Alison Brooks B.E.S., B.Arch, RIBA, FRSA, RDI, Doc.Eng (Hon Causa)

Alison Brooks, Founder and Creative Director of Alison Brooks Architects, is one of the UK’s most highly awarded and internationally acclaimed architects. A native of Ontario, Canada she moved to London in 1988 and established her practice in 1996. With built works encompassing urban design and housing, private houses, installations, public buildings for the arts and higher education, she is the only architect to have received the profession’s three most prestigious UK awards: the RIBA Stirling Prize, Manser Medal (twice), and the Stephen Lawrence Prize.

Her work reflects a commitment to generous, inclusive city-building and a uniquely sculptural design language beautifully demonstrated in her recently completed Cohen Quadrangle for Exeter College, Oxford and Cadence in King’s Cross. Current landmark projects include Quayside Toronto masterplan, the revitalisation of the University of Toronto Faculty of Information and a new entrance building for Homerton College, Cambridge. Private houses continue to serve as a focussed platform for the practice’s design research, from the much-celebrated 2001 VXO House to the 2021 RIBA House of the Year, Windward House.

She has been invited to exhibit at the Venice Architecture Biennale three times.  Amongst over architectural 80 awards, her practice was named 2020 Dezeen Architect of the Year and BD Housing Architect of the Year. Alison has held numerous teaching positions, including the Architectural Association, the Bartlett, Harvard GSD and more recently, Cornell AAP. Since 2018 she has taught a Masters in Collective Housing at ETSAM (Madrid). She served as Open City Trustee for 8 years and was recently elected AA Council Member. Alison lectures internationally on architecture and urban design. TC Cuadernos has recently published a comprehensive monograph: Alison Brooks Architects: Architecture 2004-2024.