MJ Long Prize 2024 awarded to t-sa associate director Jennifer Frewen

Working within an existing envelope, the architect led a team reimagining the building’s footprint as a continuation of the surrounding city. Studios and learning spaces are connected by a network of indoor ‘streets’ and ‘urban plazas’ while large internal windows provide views into studios, ensuring that dance animates the whole building. In his review in this month’s Architectural Review, Nile Bridgeman praised the building's ‘architecture of deftness and depth’ and the ‘clarity and calm’ of its design.

Frewen, an associate director at t-sa since 2021, originally joined the practice in 2008 as an architectural assistant, having previously moved from Ireland where she studied architecture at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Her previous projects include the 2015 Leicester Print Workshop and the 2022 Curzon Camden Cinema, both RIBA Award winners.

The judges said: ‘What was notable was how rounded and impressive Jennifer’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. Jennifer 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.’

Also shortlisted for the prize were Laura O’Brien of James Gorst Architects for the Castle Community Rooms in Framlingham, Suffolk; Sela-Jaymes Taylor of Gort Scott for Three Mills Studios in London; and Michelle Wong of vPPR Architects for White House School in London.

Last year’s winner was Kirsten Gabriëls Webb of Sergison Bates for the De Korenbloem sheltered housing scheme in Kortrijk, Belgium, a care home for residents with young-onset dementia.

The MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice is named in memory of inspirational architect, lecturer and writer Mary Jane Long and is part of the AJ/AR’s W Awards. Open to UK-based female architects, it is judged on an overall body of work with the emphasis on a recently completed project.

This year’ prize was judged by Stephen Bates, co‑founder of Sergison Bates; Tracy Meller, senior partner at RSHP and previous MJ Long Prize winner; Manijeh Verghese, head of public engagement at the Architectural Association; and Sal Wilson, sustainability consultant and educator, who is also MJ Long's daughter. The panel was chaired by AJ editor Emily Booth.

The winner was announced at a celebratory W Awards event at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal. Also announced at the event was the winner of the 2024 W Awards Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, which went to Nguyễn Hà of ARB Architects. The award recognises a bright future for designers under the age of 45 who are leading their own practices.

Nguyễn Hà founded ARB Architects in 2009, having worked previously in Switzerland. Her body of work, firmly grounded in Vietnam, includes projects such as the Đạo Mẫu Museum and Temple, dedicated to the folk religion of Đạo Mẫu, which features brick towers built along a wall and is sited in a lychee orchard.

The judges said: ‘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, co-founder of Estúdio Flume in São Paulo was highly commended for the prize. Her practice works in remote villages around Brazil on projects including a babassu nut facility in Sumaúma in the state of Maranhão and a boathouse on the island of Jaguanum, located off the coast near Rio de Janeiro.

Also shortlisted for the prize were Kim Courrèges, partner of Plan Común, based in Paris; and Joana Dabaj, co-founder of Catalytic Action, based in Beirut.

Judging the prize were Giovanna Borasi, director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA); Shumi Bose, educator and editor of KoozArch; Gloria Cabral, architect and previous Moira Gemmill Prize winner; Eva Jiřičná, architect; and Karen Livingstone, deputy director, masterplan, exhibitions and major display projects at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Last year’s Moira Gemmill Prize was awarded to Viviana Pozzoli, co-founder of Paraguay-based practice Equipo de Arquitectura, for an early childhood centre in Villeta in Paraguay.

Both prizes form part of the W Awards, which celebrate exemplary work of all kinds, from the design of the world’s most significant new buildings to contributions to wider architectural culture, from lifetimes of achievement to the work of women with bright futures ahead.

The winners of the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize and of the Jane Drew Prize this year were Angela Davis and  Iwona Buczkowska respectively who both spoke at the event in Montreal. The Prize for Research in Gender and Architecture, now in its second year, was awarded this year to the Swedish art, design and architecture group Mycket for Heaven, an installation marking the culmination of nearly a decade of research into the architecture of queer nightclubs.