Written by Aycan Yılmaz

The RIBA International Awards are among architecture's most prestigious awards, celebrating outstanding architecture worldwide. Each shortlisted project is visited by the jury to be evaluated in terms of visionary thinking, design excellence, and social impact.

The winners of both the RIBA International Emerging Architect award and RIBA International Prize for 2024 have just been announced. Let's have a look at these projects! 👀

RIBA International Emerging Architect 2024

RIBA International Emerging Architect is given to recognize the architects making a significant contribution to the field of international architecture while having been practicing for only 10 years or less.

This year, ARCity Office has been announced as the winner of the RIBA International Emerging Architect prize for the project Six Bricolage Houses.

The project, located in Shenzhen, China, is a series of six self-built homes. It has been built as an innovative model for urban renewal. The project addresses the growing housing needs while seamlessly integrating with the streets of the historic city center.

Zhang Yuxing + Han Jing, of the ARCity Office, said:

“Winning the RIBA International Emerging Architect 2024 is not only an honour but also a significant affirmation of our innovative experiments. These experiments actually originate from the urban village where the project is located. It serves as an excellent sample, cleverly integrating formal spaces corresponding to the modernist city model with informal spaces corresponding to a wild, spontaneously growing state.

This fusion gives rise to a “contradictory unity” composed of various elements such as old and new, heritage and life, poverty and prosperity, ruins and construction, wilderness and artificiality, everyday life and monumentality.

In this project, we strived to demonstrate that this “contradictory unity,” actively designed by architects, not only creates delightful mixed-use spaces and civic public realm but also possesses the greatest potential for sustainable growth from the very beginning. Perhaps this represents a new paradigm for future cities and architecture - what we call Bricolage Architecture.”

 

RIBA International Prize 2024

The RIBA International Prize is given to the year's most significant and inspirational project globally. Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing has been named as the winner of this year's RIBA International Prize.

The project, located in Cornellà, near Barcelona, Spain, is a six-story social housing development. Consisting of 85 homes, the building is designed by Peris + Toral Arquitectes to rethink the residential design and construction approach.

The Modulus Matrix is a modular system concept inspired by Japanese homes. Using a tatami mat module of 3.6m × 3.6m, the rooms are connected through enfilade passages rather than corridors.

RIBA President Muyiwa Oki said:

“Peris + Toral Arquitectes’ inspiring housing project in Spain embodies the kind of transformational spirit that is both aspirational and demonstrates genuine change. By embracing flexibility and longevity through long life, loose fit architecture, it is a radical approach to social housing that creates a place designed for people to adapt and inhabit in the long term. This visionary scheme allows for new and future ideas of what constitutes a family, and should be seen as blueprint for delivering sustainable, quality housing around the world at scale. It is a strong example of the ways in which architects can create new and implementable solutions to the common challenge of creating housing for all.”