textured, producing rooms that feel at once snug and expansive.

‘From the quirky arrangements of its six columns [which the building is named after - and which nod to Berthold Lubetkin’s 1930s modernist house Six Pillars on the nearby Dulwich Estate], to the loose-fit wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosity) that wraps around primary structures, the home is full of personal references expressed in a simple yet refined manner without a hint of being forced, whilst turning challenging constraints into advantages with admirable technical confidence,’ the jury citation continues. ‘And from the moment we entered, we were taken by its homeliness.’

On top of this, it is a project that, for its creator, is live and ever-evolving. Burges told writer Clare Dowdy when she reported on the house for Wallpaper* in May 2024: 'The ethos behind the design is that it will always remain unfinished, its interiors a loose fit that can adjust to future requirements and tastes.'

architecture.com

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The RIBA International Prize 2024 has been announced, with Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing in Cornellà, designed by Peris + Toral Arquitectes in Barcelona, crowned as the overall winner. A longlist of 22 buildings, all RIBA International Award for Excellence 2024 winners, went on to compete for the top gong. A shortlist of three from those – the other two are Jacoby Studios by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin and Lianzhou Museum of Photography by O-office Architects – meant the jury had a tough time ahead, deliberating to pick the cream of the crop; a difficult job, considering the inspiring cross-disciplinary collection of candidates.

RIBA International Prize 2024 winner

Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing in Cornellà designed by Peris + Toral Arquitectes, Spain

The RIBA's bi-annual award casts its net far and wide, in search of the world's (and its cycle's) best building. RIBA President Muyiwa Oki described the Peris + Toral Arquitectes work as 'inspiring', adding that it's 'a strong example of the ways in which architects can create new and implementable solutions to the common challenge of creating housing for all'.

Working with a mass timber structure and sustainable architecture principles, the building achieves low CO₂ emissions. Conceived to be adaptive and inclusive the scheme was praised by the jury for its matrix of homes organised around a central courtyard. The six-storey building of 85 homes near Barcelona was loosely inspired by the architects' research into films of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu who explored daily family life.

Marta Peris and Jose Toral, co-founders of Peris + Toral Arquitectes, said: 'Winning the RIBA International Prize is a recognition of many years focused on housing that provides new ways of living. We are very proud of the positive feedback from residents of Modulus Matrix. Some were unsure about features like entering through a terrace, having an open kitchen at the centre of the home, and equal-sized rooms without corridors, but their perspectives changed after living in the space. Now they feel this way of living better adapts to their needs. Their first-hand experiences provide valuable insights into how housing around the world can evolve.'

The award was founded to reward a structure that demonstrates 'visionary thinking, originality, excellence of execution, and makes a distinct contribution to its users, surrounding environment and communities', the RIBA explains.

RIBA International Prize 2024 shortlist

Jacoby Studios, Paderborn, Germany, by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin

In the medieval town of Paderborn, Germany, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin has reinvented and extended existing buildings – a chapel and 17th-century cloister – to create a new HQ for a family business. New concrete and timber elements repair existing stone and brick walls, and are left exposed in a delicate and harmonious patchwork of old and new.

Lianzhou Museum of Photography, Lianzhou, China, by O-office Architects

Set on the site of an old sugar mill in the relatively remote, southern Chinese city of Lianzhou, this museum is a large complex comprising a refurbished warehouse and a new element. It was praised in the 2021 RIBA International Awards cycle, but couldn't be visited at the time due to the pandemic, so was re-entered for this cycle.

architecture.com

For 2024 Royal Academy Dorfman Prize winner Livyj Bereh, it is significant to receive 'the understanding of the importance of our work and the recognition of us as a volunteering group'. The architecture collective's co-founder Kseniia Kalmus attended the winner’s announcement ceremony at London's Royal Academy of Arts last night (31 October) – an event that highlighted the Ukrainian studio's work and important efforts in rebuilding homes during the ongoing war in its country.

2024 Royal Academy Dorfman Prize winner: Livyj Bereh

Based in Kyiv and initially working on the left bank of the Dnipro River (which inspired the name of the organisation – Лівийберег/Leftbank), Livyj Bereh has so far restored the roofs of some 380 houses, across different regions in Ukraine, including Černihiv, Kyiv and Charkiv.

Beyond its critical, site-specific and hands-on support and architectural work within Ukraine, the studio also spearheads exhibition projects and events that help raise awareness around the war.

Tom Emerson OBE RA and Stephanie Macdonald OBE RA, of 6a architects and chairs of the 2024 RA architecture prizes jury, said: 'Livyj Bereh’s repair of roofs destroyed by the war in Ukraine provides homes, schools and hospitals, delivering an essential and urgent response to the survival of communities. Their use of modest black corrugated metal roofs produces an architectural act of collective care and resistance across the country, as powerful as any civic monument and documented with the unflinching eye of the greatest war art.'

Previous winners of the Royal Academy Dorfman Prize include Mexico-based Taller Gabriela Carrillo (2023), Wallmakers from India (2022), Beijing-based BCKJ Architects (2020), Boonserm Premthada from Bangkok (2019), and Iranian architect Alireza Taghaboni (2018).

royalacademy.org.uk

The RIBA House of the Year 2024 is an award that celebrates the best of residential architecture. The typology's relatability and omnipresence are what makes it such a critical genre, and this an award that is always hotly contested; and contested it shall be this year too, as the shortlist has just been announced, revealing the six houses that will battle it out for the top gong.

RIBA House of the Year 2024: the shortlist

The offering this year spans rural and urban, old and new, minimalist and richly decorated – but all deeply layered and thoughtful solutions to each of their individual conditions. The shortlist consists of Farmworker’s House in Cornwall by Hugh Strange Architects; Peckham House in London by Surman Weston; Eavesdrop in Sussex by Tom Dowdall Architects; The Hall in Kent by TaylorHare Architects; Plas Hendy Stable Block in Monmouthshire by Studio Brassica Architects; and Six Columns in London by 31/44 Architects.

‘A house can be many things – this year’s shortlist shows the breadth of possibilities. From rural contexts to tight urban sites, including fine craftsmanship and intergenerational living among other driving forces – all these houses are essentially about the people who live inside. Together the shortlisted exemplars offer scalable solutions to the urgent issues of today – displaying care towards sustainability and social changes, including the revival of historic buildings which don't negatively impact the natural environment. We were impressed by the ambition of both the architects and clients to meet the challenge of the contemporary home,' wrote jury chair Je Ahn in his citation.

2024 RIBA House of the Year: the shortlist

Farmworker’s House, Cornwall, by Hugh Strange Architects 

A working farmhouse set in the green expanses of Cornwall, this home looks deceptively simple. Planned on an L-shaped arrangement, curling around a serene courtyard, this is a rural home made in honest, simple materials – thick masonry walls of monolithic clay blocks with textured lime render – and a straightforward brief; to be the home of the worker that looks after the adjacent farm.

Peckham House, London, by Surman Weston 

This new Peckham house is an excellent demonstration of how skill, patience, and hard work can come together to get an urban infill off the ground. Mastering the art of its project type is a rite of passage for architects in crowded, high-priced cities like London. The new-build home was designed by Surman Weston, founded by Tom Surman and Percy Weston in 2014 and featured in our 2020 Architects’ Directory. In 2022, Surman Weston won the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize for its well-mannered and restrained space for the Hackney School of Food, with other recent projects including a smart Surrey pool house. The Peckham House was not only designed by the firm, but developed, funded and substantially built by the office as well.

Eavesdrop, Sussex, by Tom Dowdall Architects 

Space to breathe, accessibility and ageing, wellbeing and a connection to nature; these have all been themes in this family home for a couple who often host and entertain their adult children and their families. The project features a green courtyard at its heart and elegantly flaunts a range of bespoke design details, such as its pronounced roof overhang which inspired its name.

The Hall, Kent, by TaylorHare Architects 

The transformation of a run down, Grade II-listed 16th-century residence in the Kent Downs was praised for its delicate and sensitive design work. Finely crafted bespoke details are matched by discreet new elements and restored older parts, which all come together to form a busy and functional family home that is perfectly tailored for its residents.

Plas Hendy Stable Block, Monmouthshire, by Studio Brassica Architects 

Another Grade II-listed structure on this list is this revived Arts & Crafts stable block in Monmouthshire, which now forms part of the living quarters of a wider estate belonging to the same family for decades. Simple materials, a contextual approach and fun detailing that nod to the scheme's historical roots make this house a joy to explore.

Six Columns, London, by 31/44 Architects

For this Crystal Palace house, 31/44 Architects have worked their magic on yet another under-used plot (a practice speciality) – this time for themselves. Six Columns is the new family home of the firm’s co-founder Will Burges. The 1,640 sq ft house sits on the site of a big side garden in the south-east London district. Its design is informed by its semi-detached neighbours, the family’s previous experience of open-plan living, and Burges’ memories of buildings visited and studied. He explains that this wasn’t 'a conscious collage, but as an architect you accumulate baggage'.

The winner of the RIBA House of the Year 2024 will be announced on 3 December.

architecture.com

The 2024 Obel Award has just been announced, crowning 36x36 by Colectivo C733 in Mexico its winner. A true collective formed by the offices of architects Gabriela Carrillo (Taller Gabriela Carrillo), Carlos Facio y José Amozurrutia (TO), Eric Valdez (Labg) and Israel Espin, Colectivo C733 sits at the forefront of community work in their country. Their winning scheme is, in fact, 36 projects – a grouping of public works designed with the community, instead of simply for them, the jury points out.

2024 Obel Award winner: 36x36 by Colectivo C733, Mexico

The collective's joint efforts were hailed as important and innovative in challenging conventional mindsets by the Obel Award's panel of judges, which was formed by architects and specialists in the field, including Sumayya Vally of Counterspace, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen of Snøhetta and DNA Design and Architecture's Xu Tiantian.

The jury said, 'The strength of the collective partly lay in the fact that, by designing together, “with” a constantly fluctuating roster of stakeholders, and while utilising shared skills and resources, they were able to bring together 30 architects and a multidisciplinary team of consultants, learning to compress a process that previously could have taken years into just a few months — something practically unheard of by today’s industry standards.'

