Starting later this year, the 20 projects competing to be crowned RIBA House of the Year will be featured on Channel 4's Grand Designs: House of the Year. Over the four week series, seven houses will be shortlisted for the award and the winner will be announced in the final episode.
In the meantime, we would like to introduce you to the expert jury members who have the task of selecting the winner of RIBA House of the Year 2022.
Taro Tsuruta (Chair)
Born in Osaka, Japan, Taro Tsuruta studied and trained in both Japan and the UK. Prior to setting up his own studio in London, Tsuruta worked at several leading London practices on several large complex projects such as Portcullis House in Westminster. Tsuruta’s work is frequently published and it has received a number of industry awards, most recently the RIBA National Award 2021, the Wood Award 2020, and most notably their project, House of Trace received the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2016 and was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award 2017.
Alison Brooks
Alison Brooks is one of the UK’s most highly awarded and internationally acclaimed architects. A native of Welland, Ontario, she studied architecture at the University of Waterloo before moving to the UK in 1988. Since founding her practice in 1996 she has emerged as one of the UK's most inventive architects with works encompassing urban design and housing, higher education buildings, private houses, and public buildings for the arts. In addition to receiving over 70 awards for design achievement she is the only UK architect to have received all of the profession's most prestigious architectural awards: RIBA Stirling Prize, RIBA House of the Year, Manser Medal and Stephen Lawrence Prize.
Yinka Ilori
Yinka Ilori is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer whose bold visual language draws on his British-Nigerian heritage to convey new narratives through contemporary design. Drawing on Nigerian parables and verbal traditions, Ilori touches on a multitude of themes that resonate with a global audience. His work is underpinned by the belief that art and design should be accessible to all. Humorous, provocative and playful, his projects demonstrate how design can bring together communities and have a positive impact on society, evoking a sense of joy and optimism. Often using the city as his canvas, he reimagines spaces to encourage a sense of community and invites audiences to engage and participate in his work and its surroundings.
Ben Ridley
Ben Ridley founded Architecture for London in 2009 and has since designed a number of widely published and award-winning projects. He is a Passivhaus designer and takes a research-based, fabric first approach to sustainability that carefully considers the embodied energy of materials and the energy performance of buildings in use.
Nicola Tikari
Nicola Tikari is director and co-founder of multi-disciplinary practice Tikari Works that fuses the disciplines of architecture, construction and property development. Originally from Germany, Nicola moved to the UK in 2001 where she worked for several smaller London practices before setting up Tikari Works in 2014 with her partner Ty Tikari. Tikari Works’ current portfolio is residential focused and ranges from one-off houses to larger multi-unit developments, either for private clients or as self-initiated projects. In 2019 their Pocket House project was shortlisted for RIBA House of the Year and for the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Price and their Rye Apartments won the Wood Awards Gold Medal in 2020. Tikari Works was named Architect of the Year 2021 by Architects Journal.
