Firm of the Year 2026 - Architecture Hunter

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London, United Kingdom

Allies and Morrison

London practice of architects and urbanists, with studios in London, Cambridge, Manchester, Dublin, Jeddah and Toronto. Its work is defined by the crafting of every detail and attention to the uniqueness of each context, from single buildings to masterplans. Recurring themes include living together in the city, universities as urban catalysts, making heritage work and urbanising infrastructure. Projects include the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Renewal, York Central and Cambridge Science Park, backed by in-house research on subjects such as UK stone and material passports.

alliesandmorrison.com ↗

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Barcelona, Spain

Arquitectura-G

Barcelona studio founded in 2006 by Jonathan Arnabat, Jordi Ayala-Bril, Aitor Fuentes and Igor Urdanpilleta. Much of its work reworks existing houses and estates in Barcelona, Sintra and the Basque coast, often reorganizing them around patios, light and contact with the outdoors. It also designs retail spaces for Acne Studios, installations for Flos and BD Barcelona Design at Milan Design Week, and furniture and eyewear. Current commissions include large housing schemes in Tirana, such as the 413-unit Village with RBTA, and Eya Village, a community center beneath a running track in Cotonou, Benin.

arquitectura-g.com ↗

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Brasília, Brazil

BLOCO Arquitetos

Brasília practice founded in 2008 (as DOMO) by Daniel Mangabeira, Henrique Coutinho and Matheus Seco, and renamed BLOCO in 2014. It works across scales, from houses and apartment buildings to commercial, institutional and temporary projects, without a pre-defined signature. Each project is meant to express its own program, client and context, and teams are reassembled for each one. The Julião Coelho Lawyers headquarters, which reuses and extends the concrete structure of an existing house, won ArchDaily's Building of the Year 2022 (Offices). BLOCO is also a founding member of Plano Coletivo, curators of the Brazilian Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.

bloco.arq.br ↗

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Nairobi, Kenya

Cave_bureau

Nairobi-based working group of artists, architects and researchers that treats the anthropological and geological context of African settlements as the starting point for a deep-time approach to social and ecological repair. Work moves between research, exhibitions and built projects, and is organized around the Anthropocene Museum series (including the Mbai Cave of the Mau Mau and Mount Suswa). Other highlights are the Shimoni slave-cave installation at the Louisiana Museum, a slaughterhouse-turned-museum for the 2023–24 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, and the curation of the British Pavilion, Geology of Britannic Repair, at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.

cave.co.ke ↗

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Beijing, China

DnA_Design and Architecture

Beijing-based interdisciplinary practice, founded in 2004 and led by Xu Tiantian. Every project starts from research into context and program, which the studio treats as the "DNA" of the design, and the work runs from small to large scale across public buildings, landscape and cultural institutions. It is best known for "architectural acupuncture": small, site-specific interventions in rural China, built with vernacular materials and techniques, such as the Brown Sugar Factory and Tofu Factory in Songyang. UN-Habitat recognized this strategy in 2019 as a model for urban–rural integration.

designandarchitecture.net ↗

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São Paulo, Brazil

Estúdio Módulo

São Paulo studio founded in 2015 by Marcus Vinicius Damon and Guilherme Bravin (Érica Tomasoni became a partner in 2023). It designs at scales from furniture to buildings and urban design, seeking to integrate architecture, interiors, landscape and the city to improve people's quality of life. Its record is competition-driven: first place for the new Itaú Cultural headquarters (2026) and for the Centro Cultural Rio-África (2024), which later won an IAI Design Award gold and the Architecture Hunter Awards 2025. Other projects include Ágora Tech Park in Joinville and the Oscar 2525 building in São Paulo. The studio also runs {cura}, a school for architectural representation.

estudiomodulo.com.br ↗

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Mexico City, Mexico

Frida Escobedo Studio

Mexico City studio founded in 2006 by Frida Escobedo, with a New York office since 2022, using architecture and design as a way to raise questions about contemporary social, economic and political phenomena. It first gained recognition in Mexico with the Hotel Boca Chica renovation, the El Eco Pavilion and the expansion of La Tallera Siqueiros. It reached international visibility with the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion and is now design architect of the new modern and contemporary art wing at The Met, co-designer of the Centre Pompidou renovation with Moreau Kusunoki, and behind Ray Harlem, a mixed-use building in New York that houses the National Black Theatre.