Last year's 2023 Obel Award went to landscape studio Scape and its founder Kate Orff for their Living Breakwaters project – an inspiring ecosystems-driven piece of green infrastructure design off the shore of Staten Island in New York.

This year, the jury wrote in its statement: 'Colectivo C733 exemplifies the power of collective action and collaborative design to rapidly respond to urgent urban needs. Their ability to transform 36 communities through thoughtful, resource-efficient, and dignified architectural interventions is a blueprint for future public works projects worldwide.'

obelaward.org

The 2024 Praemium Imperiale Architecture Award has been offered to Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, it has been announced today. The prestigious global arts prize is awarded annually by the Japan Art Association, and this year praised Ban for his innovative work with timber, paper and bamboo architecture structures.

Shigeru Ban: 2024 Praemium Imperiale Architecture Award winner

Shigeru Ban has been known for his forward-thinking, sustainably minded structures, which have been erected across the world. Examples include the Centre Pompidou-Metz, Aspen Art Museum and Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre. His studio has also undertaken pro bono work numerous times, working to create temporary shelters, emergency building systems, community centres and spiritual places for victims of natural disasters and conflicts across Rwanda, Syria, Turkey India, China, Italy, Haiti and Japan.

The Praemium Imperiale Awards are presented by the Japan Art Association under the honorary patronage of HIH Prince Hitachi, younger brother of the Emperor Emeritus of Japan. Each Laureate receives an honorarium of 15 million Yen (c. £73,000). Past Architecture Laureates include Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, David Chipperfield, and Zaha Hadid.

Ban's work was also celebrated recently in an XXL Taschen publication, titled Shigeru Ban. Complete Works 1985 – Today, which looks at the architect's entire oeuvre and was penned by Philip Jodidio.

The prize includes more categories beyond architecture - the award for painting was given to Sophie Calle; for Theatre/Film to Ang Lee; for music to Maria João Pires; and for sculpture to Doris Salcedo.

shigerubanarchitects.com

The 2025 Charlotte Perriand Award goes to the Japanese architecture practice SANAA, it has just been announced. The studio, founded by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, is renowned for its ethereal, progressive and minimalist architecture which has led to numerous commissions and buildings all over the world – including Sydney Modern, La Samaritaine in Paris, Louvre Lens and Grace Farms in the USA.

'This honour recognises their unparalleled contributions to modern architecture and design, further solidifying their legacy as visionary leaders in the field,' explain its organisers.

SANAA: 2025 Charlotte Perriand Award winner

In response to their win, the two architects and SANAA founders said: 'It is a great honour to receive an award that bears such a great name. Charlotte Perriand is one of the masters of modern architecture, and we admire her delicate interior and furniture designs.'

The Charlotte Perriand Award, now in its fourth year, was previously presented to Frida Escobedo in 2024, while the 2023 Charlotte Perriand Award winner was American architect Jeanne Gang, the Chicago-based architect recognised for her inspirational portfolio of work and her standout project to date, the Aqua Tower, which is also ‘the tallest building in the world to be designed by a woman, at the time of its completion'.

The award is part of the larger family of the Créateurs Design Awards, spanning various design and architecture categories. Nominations for all are now open to submissions. The winners will be announced in a dedicated ceremony in Paris in early 2025 – the same event that will see SANAA officially pick up its gong.

createursdesignawards.com

sanaa.co.jp

The 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize winner has just been announced, with London's Elizabeth Line crowned as the UK's best building project of the year. The prestigious accolade, widely considered one of the highest honours in its field, was presented tonight, 16 October 2024, in a formal ceremony in Camden's Roundhouse.

The state-of-the-art transport network, named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, the Elizabeth Line runs from Reading and Heathrow to Essex and south-east London. It’s an extraordinarily complex architectural feat – a collaboration between Grimshaw, Maynard, GIA Equation and Atkins – masked by an elegant simplicity, the RIBA jury pointed out.

Importantly, the scheme embraces a sustainable architecture approach too, through its inclusive design and strategies such as passive cooling at platform level to reduce the need for mechanical heating, and escalator motion sensors that minimise energy waste.

Muyiwa Oki, RIBA president and jury chair, said: ‘The Elizabeth Line is a triumph in architect-led collaboration, offering a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport. It’s an uncluttered canvas that incorporates a slick suite of architectural components to create a consistent, line-wide identity – through which thousands of daily passengers navigate with ease.

'Descending into the colossal network of tunnels feels like entering a portal to the future, where the typical commuter chaos is transformed into an effortless experience. This is architecture of the digital age – a vast scheme that utilises cutting-edge technology to create distinctive spatial characteristics and experiences. It rewrites the rules of accessible public transport, and sets a bold new standard for civic infrastructure, opening up the network and by extension, London, to everyone.'

The 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize winner: tour the Elizabeth Line

The Elizabeth Line is the most significant contribution to London’s transportation network in over 20 years – courtesy of Atkins, Grimshaw, GIA Equation and Maynard. All the stakeholders in this multi-billion-pound enterprise have played a very long game, whether they’re developers, architects, engineers, councils, or transport organisations.

Neill McClements, partner at Grimshaw, spoke to Wallpaper* on behalf of the winning team: 'When we first started we were struck by how the stations and platforms might feel claustrophobic. We wanted to make people’s journey as joyful as possible. Using lighting we wanted to celebrate that sense of scale and also a calm, accessible environment where people can feel safe and secure in their journey.'

The first plans for what became known as Crossrail (and was subsequently named the Elizabeth Line in 2016) were mooted back in 1974, although plans for major cross-capital train tunnels date back to the 1940s. The perseverance has paid off. The line, serving Londoners and visitors to the capital since its opening in May 2022, has now scooped the top spot in the 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize.

McClements continued: 'In our discussions with the engineering and tunnelling team, we realised how the tunnels were formed and that we can actually curve the routes between tunnels to ease the junctions, and let people see around corners - it makes it safer and helps people move. It ended up creating the Line’s distinctive design, the fluid lines of the tunnel but it came out of a desire to make the experience more comfortable. We spoke about frictionless, effortless movement. We hope it takes the stress out of moving for all.'

The Grimshaw architect underlined how important inclusivity was for the entire team, and how they worked extensively with accessibility groups, creating full-scale mockups of sections (which was possible thanks to the design’s modularity) to get feedback on their design during the process. Additionally, he highlighted the important collaboration element between the numerous engineers, consultants, station designers and architects involved - which makes The Elizabeth Line a truly collective feat.

2024 RIBA Stirling Prize: the shortlist

The winning design was among six shortlisted projects, which span a range of typologies, in London, Dorset and Sheffield. This list was born from the 26 2024 RIBA National Awards, which were revealed in July this year. Here are the five runners-up.

Chowdhury Walk, London, by Al-Jawad Pike 

Chowdhury Walk by Al-Jawad Pike is a development that repurposes under-used Hackney Council land to create new council homes for the community. 'Overall, Chowdhury Walk is an elegant piece of architectural and urban design, providing new homes that are successfully knit into their context – satisfying both resident and passer-by,' writes the jury in its citation.

King’s Cross Masterplan, London, by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates

This pioneering masterplan by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates set a new bar in city-making – King's Cross has been a contemporary exemplar of its typology. The jury wrote: 'The developer client was able to set goals for all the buildings and spaces, with reduction of energy demand, use of a district energy centre, decarbonisation, and energy procurement goals all embedded in the design briefs. Ten of the new buildings are BREEAM Outstanding. Combined with the carbon savings through retention and renovation of the historic buildings, it all makes for a robust sustainability narrative. King’s Cross Masterplan is a global exemplar in how to make a community of places which supports human activity, maintains an urban identity, and is supple enough to accommodate inevitable change.'

National Portrait Gallery, London, by Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell

The summer 2023 reopening of London's National Portrait Gallery was one of the most highly anticipated relaunches of the year. The popular cultural attraction, set right in the heart of the capital, was reimagined by a team led by Jamie Fobert Architects and conservation specialist Purcell, with a new design that saw the institution's previously increasingly unfit quarters opened up in a generous and subtly luxurious new home. Architect and studio head Jamie Fobert said at the time: 'Hopefully, we have now achieved a much better balance between the building and its collection.'

Park Hill Phase 2, Sheffield, by Mikhail Riches

The ongoing regeneration of the much-discussed Grade II*-listed, brutalist Park Hill estate has completed its second phase, courtesy of Mikhail Riches. Writes the jury, in its citation for the project: 'The first phase of the project stripped the building back to its frame and used bright colours to create a distinctly modern appearance. In contrast, Phase 2 is a “lighter touch”, retaining more of the existing built fabric and employing more subtle colours to blend the complex into the landscape. These colours, referencing the nearby Peak District, are used on the balcony reveals and flat entrances, giving each flat its own identity while keeping the character of the overall building.'

Wraxall Yard, Dorset, by Clementine Blakemore Architects

A sensitively restored dairy farm offering inclusive holiday accommodation, a community space, and an educational smallholding, Wraxall Yard was created by Clementine Blakemore Architects. 'You could spend a long time here and keep finding new things. The touch of the designer feels light, the changes between materials are very natural, and the interfaces between buildings and landscaping are well considered. Most of the internal spaces are open to the rafters, but there are subtle changes in scale: from the two-storey elevation facing the car park, through a tall breezeway entrance porch, into the more intimate courtyard bounded by single-storey holiday cottages. Inside, the cottages retain a rustic feel with exposed trusses and glossy concrete floors,' reads the jury citation.

2024 RIBA Reinvention Award winner: Croft 3

Tonight’s Stirling Prize reveal also included the 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award announcement, scooped by Croft 3 – a new community dining hall born of the transformation of an old barn into a restaurant and social centre on the picturesque hills of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, by architects Fardaa.

This accolade was specifically designed to recognise ‘achievement in the creative reuse of buildings to improve their environmental, social, or economic sustainability. RIBA president Muyiwa Oki told us in an exclusive interview earlier this autumn: 'The whole idea of reinvention is different from the idea of landmarks and listed buildings. Obviously, some buildings need to be protected for the future as heritage, but others are not protected, yet still need to be used for years to come. So, we need a way to bring them into the 21st century.'

