AJ100 award-winners are encouraging a better way of doing things

Judging the AJ100 Awards is always a privilege, and this year it has felt exceptional – particularly as we’ve introduced new categories that celebrate emerging talent within the UK’s largest practices.

We were wowed by the standard of entries to our New Talent awards. As one of our judges noted: ‘It’s just amazing and refreshing to see.’ Our New Talent cohort – celebrating Part 1 and Part 2 architectural assistants and newly qualified architects – inspires and challenges in equal measure.

To Ellen Willis of Chetwoods, winner of our New Talent Part 1 prize, architecture is ‘a vehicle for change’. As she explained in her entry and presentation: ‘There are so many things that we just take for granted as “being the way they are”, and this is where the architect in me likes to interrogate things: Why is it that way? Does it have to be that way? Is there a better way?’

Her approach is pertinent. It is evident, too, in the exceptional winners and shortlists in our other inaugural categories, from mentors to change-makers to communicators, who are pushing boundaries and encouraging a better way of doing things.

As part of our drive to support and celebrate positive change, also new this year is AJ100 Champions, a group of practices moving the dial either in their own projects and working practices, in the wider industry and beyond. The cohort forms our supercharged shortlist for the Practice of the Year award. We’re delighted to profile them in this issue.

The latest AJ100 data shows a mixed picture of the sector and, since it was collected, we know several practices have struggled. Architectural fee income is well up, and there are encouraging signs of increased diversity. But there is a slight fall in the numbers of architectural staff, including, most noticeably, architectural assistants, who do so much and hold such hope for the future of the industry.

Just over half of practices report having explored and researched aspects of regenerative/net-positive design in 2023, and B Corp certification is gaining momentum. However, progress on measuring carbon appears to be both slow – and mixed.

There is, as ever, much to do. But, as Kate Macintosh, our fabulous winner of Contribution to the Profession and hero to so many, says, working together for a common aim is: ‘generative of everything that makes life worthwhile – and happy’.

Our many thanks to Bruce Tether, professor of management at the Alliance Manchester Business School, for his expert analysis and insight into the AJ100 numbers; and to Pamela Buxton, our wonderful project manager, who has so ably stewarded this issue and so much more. And our thanks as ever to you: sponsors, supporters and subscribers. Let’s all keep interrogating the status quo, and asking: ‘Is there a better way’?