AR Reading List 034: past AREA winners

The architectural industry is ripe with awards that celebrate long and fruitful careers. Gold Medals and Pritzker prizes commend seasoned architects and their lifetimes of achievements. Since 1999, the AR Emerging Architecture awards (AREA) have carved out a space to celebrate the fresh thinking of architectural practices yet to reach the heady heights of the industries' gold medals. While the AR takes no credit for winners’ subsequent success, the celebrated designers have gone on to forge their way in the industry after the award promoted them on the global stage.

This week’s Reading List looks back at the previous seven winners of the AR Emerging Architecture awards. We revisit play spaces carved out of the urban fabric in both London and Thailand, architects who share their authorship with locals in rural Mexico, remarkable homes in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as social housing in Paris and an artist’s studio in Cuernavaca. As this year’s 16 shortlisted practices prepare to present their work to the judges in December, the Reading List offers an opportunity to track the trajectories of the seven previous winners below and the extraordinary careers that ensued.

Pillar of the community: Comunal Taller de Arquitectura, Mexico, Eleanor Beaumont, AR November 2019
‘The prototype has opened a dialogue about recognising indigenous building systems, giving the architect an important opportunity to influence public housing policy’
AREA 2019 winner

Nature nurtured: Carla Juaçaba Studio, Brazil, Manon Mollard, AR November 2018
‘Early sketches, crude mock-ups and unfinished canvases reveal the roots of creativity laid bare, and open up the imagination’
AREA 2018 winner

Peripheral vision: Rue Bonnet social housing in Paris, France by Avenier Cornejo Architectes, Eleanor Beaumont, AR November 2017
‘Projects such as these are redefining the city, shifting suburban identities and boundaries and reasserting the intensely urban fabric’
AREA 2017 winner

Mural Idyll: La Tallera Siqueiros in Cuernavaca by Frida Escobedo, Manon Mollard, AR October 2016
‘The aim is to merge public space with cultural institution, turning this new venue into a lively museum, workshop, artist and research residency, and meeting point for the production and criticism of art’
AREA 2016 winner

Reinventing the playground: Supermachine Studio’s 10 Cal Tower in Thailand, Pirak Anurakyawachon, AR December 2015
‘Everything about the Labyrinth, or 10 Cal Tower – so named for the average amount of energy you’ll expend walking around the staircase – is playful’
AREA 2015 winner

Boundary Window in Tokyo by Shingo Masuda + Katsuhisa Otsubo, Taro Igarashi, AR December 2014
‘When someone in the garden catches a person inside opening the window, this misalignment is enhanced, creating an unexpected viewpoint’
AREA 2014 winner

Lullaby Factory by Studio Weave, London, Phineas Harper, AR November 2013
‘Playful in appearance and sincere in intent, it demonstrates a lightness of touch that could lift the spirits of many neglected urban spaces’
AREA 2013 winner (joint)