ARCity Office's Six Bricolage Houses wins the RIBA International Emerging Architect title for 2024

The winner of this year's RIBA International Emerging Architect award has been named by the Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA) as the Chinese-based practice ARCity Office for their Six Bricolage Houses project in Shenzhen, China. The honor recognizes practices established in the last 10 years that are making a significant contribution to international architecture.

The project provided updates and modifications to six houses situated in the alleys of the Nantou Ancient City while preserving the social dynamics and spatial traits that make up the urban village and define the traditional "handshake building" typology.

Zhang Yuxing and Han Jing of ARCity Office describe: "In this project, we strived to demonstrate that this 'contradictory unity,' actively designed by architects, not only creates delightful mixed-use spaces and civic public realm but also possesses the greatest potential for sustainable growth from the very beginning. Perhaps this represents a new paradigm for future cities and architecture - what we call 'Bricolage Architecture.'"

More space was added to each of the home's floor plans through the partial cutting of walls and addition of cantilevers as part of a process that also increased access to natural light in each structure. Vicariously, the modifications also contribute to the public realm in what RIBA's jury dubbed a "complex urban rural mosaic," in the end resulting in a "unique and pioneering model for urban village renewal."

The architects add: "Winning the RIBA International Emerging Architect 2024 is not only an honour but also a significant affirmation of our innovative experiments. These experiments actually originate from the urban village where the project is located. It serves as an excellent sample, cleverly integrating formal spaces corresponding to the modernist city model with informal spaces corresponding to a wild, spontaneously growing state. This fusion gives rise to a 'contradictory unity' composed of various elements such as old and new, heritage and life, poverty and prosperity, ruins and construction, wilderness and artificiality, everyday life and monumentality."

The gross building area of the six Bricolage Houses, which were completed in late 2022, was just short of 26,000 square feet at 2,400 square meters. Zhang Yuxing is also one of the founders and chief organizers of the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (UABB). They join Peris + Toral Arquitectes, the Spanish winners of the fourth RIBA International Prize, which was announced jointly. Hooman Balazadeh/Hooba Design (2021), Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum (2018), and the Rural Urban Framework (2016) are the other previous RIBA International Emerging Architect winners.