Categories open for entries
Categories open for entries
MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice
This award celebrates architects who are excelling in UK-based practices. Nominees are judged on an overall body of work with an emphasis on a project completed within the past two years. This could be a large project for a multinational client or one focusing on more modest design interventions within a small practice. Like countless others, MJ Long’s contribution to many of her buildings is often forgotten, including her input to the British Library (1973–98), designed with Colin St John Wilson. This award seeks to recognise the sometimes obscured contribution of architects working within practice.
Previous winners of the MJ Long Prize include Jennifer Frewen, associate director at Takero Shimazaki Architects for the Royal Academy of Dance (2024), Kirsten Gabriëls Webb, associate at Sergison Bates, for De Korenbloem sheltered housing (2023); Islington Architects’ Fiona Monkman for Centurion Close (2022); Alice Brownfield, associate director at Peter Barber Architects, for the series of new homes and interventions she led at Kiln Place in Camden (2021) and Tracy Meller, partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, for her work on the Centre Building at the London School of Economics (2020).
Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecure
Named in memory of the late Moira Gemmill, this award celebrates excellence in design and a bright future for designers under the age of 45 from all over the world. Entrants must be a founder or leading partner in their practice; partnerships and collectives can also apply as a team. The prize is awarded in recognition of an overall body of work, with an emphasis on a project completed within the past two years.
Recent winners of the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture include Nguyễn Hà of ARB Architects (2024), Viviana Pozzoli, co-founder of Equipo de Arquitectura (2023); Swati Janu, founder of Delhi-based Social Design Collective (2022); Ariadna Artigas, Anna Clemente, Eulàlia Daví, Cristina Gamboa, Laura Lluch and Núria Vila, all members of the Barcelona-based cooperative Lacol (2021); Francesca Torzo (2020); DnA founder Xu Tiantian (2019) and Gloria Cabral, partner at Gabinete de Arquitectura (2018).
Prize for Research in Gender and Architecture
Now in its third year, this prize recognises research projects that investigate the complex relations between gender and architecture, and challenge patriarchal spatial systems. Sited within architectural practice or outside it, in the homes, cities and landscapes we all inhabit, eligible research projects will be critical, educational or propositional in outlook. They can be undertaken by individuals (of any gender) or collectives from around the world and, in terms of format, can include essays, graphic novels and other publication forms; exhibitions, workshops and events; unbuilt design proposals as well as models, games and artworks.
Previous winners include art, design and architecture group Mycket for the installation Heaven (2024); and feminist architectural action group Part W for their Women’s Work mapping project (2023).
Non-enterable categories
The Jane Drew Prize for Architecture
The Jane Drew Prize recognises an architectural designer who, through their work and commitment to design excellence, has raised the profile of women in architecture.
The prize is named after the great Jane Drew, who was a spirited advocate for women in a male-dominated profession. She graduated from the Architectural Association in 1929 into a profession that was unwelcoming to women at best. She started her own practice after the Second World War, and her work played a substantial role in introducing the modern movement to the UK.
Previous winners include: Iwona Buczkowska (2024), Kazuyo Sejima (2023), Farshid Moussavi (2022), Kate Macintosh (2021), Yasmeen Lari (2020), Elizabeth Diller (2019), Amanda Levete (2018), Denise Scott Brown (2017), Odile Decq (2016), Grafton Architects’ founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara (2015), Kathryn Findlay of Ushida Findlay (2014), Eva Jiřičná (2013) and Zaha Hadid (2012).
The Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for Contribution to Architecture
The Ada Louise Huxtable Prize recognises individuals working in the wider architectural industry who have made a significant contribution to architecture and the built environment.
The prize is named after architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable, who made history by being the first full-time architecture critic at a US newspaper when she joined the New York Times, and was later awarded the first Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1970. The award recognises the contribution of individuals from fields adjacent to and that intersect with architecture, such as education, curation, writing, activism, art and photography. Previous winners include: political activist, philosopher and writer Angela Davis (2024), founder of the CCA Phyllis Lambert (2023), artist Mona Hatoum (2022), educator and writer Lesley Lokko (2021), academic and writer Beatriz Colomina (2020), photographer Hélène Binet (2019), Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp (2018), sculptor Rachel Whiteread (2017), former director of the Serpentine Galleries Julia Peyton-Jones (2016), architectural patron Jane Priestman (2015).
The winners for both these prizes are selected by the AR and AJ editorial teams.