Fardaa founder, Edward Farleigh-Dastmalchi, spoke to Wallpaper* about the project, what he hopes for it, and what he learned from the process: 'So many of these wonderful structures are scattered around the landscape and they have been long disused, but they are so picturesque and they bring character. I like [the project's] ambiguity, I like it if people are not entirely sure without looking in a lot of detail about whether this is a new or old building, where that line is. I suppose it’s best if people don’t think about that much at all. I hope they go in and take in the incredible view and eat at the incredible restaurant that was already there, and not really think about the building at all.'

'In this project, we wanted to do as little to the landscape as we can, because there’s so much embodied carbon tied to groundworks. I am not sure we were that conscious of this when we started the process so now this is one of the things I have learned, and where I will start on in future projects.'

The 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award shortlist included Park Hill Phase 2; Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings; and The Parcels Building.

More awards revealed during tonight's event include: Wraxall Yard in Dorset by Clementine Blakemore Architects, winner of the 2024 Stephen Lawrence Prize; Chowdhury Walk in Hackney by Al-Jawad Pike, winner of the 2024 Neave Brown Award for Housing; and Shakespeare North Trust and Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, winner of the 2024 Client of the Year Award for Shakespeare North in Prescot by Helm Architecture.

architecture.com

The 2024 RIBA National Awards have been announced, revealing 26 projects that have received this year's gong. The schemes, located up and down the UK and spanning a wealth of scales, typologies and styles, range from an urban masterplan (King’s Cross) and a new transport network (The Elizabeth Line), to a house in the Cornish landscape (Farmworker’s House) and a repurposed dairy farm (Wraxall Yard).

Celebrating the year's finest new architecture, the awards touch upon themes of restoration and adaptation of existing structures; and materials and construction, in particular involving examples with a sustainable architecture twist.

'The sheer breadth of work is quite astounding, with large infrastructure schemes sitting alongside high-quality detailed smaller projects. This is a testament to the standard of architecture in the UK right now, as we maintain a sense of ambition and consider how design must evolve to meet future needs,' says RIBA president Muyiwa Oki.

2024 RIBA National Awards: the list of 26 winners

West Midlands

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings

This refurbishment of a historic structure into a new leisure destination was led by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

South

New Temple Complex

A domed temple boasts an impressive arrival sequence that leads from secular to ritual spaces, designed by James Gorst Architects.

Yorkshire

Park Hill Phase 2

The ongoing regeneration of the much-discussed Grade II*-listed, brutalist estate has completed its second phase, courtesy of Mikhail Riches.

London

Battersea Power Station

The restoration and transformation of an architectural landmark Battersea Power Station on the banks of the River Thames was a key recent London project by WilkinsonEyre.

Bradbury Works

Bradbury Works is the refurbishment and extension of an existing affordable workspace building by [Y/N] Studio.

King's Cross Masterplan

This pioneering masterplan by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates set a new bar in city-making – King's Cross has been a contemporary exemplar of its typology.

National Portrait Gallery

A significant transformation by Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell revitalised the historic spaces of the National Portrait Gallery in central London.

Paddington Elizabeth Line Station

A welcome and much-needed addition to London's transport network, the Elizabeth Line Paddington Station by Weston Williamson + Partners is bright and airy.

Royal Academy of Dance

The RAD’s new home on the ground floor of a new residential tower was designed by Takero Shimazaki Architects with Atomik Architecture.

Six Columns

Six Columns is a considered Crystal Palace house designed as a family home by 31/44.

Thames Christian School & Battersea Chapel

A complex project, the Thames Christian School & Battersea Chapel is a six-storey building that provides the church and school with a new community hall and sanctuary by Henley Halebrown.

The Black and White Building

The Black & White Building by Waugh Thistleton is a pioneering project out of wood and the tallest engineered timber office building in central London.

The Elizabeth Line

The Elizabeth Line is easily the most significant contribution to London’s transportation network in over 20 years – courtesy of Atkins, Grimshaw, GIA Equation and Maynard.

The Arbour

The Arbour in the heart of Walthamstow Village is a set of ten homes on a constrained backland, brownfield site and was designed by Boehm Lynas and GS8.

Chowdhury Walk

Chowdhury Walk by Al-Jawad Pike is a development that repurposes under-used Hackney Council land to create new council homes for the community.

South west and Wessex:

Wraxall Yard

A sensitively restored dairy farm offering inclusive holiday accommodation, a community space, and educational smallholding, Wraxall Yard was created by Clementine Blakemore Architects.

Bath Abbey Footprint Project

Repair, conservation work and much-needed new facilities at the centre of the Unesco City of Bath were at the heart of this brief, executed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios with a multidisciplinary team.

Farmworker's House

The single-storey courtyard Farmworker's House is considerate of the surrounding rural landscape and was designed by Hugh Strange Architects.

North East

Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum

A series of urban and historic interventions for the restoration of a 900-year-old Grade I-listed Castle resulted in the new Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum by Níall McLaughlin Architects.

East Midlands

Alfreton Park Community Special School

Alfreton Park Community Special School was designed by Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture for pupils aged three to 19 with special educational needs and disabilities.

East

Dining Hall, Homerton College, Cambridge

The new Dining Hall at Homerton College in Cambridge has become the focal point in the student community's social and cultural life, thanks to its clever design by Feilden Fowles.

WongAvery Gallery

A new music practice and performance space for Trinity Hall, Cambridge, WongAvery Galler was crafted by Níall McLaughlin Architects.

Beechwood Village

The co-designed modular, contemporary neighbourhood of Beechwood Village is the work of Pollard Thomas Edwards and Outerspace.

Royal Incorporation Architects Scotland

The Fruitmarket Gallery

The much-loved Edinburgh gallery has been reinvented and enlarged by Reiach and Hall Architects; welcome to the new Fruitmarket Gallery.

North Gate Social Housing

The North Gate urban social housing scheme has been designed by Page\Park architects to suit the needs of older residents.

RSUA

House on Redbrae Farm

A rural dwelling that is both local and foreign, traditional and modern, House on Redbrae Farm was designed by McGonigle McGrath.

architecture.com

The RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2024 have been announced, with the 22 winners providing a worldwide showcase of ‘exemplary architecture’, and spanning from sustainably minded schools to secluded private homes and a sculptural subway station entrance.

Together, emphasises RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), the winners comprise standout architectural responses to contemporary social, cultural and environmental challenges – whether climate change, architectural re-use, or building for wellbeing and community – that represent a shift in the way buildings are conceived and constructed.

All 22 winners now go forward to compete for the RIBA International Prize 2024, to be announced in November this year. Here they all are – pick your own favourite for the overall prize.

RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2024: the winners

Light plays across the jali brickwork and remarkable cylindrical forms of the Shah Muhammad Mohsin Khan Mausoleum, by Sthapotik in Manikgonj, Bangladesh. Completed in the grounds of a family home to remember the client's father, this space of contemplation – striking and simple in its use of a single material, and full of allure – is open to the wider community.

Designed to foster appreciation of creative arts while responding to local risk of fire and flood, the Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge in New South Wales, Australia, comprises an underground art gallery and collection storage and a remarkable 165m ‘bridge'. The former is built from concrete to resist fire, while the latter is set above a gully, its structure allowing floodwaters to rise and pass beneath the learning centre, bedrooms and dining spaces that it contains.

Like a game of architectural peekaboo, the playful rebuilding of a school in rural Iran – Jadgal Elementary School by DAAZ Office in Sistan and Baluchestan – features a circular walled site with naturally ventilated classrooms around a central playground that also serves as a community space. Insulated concrete formwork meets local earthquake legislation, while local earth clay creates a flood-protective finish and is easy to repair.

At this rug-making facility – Green Field Factory in Bangladesh by Nakshabid Architects – workers' wellbeing is front of mind with extensive gardens and planting. The façade is covered in greenery that creates shade and filtered natural ventilation indoors, enhanced by pools that cool air as it passes through. The rooftop and surrounding outdoor spaces encourage socialising.

In Sydney, Punchbowl Mosque by Angelo Candalepas and Associates is a careful – and ‘magical’, notes its citation – insertion on a small suburban plot. The mosque is one of the first buildings in Australia to use a new low-carbon, high-fly ash concrete, made using a waste product of steel manufacturing, while its design encourages natural ventilation. Seen here, a circular, layered opening in the concrete roof reveals a timber dome seeming to float above a ribbon of natural light.

An example of reuse that captures the romance of the existing structure, Veemgebouw by Caruso St John Architects transforms a 1940s industrial storage building in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, into a vast, mixed-use complex, including a food market, a car park, energy-neutral apartments and maisonettes, as well as office space.

Housing, retail and cultural spaces combine in this revitalised city block, Morland Mixité Capitale – part of the wider ‘Reinventer Paris’ project – by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin and CALQ, which remodels and extends a 1964 16-storey administrative tower and two nine-storey wings.

Hailed in its citation as ‘a unique and pioneering model for urban village renewal’, ARCity Office’s Six Bricolage Houses in Nantou Ancient City, Shenzhen, China, sees six self-built houses by villagers given micro-updates and modifications by the architects. Old meets new in ‘bricolage architecture’, as the addition of cantilevers and the partial cutting of walls, for example, open up space, bring in natural light and create a connection to the outdoors.

Sharanam Centre for Rural Development by Jateen Lad, in Tamil Nadu, India, has transformed a desolate site into an inspiring and inclusive community centre and gardens, with sustainable architecture and innovation at their heart. The architect used recycled and local materials, including red soil, which was pressed into bricks, and contractors, and trained locals in building techniques; the project was completed with zero waste.

Liknon, on the Aegean island of Samos in Greece, is K-Studio’s sensitive restoration of a terraced landscape and construction of a new visitor centre at a vineyard by K-Studio (whose previous projects include the Costa Navarino Residences in the Peloponnese). The single-storey building is set into the hillside and maximises the connection with the land.

