Tom Emerson (6a architects)

In 2001, Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald founded 6a architects. Based in London, the practice has gained an international reputation for its housing, cultural, educational and mixed-use projects. In their designs, 6a deals with the reuse of already existing elements or what is at hand on site. However, it is not only their aim to reuse old buildings or their materials, but to also recycle the stories that support the emergence of a new authorial approach. One project they have completed that has re-use at its core is Great Things Lie Ahead, Holborn House, which won the RIBA National Award and the RIBA London Award in 2023. They have also worked on several significant contemporary art galleries in London, including South London Gallery, Raven Row and The Perimeter.

Teaching and research is a continuous backdrop to their work in the studio. Tom Emerson has been a Professor of Architecture at ETH Zurich since 2010 and became the Dean of the Department of Architecture in 2021. Together with his students, he has designed and built 1:1 pavilions, so that the students can test both the construction possibilities of the materials and the spatial properties of their designs. Emerson is also the author of a number of articles not only on architecture, but also on art and literature.