6a architects was founded by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald in 2001. The practice has gained an international reputation for the innovative re-use of existing buildings for cultural and educational projects, especially in sensitive historical environments. It has completed several public galleries which have garnered support from critics, artists and visitors alike including Raven Row (2009), South London Gallery (2010-18) and MK Gallery in Milton Keynes (2019). Collaborations with artists, engineers and landscape designers alongside teaching and research are fundamental to 6a’s design process.
The studio has won multiple awards, notably the Schelling Medal 2012, RIBA Awards and a nomination for the Stirling Prize 2017 for its studio complex for photographer Juergen Teller (2016) for which it won the RIBA London Building of the Year Award 2017. In 2018, Stephanie Macdonald was a finalist for the International Women in Architecture Award and Tom Emerson was awarded the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize in Zurich. The New Year Honours 2021 saw both recognised with an OBE for Services to Architecture and Education.
6a is currently working on significant projects around the world. This year sees the opening of CARA; a new contemporary art foundation in New York, Holborn House; a new community building with an integral public artwork, by artist Caragh Thuring in central London, A2 B2; two office buildings for the creative industries in the Design District Greenwich and two mixed-use towers on the waterfront in Hamburg. In 2020, Victoria State granted permission for 6a’s first building in Australia, a 13-storey mixed use, landscaped building in Collingwood, Melbourne which will begin construction in 2022.