Thapar University Learning Laboratory by McCullough Mulvin Architects in Patiala, India, is geometrically bold – comprising three red Agra sandstone-clad towers, each set around a central atrium – and sensitive to the harsh local climate, with architectural shading from a massive canopy, and natural ventilation encouraged by cooling pools of water.

David Chipperfield Architects Berlin completed the conservation-led refurbishment of the city's Neue Nationalgalerie, an icon of the International Style designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1968, with a view to keeping ‘as much Mies as possible’ while also making enhancements to the building’s performance.

Located in Portugal’s Azores, Adega Pico Winery & Hotel by DRDH Architects and Sami Arquitectos, is at one with the natural and cultivated elements of its surrounding volcanic landscape. Almost receding into its Unesco World Heritage Site backdrop, the project is built of the lava rock that is also used for the manmade terraces of the vineyards and topped with sculptural concrete beams.

The Engineering Laboratories at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are designed by Juan Pablo Ortiz Arquitectos and TALLER Architects to encourage a sense of wellbeing and a connection with the surroundings, in the foothills of the Andes in Colombia. The project combines retrofitted and new structures, and features a focus on natural light, greenery including a vertical garden, and views to the landscape.

Of timber-frame construction, using no welded joints, Modulus Matrix - 85 Social Housing in Cornellà, Barcelona, by Peris + Toral Arquitectes, comprises socially rented homes in a courtyard setting, with a design intended to foster neighbourliness and a sense of community.

A preservation project that includes remnants of imperial ceramic workshops, Jingdezhen Pengjia Alley Compound by Beijing AN-DESIGN Architects in Jingdezhen City, China, retains and reveals layers of history for new generations of visitors.

In the medieval town of Paderborn, Germany, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin have reinvented and extended existing buildings – a chapel and 17th-century cloister – to create a new HQ for a family business. New concrete and timber elements repair existing stone and brick walls, and are left exposed in a delicate and harmonious patchwork of old and new.

In the Valle de Bravo, southwest of Mexico, Casa Catarina, a single-family home by Taller Hector Barraso, blends effortlessly with its natural surroundings, featuring stone and rammed earth walls, timber-beamed ceilings and volcanic rock floors. Volumes are staggered to accommodate the sloping site, while the house features spaces that maximises indoor-outdoor living.

College Hampate Ba by Article 25 is the refurbishment of an existing school in Niamey, Niger, using locally sourced materials, to create a new, low-carbon and passively ventilated school that offers a subsidised education to low-income families.

Another education project deserving of the RIBA nod, the Bioclimatic School in Guécélard, France, by Atelier Julien Boidot, brings a unifying extension to a kindergarten and primary school, that takes inspiration from local agricultural buildings in its choice of unfinished materials. It comes with solar chimneys – rectangular roof projections that contain large south-facing windows and vents – to create natural ventilation in classrooms.

The rebuilding of a subway station entrance, Jahad Metro Plaza by KA Architecture Studio in Tehran, Iran, creates a local landmark and a social public space. Mesh arches clad in 300,000 bricks made from local soil are sculptural, welcoming and low-budget.

Its exterior defined by a bold matrix of concrete and voids, the new Student Centre at India’s Ahmedabad University, by Stephane Paumier Architects is LEED Platinum-certified to boot. A concrete frame and brick partition infills act as heat sinks, helping to create a cool and comfortable environment for students to spend time in. Other sustainable features include water recycling, a solar roof, windows that are set deeply to avoid glare and heat, and a sewage treatment plant that maintains the central forest.

architecture.com

The Activism Award 2024 has just been announced, crowning London-based Studio Bark as its overall winner, for the practice’s work in response to the climate crisis, and towards inclusivity in construction, and regenerative building processes. Argentine initiative The Colectivo de Arquitectas (CdA) from Buenos Aires, received a high commendation for its protest against the redevelopment of public land. 

The top gong was drawn from a six-strong shortlist of nominees chosen for their role in taking action and championing change in the field when it comes to key, current issues within the built environment. The annual accolade, which is organised by the digital architecture platform Archiboo and supported this year by Heatherwick Studio, recognises work covering topics such as the use of public land, safety on our streets, the climate emergency and gender and disability rights. 

Meet the Activism Award 2024 winners: Studio Bark

Set up by co-founders Wilf Meynell, Nick Newman and Steph Chadwick, Studio Bark has its base in east London, and is guided by a pledge to ‘create positive disruption, show compassion, take responsibility’. These are values the small team displays in spades and applies in their work daily – which caught the eye of the judges. 

Their projects span from housing to installations and office space, all imbued with the practice’s sustainable ethos and passionate advocacy. Called ‘Bark’, the studio uses its name as both a verb (‘speaking loudly’) and a noun (‘the protective life support system of trees’), they have explained. We caught up with them, to hear more about their thoughts on architecture activism and the award.

Wallpaper*: What motivates you to be an activist? 

Studio Bark: Architecture's ability to effect change is limited by the socio-economic context within which we practise. Activism helps us to change that context, which in turn magnifies the impact of our work.

W*: What does winning mean to you?

SB: We really love that an award for activism exists in the first place. Winning it helps us to improve our visibility in this area and connect with others interested in creating change. 

W*: Who inspires you? 

SB: Those who have sacrificed careers and personal freedoms for the belief in a better profession. In particular, to civil engineer Morgan Trowland, who was sentenced to three years in prison for a peaceful occupation of the QE2 bridge, London. 

Activism Award 2024: the shortlist

This year's list cast a net far and wide across different missions and parts of the world. The rest of the nominees were:

• Deaf Architecture Front (DAF), London, for acting to support the deaf community in architectural practice;
• The Colectivo de Arquitectas (CdA), Buenos Aires, for its protest against the redevelopment of public land;
• Part W, London, for championing women in the built environment;
• New Practice, Glasgow, for its data gathering campaign for street safety in its home town;
• Sarah Ackland, London, for its efforts towards gender equality;

‘Colectivo de Arquitectas is a group of over 200 women architects who came together to oppose the Buenos Aires government selling the city's public land to developers,’ said Archiboo’s Amanda Baillieu of the group’s high commendation. ‘As an alternative, it proposes the land be used for a new city park. Judges felt the Colectivo shows what is possible when architects come together and apply their skills as urbanists, lobbyists and advocates.’ 

Bailleu added of Studio Bark: ‘We felt the winner is pushing at the very boundaries of what it means to be an activist and everything from its name and the rationale for its name through to the connections it's making with community groups and other campaigners takes activism in architecture to a different level.’

The winners were announced at a dedicated ceremony in London this evening (22 May 2024). Past Activism Award winners include Amy Francis-Smith in 2021, and Transition by Design in 2022. 

archibooawards.com

For 2024 RIBA Gold Medal recipient Lesley Lokko, 2023 was an amazing year. The Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator, author and curator delivered the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale to great acclaim (including her main show, themed Laboratory of the Future); she worked on launching from scratch the Africa Futures Institute (AFI), a pioneering architecture research institute and school; and continued with her fiction writing, with a new book coming out soon. 

Her pursuits were not only fruitful and critically acclaimed feats in their own right. They also put her in the spotlight for 'democratising architecture'. As announced earlier in January 2024, she has been hailed by the 2024 RIBA Honours Committee as a 'clarion call for equitable representation in policies, planning, and design that shape our spaces'. 

'Lesley Lokko is a true agent of change who has successfully shifted the dial and pioneered a more equitable approach to architectural education, dialogue and discourse. By acknowledging and encouraging diversity of thought and embracing a broad range of cultures and perspectives, she has shown us how architecture can reach its full potential,' said RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki. 'Through her work as an educator, author, and curator, she offers us hope for the future of architecture – a profession and practice that welcomes and delivers for people from all walks of life.' 

2024 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture: a celebration

Last night, at a celebration at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London headquarters, Professor Lesley Lokko OBE formally received the 2024 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. The event was accompanied by the launch of an exhibition on Lokko's work and global contributions to architecture, which sits alongside the institution's latest exhibition, 'Raising the Roof,' which critically explores the RIBA HQ building through themes such as gender, race and imperialism. 

We caught up with Lokko, to find out what this award means to her, what her plans for the future are, and more. 

Lesley Lokko on her 2024 RIBA Gold Medal 

W*: Congratulations! What does the RIBA Gold Medal mean to you?

LL: This may seem like a simple question, but actually, I think for most people it's quite complex. On the one hand, there's an incredible sense of gratitude, a feeling of having been seen in a very particular way, which is both personal and professional. To me, particularly so, because my subject matter has never really been considered central to architecture. Something like this is an enormous validation of its centrality. It's also a very deep, cultural recognition.

W: What is the role of awards in the architecture field?

LL: You know, somebody asked me this question about 15 years ago in South Africa, which doesn't have quite as many awards [as there are in the Global North]. The absence of awards is also tied to the absence of a kind of critical culture and critical discussion around architecture. There, and probably it's the same in most places in Africa, the architectural profession is very small. So, in a sense, you never really get the opportunity to understand how your work is viewed. Having lived and worked in places where there is no awards culture, on balance, I would have to say they are a good thing. Peer recognition is very different from any other kind of recognition. To be valued, understood and seen by your peers is quite rare. 

W*: The recognition comes as the culmination of an extremely busy couple of years for you – the logistics and conceptual work of planning the Venice Biennale and a new school... Looking back, how will you remember this time? 

LL: I don't think I'll ever recover from it! The past two years have been of a kind of intensity that I think I just didn't see coming. You're absolutely right to talk about the organisational and logistical side of it because for me, way beyond the conceptual and creative side, it was the logistics and the organisation that nearly killed me. It made me keenly aware of the 'back-of-house' of architecture, which is the stuff that very few of us actually see. Every new thing takes energy and commitment that I just never fully understood or appreciated before.

W*: What have you learned? It could be something you’d now know to do differently or something you unexpectedly discovered and celebrated. 

LL: The net result of having done all of this is overwhelmingly positive. I seem to remember my father saying: 'You will have to work twice as hard, just to keep up.' The question of labour, gender and race, I think, has been a really interesting three-way triangle for me for all of my work life. It's not just about the amount of hours one has to put in, it's about one's kind of cultural relationships, to labour as a Black woman. You are expected to be resilient, to have a forbearance. What I've learned is that to resist that, you have to be quite selfish. You have to have the ability to say no and that is often also counter to the way that you've been cultured or raised. I think another thing my father said was to always be polite, be nice, be friendly. 

