Arquitectura Expandida is a design collective based in Bogotá, Colombia that builds structures of public assembly for communities that cannot afford to go through official channels for design and construction.

Founded by Ana Lopez Ortego, Harold Guyaux, Randy Orjuela, Marina Tejedor, and Felipe González, the collective was formed in 2010.

The collective’s projects are processes of creative resistance, and have ranged from tiny community cinemas and cultural spaces to public spaces and sports facilities.

Its actions and interventions seek to encourage citizens to actively take part in the transformation process of their streets, parks and neighbourhoods, responding to a diverse range of conflicting relationships, institutions, bureaucracies, practices and scenarios.

In 2017, Arquitectura Expandida was shortlisted for the Curry Stone Design Prize, an award that honours socially impactful design professionals.

Anne Holtrop founded his practice Studio Anne Holtrop in the Netherlands in 2009 and he now also has an office in Murharraq, Bahrain. Holtrop previously trained as an engineer and subsequently worked as an assistant to the artist Krijn de Koning.

His work ranges from models to temporary spaces, exhibitions and buildings. He designed Bahrain’s pavilion at the World EXPO2015 in Milan.

His practice is now working on a number of projects in Bahrain, such as the Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al-Khalifa Museum, the restoration of the Qaysariya Suq and the adaptation and conservation of historic buildings in Muharraq.

Iranian architect and painter Alireza Taghaboni has been a practicing architect since 2004 and founded nextoffice in 2009. 

Based in Tehran, nextoffice aims to provide contemporary responses to traditional Iranian architecture, taking into account climatic conditions, the economic, political and socio-cultural context of the country and peculiarities of each project’s site.

The practice’s projects range from detached single-family houses to urban master plans and residential, commercial and mixed-use large-scale complexes.

Its Sharifi-ha house, which features rotating rooms that adapt to Iran’s fluctuating lifestyles and offers a critical response to building regulations and zoning by-laws, was shortlisted at the World Architecture Festival in 2014.

The RA has launched two new international architecture awards that demonstrate and heighten the RA’s role as a global champion of architecture. Nominated and awarded by Royal Academicians alongside international curators and critics, the Royal Academy Architecture Prize honours an inspiring and enduring contribution to the culture of architecture, and the RA Dorfman Award champions new talent in architecture.

^{Itsuko Hasegawa, winner of the 2018 Royal Academy Architecture Prize.}