AYA 2024 shortlists: Young Architect of the Year, sponsored by Ryno

Earlier this year BD announced all the architects who made it on to the shortlists for our prestigious annual Architect of the Year Awards.

Now we are shining the spotlight on each category in turn and publishing a selection of the images that impressed the judges.

This year’s judges include: Yẹmí Aládérun, head of development, Meridian Water, Enfield Council; Alexandra Andone, associate director, PRP; Amr Assaad, board director, Buckley Gray Yeoman; Lee Bennett, partner, design chair and school lead, Sheppard Robson; Sarah Cary, chief development officer Imperial College, White City Campus; Irene Craik, director, Levitt Bernstein; Alex Ely, founding director, Mae; Martyn Evans, creative director, LandsecU+I; Gavin Hale-Brown, director, Henley Halebrown; Tanvir Hasan, director emeritus, Donald Insall Associates; Lee Higson, board director, Eric Parry Architects; Nigel Hugill, chief executive, Urban & Civic; Kirsten Lees, managing partner, Grimshaw; Oliver Lowrie, director and founder, Ackroyd Lowrie; Anna Mansfield, director, Publica; Michelle McDowell, non-executive director, Civic; Ian McKnight, founding partner, Hall McKnight; John McRae, director and trustee, Orms; David Partridge, chairman, Related Argent; Sarah Robinson, asociate director, The King’s Foundation; Philippa Simpson, director for buildings and renewal, Barbican Centre; Kevin Singh, head, Manchester School of Architecture; Karl Singporewala, founder, Karl Singporewala Design Bureau; Jonathan Smales, founder and CEO, Human Nature; Elizabeth Smith, chairman and regional director, Purcell; Alan Stanton, principal director, Stanton Williams; Amin Taha, chairperson, Groupwork; Magali Thomson, project lead for placemaking, Great Ormond Street Hospital; Tatiana von Preussen, co-founder and director, vPPR; Jo Wright, director, Perkins&Will.

Today’s shortlist is for the category of Young Architect of the Year, sponsored by Ryno.

Artefact

Set up in 2021, Artefact describes its work as ‘inspired by the culture of people, places and materials’. Triangle House, a suburban house extension, reflects the client’s Caribbean heritage while also demonstrating a lean, low-carbon building approach. The Common Rooms in London’s Clapton is a replicable model for providing community infrastructure by retrofitting underused buildings. The entry also includes its Project Stone research, which advocates greater use of stone in construction.

Brisco Loran

Brisco Loran believes in the capacity of architecture to uplift and to facilitate connection. Its entry includes Studio Nencini, a RIBA Award-winning reconfiguration and studio extension of a home in Norwich. Costa’s Barbers creates a live-work space occupied by the practice in a former retail space on London’s Battersea High Street. Old Rectory revives a derelict house in Lincolnshire into a low-energy home.

Magri Williams

Based in Hackney in London, the practice describes itself as creating design-led homes with a calm and crafted environment, and a focus on craft, nature, light and sustainability. Four submitted projects include Magri Williams’s first completed scheme, the full house refurbishment and extension of a house on Roslyn Road, Haringey, conceived as a calm refuge from London life. Reighton Road is house-to-flats conversion designed to give each unit a connection to nature.

Michael Collins Architects

The 8-strong practice is inspired by the hybrid suburban and semi-rural context of its surroundings in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Completed projects include Jewellery Box House, an energy-efficient extension of a Victoria terrace in Herne Hill, South London, clad in oxidised copper and charred larch. Two under-construction projects are included in the entry – an off-grid rural house in Hertfordshire and Salt-Marsh House, a transformation of a costal cottage in Norfolk.

Novak Hiles Architects

The practice believes in architecture that is ‘practical, sensitive to its context and infused with character and delight’. Bella Mews is a new build development of two, dual-aspect dwellings on a brownfield garage site in Enfield, North London. Perforated House is a retrofit of a 1960s, ex-council home in South London with a decorative brickwork screen. The entry is completed by two residential schemes with planning permission in Hackney Wick and Barnet.

VATRAA

VATRAA, a practice based in London and Bucharest, describes itself as creating timeless buildings. Its entry features three house projects - the transformation of a 1980s ex-council house in Southwark, a house extension in Stoke Newington and the repair, restoration and extension of a derelict house on the Putney riverside. The practice also submitted its winning design in the Plastic Monument International Competition, which repurposed 16,000 recycled bottles.