W*: And do things seem to be slowing down now? 

LL: It's been three years now since I started work on the school, and I’ve learned a huge amount. I've learned that it is almost impossible to build the kind of transformational culture which I'd always hoped the school would have, via Zoom. It's just not possible. The AFI was three months old when the biennale was announced. And so, resources just pivoted away from the setting up of a school, and now we're coming back to it – but in a very different way. And actually, what I really like to do is teach. What I've been doing over the past three years has been administrating and fundraising, being an HR manager and a finance manager, and almost everything except teaching. So in the next years, I'd like to get back into the classroom. And by the end of this year, we will also have announced a new set of programmes.

W*: What else is on your mind? 

LL:  I have one novel that I'm working on and it's coming out later this year. It's quite different from what I've written before. I'm very excited about it. Venice will feature, and there will be a death. 

architecture.com

Announced today (18 April), the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 explores the newest and finest international artists and trends in its field. This year's selection of nominees for the Architecture & Design category spans ten talents from as far afield as Canada, Malaysia and Finland. The winner, Ireland's Siobhán Doran, scooped the top gong with her series Sala Mayor (Living Room).

Sony World Photography Awards 2024: the winner and shortlist

The Architecture & Design category winner's work focuses on the majestic documentation of historic mansions and is part of a book project by Doran, titled Houses that Sugar Built: An Intimate Portrait of Philippine Ancestral Homes.

'I largely set about photographing the houses against a spoken “backdrop”, as my colleague interviewed the owner or custodian, but sometimes worked in complete silence. The sala mayor (main living room) typically showcases the character of the architecture and the lifestyle of the people, but also leaves room for the viewer’s interpretation of these unique residences,' wrote the artist.

Notable entries among the finalists are Germany's Albrecht Voss’ series Enlighten, which 'presents modern alpine architecture as surreal man-made sculptures'; and Malaysia's Nick Ng’ Blue Boy, a visual exploration of a 1962, seven-floor residential haven in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, designed by the architecture firm TY Lee and Sons. 

The Architecture & Design entries of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024, alongside the prize's other categories, will be presented and celebrated in a dedicated photography exhibition that launches at Somerset House in London this spring. 

'Sony World Photography Awards 2024' will be on show at Somerset House in London, UK, 19 April – 6 May 2024

worldphoto.org

Riken Yamamoto has been revealed as the winner of the 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The prestigious architecture gong was awarded to the respected Yokohama-based architect for his designs and inspirational work in establishing communities, the Prize's jury explained. 

'One of the things we need most in the future of cities is to create conditions through architecture that multiply the opportunities for people to come together and interact. By carefully blurring the boundary between public and private, Yamamoto contributes positively beyond the brief to enable community,' explained Alejandro Aravena, Jury Chair and 2016 Pritzker Prize Laureate. 'He is a reassuring architect who brings dignity to everyday life. Normality becomes extraordinary. Calmness leads to splendour.'

Riken Yamamoto: 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner

The 2024 jury citation stated, among other things, that the Japanese architect is highlighted especially 'for creating awareness in the community in what is the responsibility of the social demand, for questioning the discipline of architecture to calibrate each individual architectural response, and above all for reminding us that in architecture, as in democracy, spaces must be created by the resolve of the people...'

His work spans housing, such as Pangyo Housing (Seongnam, Republic of Korea 2010), civic projects (the Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station in Hiroshima, 2000, is an example), but also culture, including the Yokosuka Museum of Art (Yokosuka, Japan 2006) and Tianjin Library (Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, 2012). Yamamoto's extensive career has spanned five decades. 

'For me, to recognise space is to recognise an entire community,' Yamamoto said. 'The current architectural approach emphasises privacy, negating the necessity of societal relationships. However, we can still honour the freedom of each individual while living together in architectural space as a republic, fostering harmony across cultures and phases of life.'

The architect, the 53rd Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, will be presented his honour in a dedicated ceremony in Chicago, USA, this spring. 

pritzkerprize.com

The newly launched Prix Claude Parent is an architecture prize aiming to make a difference. Created by The National School of Architecture of Montpellier and Claude Parent Archives, the award, which has just announced its inaugural cycle, was conceived to promote imagination, innovation and experimentation in architecture – honouring the memory of the radical French architect Claude Parent, who died in 2016 at the age of 93. 

Prix Claude Parent: an award to challenge architectural ideas

Questioning what architecture does, and how (just as Parent offered his own unique take on modernist architecture in the 20th century), is seen as the heart of the initiative by its founders. The contest is open to professionals (both teams and individuals) who are all invited to enter, and challenge ideas around our built environment. 

The 2024 international award's jury consists of architect Julie Cattant; historian, author and architect Joseph Giovannini; artist Loris Gréaud; architect Anupama Kundoo; architect Jean Nouvel; and architect Carme Pigem. They will deliberate to select the overall winner, who will be announced in a dedicated ceremony and accompanying conference on 30 April 2024. 

'Some have faith and the future in them. But times are tough. Globalisation and the appeal of large structures will make difficult, if not impossible, the sumptuous initiative of a few singular individuals who do not accept to fall under the yoke of standardisation. These are the ones I love, because they will suffer and perhaps perish. I have confidence in those who are the salt of architecture, who carry resolutely the reaction to the irremediable,' Parent wrote in 2005, in Portraits impressionistes et véridiques d'architectes, published by Éditions Norma.

Prix Claude Parent is now open to applications. The closing date to submit is 15 March 2024. 

prixclaudeparent.org

claudeparent.fr

The winner of The World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize 2024 has been announced, crowning the conservation of Argentina's Casa sobre el Arroyo (the House on the Stream) as the year's finest. The honoured body, the Ministerios de Cultura y de Obras Públicas y Municipalidad de Mar del Plata, carried out works on the historic piece of modernist architecture, which were critical in sensitively preserving the residence, designed in 1943 in playful brutalist architecture spanning across a creek. 

The World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize 2024 winner: Casa sobre el Arroyo

'We are proud to share that the conservation mission at the Casa sobre el Arroyo has become the first South American modernist project to be awarded this prize,’ said president and CEO of World Monuments Fund Bénédicte de Montlaur. ‘Argentinian modernism takes its roots from multiple schools, and the Casa sobre el Arroyo represents the lively nature of that style. Its importance as an architectural icon has made it a symbol of national pride for Argentina and the site’s conservation reestablishes the house as an integral part of Latin American heritage.'

Casa sobre el Arroyo was the former home of famed musician and composer Alberto Williams. The design was conceived by Alberto’s son, Amancio Williams, and Delfina Galvez Bunge de Williams, Amancio’s wife. 

'As the iconic first building of Amancio Williams, the Casa sobre el Arroyo exemplified its creator’s reputation as one of the most tirelessly experimental architects of the modern movement,' said Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and Chairman of the Jury Barry Bergdoll. 'It was as daring in its unadorned use of reinforced concrete for an elegant residence as it was practical in creating a sophisticated interior all on one floor suspended in the treetops and poetically bridging a stream.

'The interiors by Delfina Galvez Bunge de Williams, the architect's wife, are essential to this total art of modernist living. Long celebrated as an early landmark of modernist design in Latin America, the house has been brought back from a lamentable state of abandon and vandalization to honour the collaboration between musician, architect, and interior designer.'

The biennial prize celebrates 'architects, designers, and preservationists who have demonstrated innovative solutions to preserve or restore threatened modern architecture'. Past winners include an André Lurçat-designed school in France, and Britain's Preston Bus Station. 

wmf.org

The 2024 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture has been announced, celebrating Professor Lesley Lokko as its recipient. The accolade, which is awarded annually by the RIBA to recognise exceptional contributions to the built environment field, will be presented this year to Lokko for her work to 'democratise architecture', hailed by the 2024 RIBA Honours Committee as a 'clarion call for equitable representation in policies, planning, and design that shape our spaces'.

Lesley Lokko: 2024 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture winner

Lokko has had a busy few years, full of fruitful activity in all her fields of interest. The Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator, author and curator successfully delivered the highly acclaimed 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, and her main show, themed Laboratory of the Future; she also worked on launching the Africa Futures Institute, a new architecture research institute and school, which is currently being set up from scratch. 

She has also been working on fiction writing and academic work in parallel. Her numerous existing achievements and recognitions include an OBE (awarded in 2023), and the RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education (2020).

'Not only is Lokko the first African woman to receive this honour, but she also now takes her place among architecture’s defining figures,' states the 2024 Royal Gold Medal selection committee, which was chaired by RIBA president Muyiwa Oki and comprised of 2023 Royal Gold Medal recipient Yasmeen Lari; architect and senior partner at RSHP Ivan Harbour; head of school and chief executive at the London School of Architecture Neal Shasore; and architect and partner at Walters & Cohen, Cindy Walters.

On hearing the news, Lokko said: 'It came as such a surprise to me. This was never on the cards. I’m delighted to be considered alongside some of the great past winners of the Royal Gold Medal. Although this is a personal award, this isn’t merely a personal triumph, this is a testament to the people and organisations I have worked with that share my goals.

'I came into architecture seeking certainties, looking for answers. Instead, I found questions and possibilities, far richer, more curious, and more empathetic ways to interpret and shape the world. Architecture gave me language, in all its forms – visual, written, built, performed – and that language, in turn, has given me such hope.'

RIBA president Muyiwa Oki said: 'A fierce champion of equity and inclusion in all aspects of life, Lesley Lokko’s progressive approach to architecture education offers hope for the future – a profession that welcomes those from all walks of life, considers the needs of our environment, and acknowledges a broad range of cultures and perspectives. A visionary agent of change, Lesley has dedicated her life to championing these values, not only through academic endeavours, but through her work as an author and curator. She remains a humble revolutionary force, with her ambition and optimism etching an indelible mark on the global architectural stage.'  

