Introduction

6a architects was founded by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald in 2001. The practice has gained an international reputation for its housing, cultural, educational and mixed-use projects. Sometimes described as architect detectives, the studio finds new connections between materials, landscape, climate, history and culture. Drawing on social histories, construction traditions, contemporary art and fashion, projects emerge firmly rooted in their place.

Working internationally in Australia, Europe, USA and the UK, 6a architects operates at the intersection of sustainable construction and cultural production, creating architecture that responds intelligently and imaginatively to climate and societal change.

6a has produced a series of celebrated public buildings and art galleries, popular for their understated elegance and cultural resonance. Raven Row, a contemporary art foundation in London, is now considered as a seminal adaptive reuse project and one of the city’s most important art spaces. In New York, the Center for Art, Research and Alliances opened in 2022 within a former playing card factory, while MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, named building of year by The Guardian 2019, became an instant icon of the utopian New Town. The studio’s third phase of work with South London Gallery for the slg Fire Station in Peckham was awarded an riba National Award.

Recent projects include two new buildings for the creative industries on London’s Greenwich Peninsula, housing on the Hamburg waterfront and a low-carbon halls of residence at the University of Cambridge. A studio complex for photographer Juergen Teller was named London’s Building of the Year by riba and nominated for the Stirling Prize. A major renewal of Skinners’ Hall was completed in 2025, decarbonising the livery company and conserving its ancient fabric.

Construction has now started on the transformation of Tate Liverpool in the Grade 1 Listed Royal Albert Dock, a project that will bring the scale of the Mersey and the energy of the city into the heart of the museum. In 2023, 6a won an international competition for a new ecology-led waterfront housing development in Malmö, Sweden, and in 2024, was appointed to design a new Fashion Museum in the unesco World Heritage City of Bath.

The studio has won prestigious honours including over twenty riba Awards, nomination for the riba Stirling Prize, the Observer Building of Year, the Schelling Medal for Architecture and the 2023 Tessenow Gold Medal. In 2020, Domus listed 6a among the 50 Best Architects in the World.

Tom Emerson is professor of architecture and construction at eth Zurich where he leads a research and design studio exploring the relationship between making and the territory. In 2018, he was the first architect to be awarded the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize. Stephanie Macdonald was a finalist for the International Women in Architecture Award and is a juror of the annual Soane Medal. 2021 saw both recognised with an obe for Services to Architecture and Education, and Services to Architecture respectively. In 2023, they were elected to the Royal Academy of Arts.

The practice’s first book, Never Modern, was published in 2014 (Park Books, Zurich) and a first monograph published in 2017 by El Croquis. A monograph by A+U, Japan was published in September 2022.