fridaescobedo.com ↗

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Belém, Brazil

Guá Arquitetura

Belém-based studio led by Luís Guedes and Pablo do Vale, who define themselves as architects from the Amazon combining traditional knowledge with new technology. After years of practice rooted in Brazilian modernism, they began a multi-year study of riverside architecture and Amazonian carpentry, and turned it into a regional language spanning architecture, interiors and design. They co-authored the Museu das Amazônias in Belém, built in the old port warehouses as part of the COP 30 works, with be.bo. arquitetos.

guaarquitetura.com.br ↗

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Niamey, Niger

Mariam Issoufou Architects

Research-based practice founded in 2014 in Niamey, Niger (originally atelier masōmī), with offices in New York and Zurich, led by Mariam Issoufou, who is also a professor at ETH Zurich. It designs public, cultural, residential and urban projects that respond to identity, place and climate, relying on locally available materials such as raw earth, recycled metal and cement. Niamey 2000, a compressed-earth housing complex, was shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award, and the Hikma Community Complex in Dandaji won two Global LafargeHolcim Awards. Current work includes the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center in Liberia and a museum in Senegal.

mariamissoufou.com ↗

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Santiago, Chile

Max Núñez Arquitectos

Santiago-based studio led by Max Núñez since 2011, developing public and private projects across Chile and abroad. The range runs from lightweight prefabricated steel houses set gently into dramatic landscapes, like Casa en los Árboles near Conguillío National Park (which the studio likens to a lunar lander), to heavier concrete civic and care buildings. It has won competitions for the Atacama Regional Museum in Copiapó and the Los Ríos regional library and archive in Valdivia. Recognitions include Architectural Record's Design Vanguard (2017), Wallpaper* Design Awards and ArchDaily's Building of the Year (2023).

mnaa.cl ↗

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Barcelona, Spain

MESURA

Barcelona studio that calls itself "a model for creativity," working across architecture, interior design, furniture, urban development and research. Its practice is organized into four strands (Projects, Objects, Resources and Editorial), and each project is treated as a testing ground that starts by asking questions. Work includes Casa Dosmurs in Alella, Vasto Gallery and Studio 61 in Barcelona, Aesop Diagonal, the ARCOmadrid guest lounge (2025) and Salone del Mobile installations for Marset, Nanimarquina and Roca. It also has cultural projects in the Middle East, such as the Museum of the Incense Road.

mesura.eu ↗

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Penafiel, Portugal

Nuno Melo Sousa

Small atelier in Penafiel, northern Portugal, run since 2012 by Nuno Melo Sousa (b. 1988, trained at FAUP) with collaborators Diogo Veiga and Ana Dias. The work is small-scale and close to the building site: Nuno prefers to draw on site rather than in CAD and credits the builders who realize each project. Casa no Tâmega won the 2023 BigMat International Architecture Award (small scale) and was a finalist, with a jury special mention, at the 2021 FAD Awards. He also teaches (FAUP, Mendrisio) and exhibits his drawings across Europe.

nunomsousa.com ↗

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Nashik, India

PK_iNCEPTiON

Multidisciplinary design studio in Nashik, Maharashtra, led by Pooja Khairnar. Its guiding idea is the "generic essence": each project begins by uncovering the values embedded in context, users and the unstated brief before any form is settled. Recent work focuses on rural civic and educational buildings shaped by climate and local materials, such as Hiwali School, a classroom-free school of five modular brick blocks aligned to the prevailing winds, and Belgaon Dhaga School, a courtyard-based extension with informal learning spaces.

pkinception.in ↗

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New York, USA / Amsterdam, Netherlands

SO–IL

Architecture studio with offices in New York and Amsterdam, founded in 2008 by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu. Its work spans cultural, civic, residential, commercial and educational buildings, new construction and adaptive reuse, from temporary installations to long-term urban strategies. Its stated aim is "open, thoughtful and humanistic" architecture that strengthens the civic realm, with a particular focus on arts and civic projects. Well-known works include Kukje Gallery in Seoul, the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis and the Amant Art Campus in Brooklyn.

solidobjectives.com ↗

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Los Angeles, USA

WHY

Interdisciplinary team of architects, landscape architects, designers and strategists, founded and led by Kulapat Yantrasast, focused on lasting connections between people, culture and place. The portfolio centers on museums, art spaces and cultural venues, with commercial, landscape and residential work alongside. Key projects include the galleries for the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at The Met, Dib Bangkok (Thailand's first international contemporary art museum), the Marciano Art Foundation and two commissions at the Louvre. Its landscape workshop, WILDING X WHY, extends this into gardens and urban parks.

why-site.com ↗