The 2024 Royal Gold Medal will be formally presented to Lesley Lokko in London on 2 May 2024.  

architecture.com 

Green House by Hayhurst & Co has been crowned the RIBA House of the Year 2023 winner. The home, located in Tottenham, London, and its fun and innovative approach to the everyday, impressed the judges – who picked it among a strong shortlist of six houses, spanning from a Devonshire cow shed transformed into a creative family home, to a characterful Scottish new-build. 

RIBA House of the Year 2023 winner: Green House by Hayhurst & Co

The project, a reimagined typical terraced house, works with a constrained urban plot in a small alleyway in north London. The structure’s new exterior, clad in polycarbonate panels and wrapped in dense planting, makes for a discreet, and compact family home, perfectly calibrated to its client’s needs and the site conditions. 

Inside, thanks to some clever architectural sleights of hand, open spaces and large windows make for a riad-inspired green oasis of an interior. It was described by RIBA’s jury as a ‘domestic greenhouse’ and ‘extraordinary ordinary house’.  

The home's biophilic design take allows a daily life among nature, while practical solutions to spatial issues (curtains act as dividers and screens and planting ensure levels of privacy and ventilation can be easily adjusted), make for a practical family space.

Jury chair Dido Milne said of this year’s winner: ‘Green House, affectionately known as the ”Tottenham riad” is a true oasis within the city. It is both airy and cosy, bold yet respectful of its neighbours. Your eye is simultaneously drawn upwards to open sky and down and out across the living room to  greenery.

'The close architect and client relationship, with a joint desire to deliver a truly sustainable home, is evident in all of the design decisions and details. On a confined urban site, the house was delivered to a tight budget with an economy of means – and it remains richer for it.  Nowhere do you feel the site or budget was restricted. It feels luxurious, homely, deeply private and relaxing. It’s an extraordinary ordinary house and a remarkable collaboration.’

RIBA House of the Year 2023: the shortlist

Cowshed (South Devon) by David Kohn Architects 

Last year David Kohn Architects won the 2022 RIBA House of the Year with Red House, and they have made the shortlist again with Cowshed, an unconventional family home. Nestled on an existing farmstead in Devon, the home/artists studio is a celebration of an agricultural outbuilding being repurposed into an inspiring, creative space. Built on the foundations of using simple honest materiality, the 1970s agricultural structure has been retained, with the home’s wooden beam skeleton proudly on show. Large arched windows reflect the owner’s artwork, and original concrete footings provide a welcomed balance of the existing and the repurposed, injecting fun colour into the stripped-back structure.

Hundred Acre Wood (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) by Denizen Works

A home that seems new, yet old, Hundred Acre Wood blends into its idyllic setting of Loch Awe. Thoughtfully constructed over an eight-year period, Denizen Works defines slow architecture. Hunkered into the banks of the Loch, the home is characterised by its sculptural exterior paying homage to baronial castles and tower houses of Scotland. An ode to the client's hatred of television, the textured walls are made from crushed TV screens, and offer a glimmer of erosion to the building, which adds to the ancient feel. Sheltered from the elements, the thick walls provide a fortress for the owner to admire the views from the large windows overlooking the Scottish wildlife. 

Made of Sand (Devon) by Studio Weave 

Unlike the name, Made of Sand is mostly constructed of a heavy timber frame, Western Red Cedar cladding, and panels of Douglas fir, creating a space that connects with the surrounding Blackdown Hills. The two-story annexe by Studio Weave, extends a traditional Devonshire stone cottage that embraces local craftsmen and traditional methods during its construction. Although a contemporary design, the use of local natural materials exposed both internally and externally, creates a calming environment to rest and recharge. 

Middle Avenue (Farnham) by Rural Office 

Nestled on a corner plot in a garden suburb of Farnham, Middle Avenue is an adaptable family home with a nod to late 19th-century architecture. The attention to detail is evident through the details in crafted red clay Keymer tiles, and a steeply pitched roof and white gables. The new building has replaced an inter-war bungalow in the Surrey village, with detailing that has earned its place on the shortlist. 

Saltmarsh House (Isle of Wight) by Niall McLaughlin Architects  

With uninterrupted views scaling the Isle of Wight, Niall McLaughlin Architects, the winners of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2022, have created Saltmarsh House which overlooks Bembridge Harbour. The delicate steel-framed pavilion and intricate glass details, add a sense of lightness that blends into its surroundings- as if designed to be in nature. Although the exterior is eye-catching the interior and simplistic repeated patterns give a subtle nod to minimalist architecture. The pyramidal copper roof adds to the delicacy, with large open windows taking in the cascading views. 

architecture.com 

Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize. The biennial accolade, which offers a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities for the winner, was designed to raise awareness and celebrate excellence in its field, as well as commemorate renowned Canadian landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander who died in 2021. 

Kongjian Yu: 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize winner

Yu is prolific and his growing portfolio includes the seminal 'sponge cities' model and campaign, which seeks to address urban flooding, caused by climate change. His proposal was so influential, it was adopted as national policy in China in 2013. Beyond that, Yu is principal designer at the landscape architecture firm Turenscape, a studio of over 400 employees, as well as the founder and leads the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture, and the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Peking University. 

The award was selected by an international seven-person jury, supported by Oberlander Prize Curator John Beardsley, and was picked out from over 300 worldwide nominations. The jury noted that Yu is a 'brilliant and prolific designer … [who] is also a force for progressive change in landscape architecture around the world.'

Gary Hilderbrand, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, recently said Yu is the 'all-time greatest spokesperson for landscape architecture in China—a nation that needs environmental rescue on a colossal scale.'

'Kongjian Yu has achieved the extraordinary,' said President and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation Charles A. Birnbaum. 'He is a landscape architect whose design philosophy and concepts, which interweave nature and culture, and are committed to design excellence, have been adopted as national policy in one of the world’s largest and most populous nations – that has international implications and global impact.'

turenscape.com 

tclf.org

The 2023 Obel Award has been revealed, going to American landscape studio Scape and its founder Kate Orff (member of our Wallpaper* USA 300) for the Living Breakwaters project – an inspiring ecosystems-driven piece of green infrastructure design off the shore of Staten Island in New York. Championing sustainable architecture through pioneering, research-based solutions with an eco soul, Scape's work and the particular project are in perfect alignment with the award's mission – to focus on the ecological and social responsibilities of architecture. 

Chair of the Obel award jury Martha Schwartz said: 'Breakwaters are an ancient idea for how to protect shorelines – and the people who live close to them – by building underwater seawalls to defend a harbour or a beach from the force of waves. Kate has designed an extraordinary, modern-day interpretation, the Living Breakwaters, which will not only protect humans and revitalise the coastline of New York City, but also restore lost marine biodiversity. This is a visionary project that tackles the full task of adaptation, and which has the capacity to inspire and to positively impact vulnerable shorelines worldwide.'

2023 Obel Award winner: Scape and founder Kate Orff

'Winning an architecture prize is really important for a project like this, which involved so many different people working together with a shared purpose. It is a true encouragement for community members, elected officials, landscape architects, ecologists and engineers, to come together and develop coastal adaptation projects wherever they are. It’s also an acknowledgement of the importance of thinking about design at a holistic, planetary scale. Our protective natural systems are in various stages of decline globally, and in order to repair them, we have to think and design systemically to tie the pieces back together. And that is an incredibly bold, creative act. Hopefully, this award can emphasise this point: that nature is a matter of design now and that we have to work fast and work together,' said Orff. 

Living Breakwaters is a complex project (led by Scape, but created by a multidisciplinary team) that required the reimagining of its Staten Island site following 2012's Superstorm Sandy. It comprises a mix of stones and ecologically designed concrete elements, which have been strategically placed to support fin fish, and other marine species, such as oysters in the natural, gradual restoration of the shoreline – the latter species in fact playing a key role as ‘co-designers’ by helping shape and develop the artificial reef formation. 

Orff, who recently also celebrated the opening of Tom Lee Park in Memphis, which she created together with Jeanne Gang's Studio Gang, was a critical player here too, in the quest to restore nature across the site. The design hopes to bring back ‘wonder and wildness’ to this part of Memphis, she told us at the time of our interview on the park. This part of Staten Island hopes to reap the rewards of her visionary design thinking too. 

obelaward.org 

scapestudio.com 

Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has scooped the 2024 Charlotte Perriand award. The honour, handed out annually by the Créateurs Design Awards in memory of the iconic French architect and designer, highlights Escobedo's 'daring concepts, visionary approach, and profound impact on the field'. 

'[Escobedo's] work exemplifies the qualities that this award seeks to recognise –boldness, innovation, and a commitment to shaping the future of design,' said co-founder of the Créateurs Design Association, Yuri Xavier. 

2024 Charlotte Perriand award: in Frida Escobedo's words

'In a field dominated by men, Charlotte Perriand created her own path: one that was fearlessly innovative yet deeply rooted in the belief that all beings have the right to beauty, comfort, and functionality. She shaped the world through her vast production of work while building a constellation of friends and colleagues, teaching us that collaboration is one of the most fundamental practices in the architectural discipline. Her multifaceted body of work defies a single classification, yet her experimentation seems to follow certain threads that anchor her curiosity to her surroundings (the places she lived in, the culture and history) and her personal history,' said Escobedo.

'To find myself acknowledged by this remarkable jury is an honour that resonates deeply within me. It serves as a testament to the enduring legacy of Charlotte Perriand, a legacy I am humbled and overjoyed to perpetuate.'

The Charlotte Perriand award was established two years ago, citing a mission to ‘honour trailblazers in architecture and design'. 

The 2022 Charlotte Perriand Award winner was American architect Jeanne Gang, the Chicago-based architect recognised for her inspirational portfolio of work – highlights of which include the ongoing American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation – and her standout project to date, the Aqua Tower, which is also ‘the tallest building in the world to be designed by a woman, at the time of its completion'. 

