The nominees for the AJ Student Prize 2025 have been announced, featuring exceptional work from architecture students across the United Kingdom. This year's entries span a diverse range of topics, from intergenerational housing solutions to space debris management, highlighting some of the most innovative projects from architecture schools nationwide. The prize celebrates both undergraduate and postgraduate students completing architecture courses at ARB and RIBA-accredited programs.
Among the notable nominees are students from prestigious institutions including Anglia Ruskin University with undergraduate nominee Basil Ali, the Architectural Association featuring Ronnie Carmon and Yana Shaban, Arts University Bournemouth with Toby Warner-Magennis and Anastasiia Poliakova, and Birmingham City University's Islam Sakinah Bouterse and Reece Minott. The competition has achieved a remarkable milestone this year with a 100 percent participation rate, marking the first time every ARB or RIBA-accredited course across the country has submitted at least one student entry.
This year's submissions reflect current architectural debates and pressing societal issues. Climate change considerations are more prevalent than ever, with almost every proposal incorporating adaptive reuse, retrofit, and circular economy principles as the industry continues addressing the climate emergency. The ongoing UK housing crisis is also prominently featured, with later-living and intergenerational building types increasingly emerging in student projects, demonstrating how the next generation of architects is tackling real-world challenges.
However, the competition takes place against a backdrop of significant challenges facing architectural education and early-career professionals. This year's architecture graduates are entering one of the most difficult job markets in the past 10 to 15 years, with a growing gap between the supply of graduating students and the demand from architectural practices seeking assistants. Statistical trends and anecdotal evidence point to an increasingly challenging employment landscape for new graduates.
Architecture schools themselves are struggling with substantial difficulties. Departments across various regions have been affected by funding cuts and staff industrial action, while the ARB's planned changes to qualification routes are expected to cause further disruption before beneficial effects materialize. The influence of these proposed educational changes can be observed in some of this year's project entries, with several featuring university buildings and others using humor to explore critical issues, including a standout project titled "Royal Institute of Humber Monsters."
Despite these challenges, the entries continue to inspire and demonstrate exceptional creativity. This year's students have produced imaginative and rigorous work addressing diverse briefs that range from silviculture and insect cohabitation to wellness centers, disposal of deceased bodies, and space debris management. Notable projects include "From Waste to Worth" by Islam Sakinah Bouterse from Birmingham City University and "Re:Construct" by Jacob Shipp, a postgraduate student at the University of Greenwich.
The geographic scope of the projects is impressively broad, with locations spanning across the UK including Sheffield, Leith, Dumfriesshire, and Crewe, as well as international sites in far-flung locations such as the ports of Tangier, textile markets in Accra, and the West Bank. Post-industrial sites remain particularly prevalent, especially this year in the London Borough of Hackney, demonstrating students' engagement with urban regeneration and adaptive reuse concepts.
Interestingly, despite increasing discussion about artificial intelligence's threats and opportunities in architecture, AI features prominently in only one studio brief and appears less frequently in others. Some students have begun incorporating AI image generation into their workflows, while others continue to emphasize traditional representation methods such as hand-drawing and model-making. Industry experts predict that establishing coherent and considered use of AI tools will become a much greater challenge for tutors in coming years.
The competition welcomes a new entrant this year: Bath Spa University, which has just celebrated its first graduating cohort and is currently launching an MArch course. The University of Staffordshire's new architecture school will become eligible to enter next year, further expanding the competition's reach.
The judging panel for both undergraduate and postgraduate categories consists of distinguished industry professionals including Muyiwa Oki, former RIBA president and senior architectural manager at Mace; Era Savvides, partner at Urban Radicals; Katie Fisher, founder of CARD Projects; and the competition organizers. This special free-to-enter prize, sponsored by Marley, serves as an important platform to celebrate and support the work of both architecture students and schools across the UK.
The prizegiving ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, October 9th, at HTA Design's beautifully retrofitted offices in Hackney Wick. The event, which typically draws strong attendance from the architectural community, will recognize the outstanding achievements of this year's nominees. While architectural education and the job market face challenging times, organizers express hope that the projects submitted for the AJ Student Prize will prove uplifting and optimistic, representing the careful and time-consuming work that has gone into each submission.
