The W Awards honor Nguyễn Hà and Jennifer Frewen as Moira Gemmill and MJ Long Prize winners for 2024

Organizers of the W Awards have just announced their selection of this year's recipients of the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture and MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice via a special ceremony held today, March 7th, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

The annual awards program, led since 2012 by UK-based publications The Architectural Review and the Architect's Journal, aims to "raise the profile of women and non-binary people in architecture worldwide, inspiring change as a united voice of this global call for respect, diversity, and equality."

Both winners are joined by recipients of the Jane Drew Prize for Architecture and Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, who were announced last month to be Polish-born French architect Iwona Buczkowska and the pioneering American social activist Angela Davis, respectively. Each winner was selected over three others in either category on the February shortlist. 

2024 MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice: Jennifer Frewen of Takero Shimazaki Architects 

Frewen is an Associate Director in the firm's London office, where she has been employed since 2008. Frewen studied at London South Bank University before entering practice. She was named the winner for her work leading the firm's interior redesign of the new global headquarters of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) in Battersea Square, which was completed in 2022. 

For the project, Frewen and her team connected studios and learning spaces into one network of indoor 'urban plazas' in such a way that maintained an atmosphere of constant movement, openness, and transparency for the dancers without any significant alterations to the building's outer envelope. 

The jury commented: "What was notable was how rounded and impressive Frewen’s practice was. You really felt inside each project when she spoke about them: she was clearly in total control, with a deep understanding of everything she touched. Frewen is one of those insightful, sensitive leaders who are so good at listening and communicating they almost do it by stealth — an individual so busy doing their job, they don’t get a chance to step back and see what they have achieved."

2024 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture: Nguyễn Hà, founder of ARB Architects

Nguyễn formed ARB Architects with Laurent Cantalou and Kurt Aellen in Hanoi in 2010. She moved to the country after completing her studies at the ETH Zürich. Important cultural commissions like The Đạo Mẫu Museum and Temple have followed in Vietnam along with other designs in a diverse portfolio that has garnered local acclaim and considerable international publicity. 

The jury commented: "Nguyễn Hà sees what isn’t visible and finds a project that isn’t a project. The architecture preserves important practices of craftsmanship, achieved through resilience and persistence; you can feel the hours of work. It is work for that specific place."

Noelia Monteiro, the co-founder of São Paulo's Estúdio Flume, was also highly commended for the Moira Gemmill Prize. 

Frewen and Nguyễn follow previous winners Kirsten Gabriëls Webb and Viviana Pozzoli, who took home the same honors last year as part of the W Awards' 11th edition.