The award is part of the larger family of the Créateurs Design Awards, spanning architecture, interiors, and exhibition design. Nominations for all those categories are currently open to submissions, and the winners will be announced in a dedicated ceremony in Paris in early 2024 – the same event that will see Escobedo officially pick up her gong.

createursdesignawards.com 

fridaescobedo.com 

The 2023 Doolan Best Building award shortlist has been unveiled, bringing four Scottish structures to the spotlight as they compete for this year's gong – the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland's (RIAS) highest accolade. Officially known as The 2023 RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award, the honour's list includes Campus Central, University of Stirling by Page\Park Architects; Cuddymoss, North Ayrshire by Ann Nisbet Studio; Hundred Acre Wood, Argyll and Bute by Denizen Works; and Laidlaw Music Centre, University of St Andrews by Flanagan Lawrence. 

The jury, which consists of Tracy Meller (chair), senior partner, RSHP; Ellie Stathaki, architecture editor, Wallpaper*; and Chris Stewart, president, Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, will deliberate and announce the winner on 30 November 2023. 

Meller said: 'We have a tough job to select a winner from the four outstanding buildings on this year’s Doolan Award shortlist. Whether unlocking a tricky urban challenge or doing justice to a remarkable rural setting, each has a superb relationship with its context. Their clients’ briefs could not be more different, and yet each building demonstrates exceptional imagination, skill and flair. I know Andrew Doolan wanted the award established in his name to celebrate the very best of Scottish architecture, and this year’s shortlist does exactly that.'

2023 Doolan Best Building award: the shortlist

Campus Central, University of Stirling by Page\Park Architects

Part of the Stirling University campus, Campus Central by Page\Park Architects is an important intervention to the university's eclectic family of buildings. It was conceived to improve circulation and functionality, as well as revive its area of the campus. Part new build and part extensive reuse of a 1970s steel framed structure, the project includes associated landscape by Raeburn Farquhar Bowen. 

Cuddymoss, North Ayrshire by Ann Nisbet Studio

Nestled in its rural landscape in Ayrshire, all archetypal forms and minimalist interventions, Cuddymoss was conceived by its architect as a ‘building within a ruin’. Ann Nisbet Studio worked with the remains of an existing stone structure on site, adding subtle contemporary elements and a new timber-clad extension in a silver-toned wood. 

Hundred Acre Wood, Argyll and Bute by Denizen Works

Hundred Acre Wood is a private home with a distinctive identity, set overlooking Loch Awe. The structure's glimmering silver-grey exterior is down to its unusual skin – a rendering of recycled TV-screen material. Scottish architecture and the sculptural works of Eduardo Chillida informed the design, while the interior is planned around a generous central hall. 

Laidlaw Music Centre, University of St Andrews by Flanagan Lawrence

Respecting its leafy and historic surroundings, The University of St Andrews Laidlaw Music Centre responds to its site, offering a 21st-century hub for staff and students alike, while nodding to the existing built and natural landscape. The complex includes a main performance space – the McPherson Recital Room. 

rias.org.uk 

The RA Architecture Prize 2023 has been awarded to Shane de Blacam, it has just been announced. The Dublin based architect has been honoured for his 'inspiring contribution' to architecture, as well as 'his commitment to communal spaces for learning, exchange and contemplation'. 

De Blacam is in good company. The prestigious gong, which is now fifth year of the annual prize, and is supported by the Dorfman Foundation, has in the past been presented to architects including Wallmakers and Itsuko Hasegawa. 

RA Architecture Prize 2023: Shane de Blacam

The award's jury said: 'de Blacam’s buildings demonstrate a pleasure in simple local materials, combining loadbearing masonry and joinery. In both new buildings and sensitive historic restorations, de Blacam’s practice reminds us of the power of craftsmanship to create spaces where we can come together for stillness and reflection. His work has been a powerful influence on contemporary Irish architecture, and he is an inspirational figure for those he has taught and worked with.'

De Blacam founded his joint architectural practice, de Blacam and Meagher, together with partner John Meagher in 1976 and the pair collaborated on a slew of projects, until the latter's death in 2021. The former's experience in internationally acclaimed studios of the 20th century, such as Chamberlain, Powell and Bon in London and Louis I Kahn in Philadelphia, imbued his work with influences from modernist architecture which he translated into each scheme and context, often using natural materials, in particular wood. 

Vicky Richardson, head of architecture and Heinz curator at the Royal Academy said: 'The RA Architecture Prize is a chance to discover the work of an architect whose dedication to practice has been sustained and inspirational. Shane de Blacam’s buildings show us the power of architecture to bring people together in spaces that are generous and beautiful. The RA Dorfman Award finalists each represent distinct approaches to some of the most pressing challenges of our time, from climate change to socially produced habitats.'

De Blacam will deliver the 2023 RA Architecture Prize Lecture in October, as a result of his win.

'The first architect of the Royal Academy, William Chambers, built a masterpiece that he never saw, a small building north of Dublin city called the Casino, completed in the late eighteenth century. I have learnt all that I know and love about that period of European architecture from this building. On behalf of myself and the young architects at the practice, as well as partners John Meagher and Andy Richardson, and all those who designed and drew our buildings, we are humbled, grateful and honoured to be recognised in the company of painters, sculptors and others, at the Royal Academy in London,' he said. 

Today, the shortlist for the Royal Academy Dorfman Award has also been announced, naming Harquitectes (Spain), Taller COMUNAL (Mexico), Taller Gabriela Carillo (Mexico), and Tropical Space (Vietnam) as its finalists. The winner will be announced on 2 November 2023, and will be receiving a prize of £10,000. 

royalacademy.org.uk 

deblacamandmeagher.com 

The Architecture AU Award for Social Impact, Australia’s first award to acknowledge the impact projects have in the community, has announced its joint winners. Groote Archipelago Housing Programme, from The Fulcrum Agency, has been recognised for its work with the Anindilyakwa community, alongside Puntukurnu AMS Healthcare Hub by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture, a state-of-the-art health facility in a remote location.

‘The opportunity of architecture is not just in the creation of buildings,’ says Emma Williamson, The Fulcrum Agency co-founder and partner. ‘We want to seize this to leverage a new way of practising that knowingly maximises impact.’ 

Adds Elaine Mamarika, director of the Anindilyakwa Housing Aboriginal Corporation: ‘It’s important for Indigenous people that we have our own housing committees, chairs and directors. Strong leaders, strong voices.’

Architecture AU Award for Social Impact: the winners

For Ka Wai Yeung, director of Kaunitz Yeung Architecture, collaborating with the  Anindilyakwa community on the award-winning project was an enormous privilege. ‘This collaborative approach has enabled the projects to be much more than the sum of its parts and to have benefits far beyond the projects themselves,’ she says. ‘We hope that the Social Impact Awards shine a light on better ways to practise architecture that can be broadly applied to place our profession at the centre of forging a better future.’

‘This is the first architecture award in Australia focused on social impact,’ notes jury convenor Dr Rory Hyde, associate professor in Architecture at the University of Melbourne. ‘We’ve set it up to recognise and celebrate the outstanding design projects that make a difference to the public, to local communities, and to underrepresented groups. Our hope is to change the way architects, clients, and the public think about design. It shouldn’t just be something that only a few people can afford, but a critical tool in improving people’s lives.' 

'The awarded projects are all extremely well-designed and create a powerful impact on the ground. It is the link between these two things – design and impact – that we are seeking to celebrate. It’s a design award, so it’s not just about how virtuous the function of the project is, but about how the space is conceived or arranged helps to support this mission. How does the building work to support the client? The inhabitant? The neighbours? The planet? How does the specific spatial organisation and fabrication of the project serve larger public outcomes?’

aausocialimpact.com.au 

Professor Yasmeen Lari, the architect who scooped the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2023, one of her field’s most prestigious honours, has been honoured with a celebratory dinner this week in London. Lari, who was announced as the award recipient about a month ago, is globally respected for her ongoing work on zero-carbon self-build concepts for displaced populations. 

The accolade, which was personally approved by His Majesty The King, recognises outstanding contribution to the architecture profession worldwide. Past Royal Gold Medallists include Balkrishna Doshi (2022), Sir David Adjaye OBE (2021), Dame Zaha Hadid (2016), Frank Gehry (2000), Lord Norman Foster (1983), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941) and Sir George Gilbert Scott (1859). 

Yasmeen Lari: RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2023 

Lari's work and professional trajectory are remarkable. The first registered female architect in her home country of Pakistan, she studied in the UK before going back to work in Karachi in 1964, establishing her studio, Lari Associates. She went on to develop a range of contemporary buildings, from single-family houses (including her own) to large-scale schemes that define the country’s urban landscape to this day. Examples include several government, business, and financial institutions, such as the Pakistan State Oil headquarters. 

The architect retired, before returning to practice in 2000, focusing her efforts on sustainability and housing in the realm of humanitarian work. The Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which Lari co-founded with her husband, Suhail Zaheer Lari, in 1980, is a pioneer in designing housing for disaster relief, creating some 50,000, mostly self-build, dwellings. 

'I was so surprised to hear this news and of course totally delighted! I never imagined that as I focus on my country’s most marginalised people – venturing down uncharted vagabond pathways – I could still be considered for the highest of honours in the architectural profession,' said Lari, when she heard the news about the RIBA Gold Medal 2023. 

‘RIBA has heralded a new direction for the profession, encouraging all architects to focus not only on the privileged but also humanity at large that suffers from disparities, conflicts and climate change. There are innumerable opportunities to implement principles of circular economy, de-growth, transition design, eco-urbanism, and what we call Barefoot Social Architecture (BASA) to achieve climate resilience, sustainability and eco justice in the world.’

Part W, the action group championing gender equity in the built environment, were heavily involved in Lari's nomination for the 2023 award – with Alisha Morenike Fisher from Migrant’s Bureau writing the documentation, and Hilary Satchwell, founding member of Part W putting it forward. Their contribution was part of their The Alternative List campaign, striving for ‘greater recognition of the contribution of women to the field of architecture.’

‘As one of my mentors since 2018 and one of the reasons environmental needs have been at the forefront of how I hope to design, Yasmeen Lari continues to inspire, advocate and design for our changing climates and land. It has been a privilege from day one to learn from Lari, her work through barefoot social architecture and I hope more recognition for her work enables further attention of what is currently happening with housing issues, displacement and natural disasters in Pakistan,’ says Fisher. 

