SCOSA Architectural Education Awards
2026 Winners
Lifetime Contribution Award
Winner: Stephen Gage
"Stephen’s career in architectural education spans the best part of six decades. His first involvement was on his return to the UK from the USA in 1974, when he took on a teaching role at the Architectural Association. In 1976 he was invited to lead a Design Unit there with Ranulph Glanville, who became a longtime friend and collaborator. Stephen continued teaching at the AA until 1993, when he joined UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture.
At the Bartlett, Stephen founded and led the Diploma/MArch Unit 14, established BIAW (in 1995), and served as first Director of Technology and then Director of Design until 2011. He subsequently co-ran the MArch Architectural Design programme with Andrew Porter for two years from 2009/10, before leading theory in AD and then coordinating the theory modules in UCL’s MArch Design for Performance & Interaction and MArch Design for Manufacture . The latter he handed over in 2019. He served as Programme Director for the PGCert AAR, and most recently guided the development and launch of UCL’s innovative Architecture MSci model (a five-year integrated programme pathway to accreditation).
Professor Stephen Gage has made a lifetime contribution to architectural education as a leading proponent of, and speculator upon, architecture as a time-based, interactive discipline, rooted in cybernetics, systems thinking, and research-through-designing and making."
Innovation in Architectural Education Award
Winner: Takeshi Hayatsu
"My pedagogy brings together live construction, craft, social engagement and collaborative making as core methods of learning. Over more than a decade of teaching, particularly at Kingston School of Art, I have developed an approach in which students learn architecture not only through drawing and theory, but also through direct engagement with materials, communities and the realities of construction.
Collaborative projects often combine recycled resources, traditional craft knowledge and shared authorship, helping students develop practical, ethical and social understanding alongside design skills. By situating live-build projects within real community contexts and extending them into exhibitions, public institutions and international exchanges, this work explores architectural education as a participatory and civic practice that connects academia with the public realm. The approach encourages students to see sustainability, collaboration and cultural exchange as important foundations for the future of architecture."
Commended: Davide Pisu
"Cartography of Self is a mapping exercise designed for architecture students that are approaching urbanism. The students are asked to construct a composite territory by merging three geographically and emotionally significant locations into a single, continuous landscape. Using satellite imagery and collage, the exercise charges the act of mapping with projective and interpretative agency. Students are challenged to design the transitions and seams between disparate urban fabrics, exercise judgment, dealing with territories of which they have first hand, emotionally significant experience. It encourages them to embrace personal agency and responsibility over places.
This process allows students to articulate complex and detailed spatial imaginaries and, in cohorts evermore characterised by significant cultural diversity, contributes to decolonising the curriculum by validating non-Western narratives and dealing with the most diverse settlement models. By negotiating the urban-rural thresholds within global contexts—fusing dense metropolises with bucolic or peri-urban landscapes—students develop a more critical, ethically grounded understanding of territorial transformation."
Commended: Dr Islam Abohela and Dr James Robertson
The Vertical Live Studio – University of Staffordshire
"For three consecutive years we have been testing a dynamic pedagogical approach within the course’s studio culture, based on combining the ‘vertical’ design studio with ‘live projects’. Students across all three levels are offered a valuable opportunity to collaborate and experience peer to peer learning while working on real world projects. The vertical live studio exemplifies our adoption of the important Civic agenda of our University. We have aimed to be a conduit for our local and regional community, providing and engaging in dialogue and opportunities related to Architecture and the built environment.
Beyond the array of innovative design solutions submitted by the students, subsequent reflection revealed an unforeseen potential in the project process, by virtue of its vertical structure. One of the most visible and rewarding outcomes of the vertical live studio model, to both students and staff, was the organic mentoring relationships nurtured by students amongst different academic levels as a residual effect of time spent together during the project itself. The successful implementation of the outlined model has been disseminated through presenting a conference paper at the Association of Architectural Educators (AAE) 2025 Conference, ‘Nurture: Cultivating care, creativity & collaboration in architecture’ in July 2025."
