Mike Tonkin joins this year’s jury for the AR House awards
Mike Tonkin is an architect and lecturer, having taught at schools of architecture across the UK including the Architectural Association, the Bartlett School of Architecture, and the University of Cambridge. He lectures on global vernacular architecture and nature-focused, place-specific, storytelling methodology for architectural innovation.
Mike founded the practice Tonkin Liu with Anna Liu in 2002, where his practice has been consistently informed by the pursuit of formal lessons observed from the natural world, often incorporating cutting-edge digital fabrication processes. The pair’s innovative shell lace structure has led to advances in architecture and engineering applications, as well as in medical devices.
The practice has been recognised with numerous RIBA awards and was shortlisted for the AR New Into Old award in 2021 for a project that transformed a ruined water tower into a house. The practice also won the Cultural Regeneration category in AR Future Projects 2023, with the York Minster Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills
AR House
Launched in 2010, the AR House awards recognise originality and excellence in the design of dwellings. The house – a key rite of passage for architects – offers the potential for innovation and is critical to the ferment and crystallisation of new ideas. Looking for projects built in the last five years, the AR House awards recognises creativity and originality, and ideas that push the type forward whatever the scale and construction cost.