‘It was an honour to chair the committee that selected Yasmeen Lari. An inspirational figure, she moved from a large practice centred on the needs of international clients to focussing solely on humanitarian causes. Lari’s mission during her “second” career has empowered the people of Pakistan through architecture, engaging users in design and production. She has shown us how architecture changes lives for the better,' stated RIBA president Simon Allford, when the award was announced. 

‘Lari’s work in championing zero carbon and zero waste construction is exemplary. She has reacted imaginatively and creatively making affordable projects that address the real and often urgent need for accommodation, and basic services, but with generosity and an eye for the potential of everyday materials and crafts to make architecture at all scales. Her way of working also sets out to address the physical and psychological damage caused by major natural disasters – disaster that sadly inevitably will be ever more prevalent in our densely populated and climate challenged planet.'

architecture.com 

Nigerian artist-designer Demas Nwoko has won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2023, an honour offered by the Biennale Architettura in every edition, and the award was presented to him in Venice at the event's grand opening. The artist, architect and designer has excelled in a range of creative fields throughout his long career – he was born in in 1935 in Idumuje-Ugboko, a rural town in southern Nigeria. Now, his pioneering work has been acknowledged internationally as the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 celebrated Nwoko during the global event's opening days. The distinction was announced upon the recommendation of curator Lesley Lokko and following the approval of La Biennale’s board of directors chaired by Roberto Cicutto. 

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2023 winner: Demas Nwoko

The 88-year-old Nwoko said that he 'hoped his body of work helps build a foundation for the future' for young architects today practising in Nigeria, and beyond. His explorations in the vernacular of his region, as well as in sustainable architecture, are inspiring and indeed propose ways of working with local materials and climate in a way that feels timeless – and resonates with today's architectural discourse around environmentally friendly building. He still works today, saying: 'I still want to improve on what I did, not just the design but on the technology of building. Whatever I work on – art, design, architecture – comes from the same process of creativity. The aesthetics must also include function, and today that is often forgotten.'

Lokko said at the award's announcement recently: 'One of the central themes of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition is an approach to architecture as an “expanded” field of endeavours, encompassing both the material and immaterial worlds; a space in which ideas are as important as artefacts, particularly in the service of what is yet to come. With all of its emphasis on the future, however, it seems entirely fitting that the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2023 should be awarded to someone whose material works span the past 70 years, but whose immaterial legacy – approach, ideas, ethos – is still in the process of being evaluated, understood and celebrated.'

She continued: 'Although relatively few, Nwoko’s buildings in Nigeria fulfil two critical roles. They are forerunners of the sustainable, resource-mindful, and culturally authentic forms of expression now sweeping across the African continent – and the globe – and they point towards the future, no mean achievement for someone whose work is still largely unknown, even at home. In 1977, writing about Nwoko’s first commission, to build the complex for the Dominican Institute in Ibadan, the architectural critic Noel Moffett wrote: 'Here, under a tropical sun, architecture and sculpture combine in a way which only Gaudí perhaps, among architects, has been able to do so convincingly'.'

labiennale.org 

The ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact, which recognises architecture’s positive impact on public space, has announced its 2023 shortlist. Architecture Media, with presenting partner Melbourne School of Design, are at the helm of the programme designed to reward practices prioritising social benefits over aesthetics.

‘In recent years, there has been a shift in architectural approach – with emphasis placed on the relationship of a building to its community or users, rather than simply on the built form itself,’ says Katelin Butler, Jury chair and Architecture Media editorial director. ‘This increasing focus on social values is something we’d like to celebrate, promote and encourage – prompting us to the launch of the ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact. The inaugural shortlist demonstrates the multitude of ways that our built environment can have an impact – from taking research into practice and deep community engagement to providing economy opportunities and fostering social cohesion.’

Dr Rory Hyde, professor in architecture, curatorial design and practice at the University of Melbourne, led a jury which included Troy Casey, co-founder and director of Blacklash Creative; Dr Esther Charlesworth, founder of Architects Without Frontiers; Dr Ben Gauntlett, disability discrimination commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission; Jeremy McLeod, founding director of Breathe; and Katelin Butler, editorial director at Architecture Media. Their shortlist of over 30 projects emphasise both social benefit as well as a creative design ethos.

The ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact 2023 shortlist

• Anna O’Gorman Architect for Anne Street Garden Villas, Queensland
• Arup for Terrigal Boardwalk and Rockpool, New South Wales
• Austin McFarland Architects for First Steps Count Child and Community Centre, New South Wales
• Bent Architecture for WAYSS Youth Transition Hub, Victoria
• Cooper Scaife Architects for Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, New South Wales
• Cumulus for Goulburn Street Housing, Tasmania
• DKO for Foyer Central, New South Wales
• DKO for Gibbons Street, New South Wales
• EIW Architects in collaboration with Metio and Four Landscape Studio for Rawa Community School, Western Australia Fender Katsalidis for MCM Frontyard, Victoria Fieldwork for Collingwood Yards, Victoria
• Guymer Bailey Architects for Niddrie Autistic School, New South Wales
• Incidental Architecture for Nungalinya, Northern Territory
• Judd Studio for Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services, New South Wales
• Kaunitz Yeung Architecture for Puntukurnu AMS Healthcare Hub, Western Australia
• Law Architects for Carlton Learning Precinct, Victoria
• Marra and Yeh Architects for Dempsey Warehouse, New South Wales
• Marra and Yeh Architects for Shelter at Rainforest Village, Malaysia
• MGS Architects for Ozanam House, Victoria
• Monash Informal Cities Lab for Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments – Project Demonstration Sites, Philippines Muir and Openwork for Victorian Family Violence Memorial, Victoria Newscape Design for Evans Lookout Access Upgrade, New South Wales
• NH Architecture for Village 21, Victoria
• NMBW Architecture Studio in association with Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) for St Albans Housing, Victoria Office for Retain, Repair, Reinvest, Victoria Penhale and Winter with Sandra Harben for Gathering Place, New South Wales
• POD (People Oriented Design) with Coburn Architecture for Gurriny Yealamucka Health and Wellbeing Centre, Queensland Refresh Studio for Architecture for Habitat on Juers, Queensland Sibling Architecture for Arts Project Australia, Victoria
• Studio Bright for Women’s Property Initiatives Older Women’s Housing Project, Victoria
• Studio Tate for The Living Room, Victoria
• The Anganwadi Project for Bholu 17, India
• The Fulcrum Agency for Groote Archipelago Housing Programme, Northern Territory
• These Are The Projects We Do Together for Testing Grounds, Victoria
• Tonkin Zulaikha Greer for Odyssey House Family Recovery Centre, New South Wales
• Totalspace Design for Adelaide Women’s Prison Accommodation and the UTurn Program, South Australia
• UDLA for Curtin University Yarning Circle, Western Australia
• Urbanframeworks for The DADAA Hub Project, Western Australia
• Yalinguth for Yalinguth, Victoria
• Presenting Partner Media Partners Organizery 

architectureau.com 

The Melanos watchtower by architecture studio Anastasiou Misseri stands tall amid the Mediterranean nature of Cyprus’ Akamas National Park. Completed in summer 2022, the project was developed with a view to multiplying and expanding, designed and built as a prototype for successive towers of its kind in the region. This brief meant the architects had to create a concept without knowing where their structures might end up in the future – though all will maintain the same functionality, and use of natural, local materials in the design. 

Melanos wildfire watchtower by Anastasiou Misseri

Run by Stephanie Misseri and Anastasiou Michalis, the young architecture studio is based in Nicosia and was founded in 2020. So successful was this scheme for the practice, that it led to a gong at the Cyprus State Architecture Awards. These annual recognitions comprise five categories and cover newcomers, collective housing and more; Anastasiou Misseri scooped a Young Architects Award. The practice also took part in the 10th Biennale of Young Greek Architects in 2021/22. 

Raw stone and concrete make up the base of the structure, reflecting the materials in the surrounding environment. This base is composed of three separate elements, respectively containing the toilet, a water tank, and solar panel batteries and a curved staircase leading up to the second tier of the building. There, within a timber, metal and glass volume with cement flooring, the curved staircase structure softens the angular lines of the watchtower’s overall outline, echoing the natural landscape. 

The top of the watchtower comprises a glass sheltered compartment and wraparound outdoor space. There, a cantilevered roof ensures a clear panoramic view towards the surrounding nature. A roof of cross-laminated timber, seam zinc panels and thermally treated timber cladding crowns spruce plywood-lined interiors, which hold a compact kitchen and a bench – a simple but functional detail in this small but perfectly formed, soft-toned structure.

anastasioumisseri.com 

The winner of the Doolan Award 2022 is quietly nestled among green trees, set deep within the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Quarry Studios, a project by London-based architecture practice Moxon Architects, is a balanced mix of a modern office space and a community café, all wrapped within a single building that has just won the Scottish architecture world's biggest accolade, scooping the coveted Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award 2022 by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS). 

Doolan Award 2022: Moxon Architects’ Quarry Studios

Designed for the architecture studio's own use, as well as the region's community, and tourists who stop on their way to visit nearby Balmoral and the park's own verdant expanses, Quarry Studios is, as its name hints, tucked into the bowl of a former quarry. Low-lying and largely made of local timber, the structure blends well with its surroundings. 

The winning design was up against four other remarkable buildings, in competition for the award: Forth Valley College – Falkirk Campus by Reiach and Hall Architects; High Sunderland, Galashiels by Loader Monteith; Jedburgh Grammar Campus, Jedburgh by Stallan-Brand Architecture; and Lockerbie Sawmill by Konishi Gaffney.

'Comparing such a wide variety of buildings was hard, but Quarry Studios demonstrates exceptionally careful thought in creating a high-quality and tactile building that is full of detail, while also delivering broader social outcomes. Moxon Architects have designed a building that is highly sustainable – not only in terms of its carbon footprint and support for local biodiversity, but also in how it acts as a catalyst for supporting local businesses and its community,' said RIAS Doolan Award 2022 jury chair, architect Amin Taha.

rias.org.uk

moxonarchitects.com