The AJ Small Projects 2026 shortlist has been revealed! 👀
Now in its 31st year, AJ Small Projects continues to champion architecture that punches above its weight – inventive, tightly briefed schemes delivered on modest budgets but with huge imagination.
The 20 standout projects pictured were shortlisted from more than 170 entries.
The shortlisted projects, each completed for under £399,000, include public realm schemes, studios and workshops, cafes, theatre lobbies, pavilions, community hubs and a series of inventive home extensions.
AJ Small Projects is sponsored by Marley (@marley_ltd )
Read more about the shortlist via linkinbio
Photography: Peter Molloy, Joseph Horton, Jim Stephenson, French + Tye, Lorenzo Zandri, FORM Photography, Ecaterina Stefanescu, Rory Gaylor, Anton Gorlenko, Max Creasy, Johan Dehlin, Elyse Kennedy, Nathan Piccio, Floro Azqueta, Will Howard, Tom Sharpe, Studio 2812
The UK’s housing challenge isn’t just about building more homes – it’s about building better ones.
For decades, volume delivery has been dominated by low-density, standardised suburban models that prioritise short-term profit over efficient land use and lasting places. That approach is no longer viable.
Architect-led housing offers a proven alternative. Far from being a luxury, good design is a practical tool that enables higher density without sacrificing quality. It enables higher density, better land use and creates places people actually want to live.
In partnership with Architects’ Action for Affordable Housing (@weareaa4ah ), the AJ has launched Good Homes for All 2.0, building on the success of the first edition.
Featuring 15 examples, the guide explores healthier living environments, lower long-term public costs, reduced energy bills and carbon emissions and more durable, adaptable homes.
The takeaway? Intelligent density can deliver better streets, stronger communities and more sustainable outcomes.
The real question is no longer whether we can afford to prioritise design – but whether we can afford not to.
🔗Read the guide online via linkinbio
Introducing the new and improved AJ Buildings Library! 💻
The AJBL brings a collection of more than 4,000 projects to your fingertips, ranging from from pavilions and parks to housing and hospitals. Whether you are looking for precedents, practices, drawings, details or data, our powerful search will help you find what you need.
You can discover projects by keyword, date, cost, practice, building type, area, location, materials or a combination of these.
Now smarter, faster and more intuitive, the upgraded AJBL also features downloadable drawings and details — giving you the tools to research, reference and refine your designs, from concept to construction, making it an essential part of your architecture toolkit
The revamped AJBL can be accessed with an AJ subscription. Find out more via linkinbio
#architecture #design #architect
Images: Richard Einzig, Philip Vile, Jim Stephenson, Martin Charles, Hufton + Crow, Martin Charles, Rebecca Noakes, Peter Cook, Daniel Hopkinson, Herbie Knott, Henk Snoek & John Mills, Johan Dehlin, Galwey Arphot, Angelina Nikolayeva, Hufton + Crow
In an exclusive interview, Richard Waite talks to the mayor of the Greater Manchester – and possible future prime minister – about how Manchester has become the UK’s fastest-growing city, and a model for devolution
Almost exactly two years ago Andy Burnham was re-elected for the third time as mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), receiving a huge 63 per cent of the vote.
Now, with prime minister Keir Starmer under severe criticism, Burnham’s name as a potential successor has again been making headlines. Meanwhile he continues with his own not insignificant job of overseeing 10 local authorities, from Stockport to Wigan, and controlling a budget of more than £3 billion.
The AJ caught up with Burnham to talk about Manchester's regeneration past and present.
Read the full interview via linkinbio
Castlands Road by Bricolage (@bricolageprojects ) has been named overall winner of this year’s AJ Small Projects at last night's event in Liverpool – the first time the awards have taken place outside London
Watch this video to learn more about the project and see inside the event📽️
The self-build house in Catford, south-east London, was named overall winner of the AJ’s ‘best in low-cost design’ prize at an event held at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture’s new extension by O’Donnell + Tuomey.
Judges said the project, a family home for the practice’s director, addressed the issue of the national housing crisis and provided a blueprint for ‘addressing bigger issues about how a family could afford a house in London, creating a framework for doing so’.
The University of Liverpool School of Architecture’s extension will now showcase the awards’ shortlist of inventive, low-budget architecture through a month-long exhibition open to students and visitors.
Discover more about the winner, as well as the highly commended projects, via linkinbio
AJ Small Projects is sponsored by Marley (@marley_ltd )
Video: Jim Stephenson (@clickclickjim ) & Nyima Murry (@nyimamurry )
Studio 163 Architects (@studio.163 ) has completed the refurbishment and extension of an end-of-terrace house on an oddly shaped plot on the edge of Highgate and Hampstead Heath
The project involved a deep retrofit of the house with the addition of a kitchen and triangular-shaped dining space that pivots around a circular rooflight.
At ground level, the house has been extended to the rear with a kitchen, while to the side a new dining space has been fitted into a tight triangular footprint. A cruciform structural grid allows for an open plan layout with just a single column to the corner.
Read more about the project via linkinbio
Images: Peter Molloy (@_peter_molloy_ )
Liverpool University is to host AJ Small Projects 2026 as the awards head to the newly completed extension at the Liverpool School of Architecture (@lsofarch )
Small Projects 2026 will offer a first look inside the landmark new building by O’Donnell + Tuomey (@odonnell_tuomey ) as the debut public event at the newly revamped architecture school. It is also first time in the awards’ 31-year-history that they have taken place outside London.
The space will showcase the awards’ shortlist of inventive, low-budget architecture through a month-long exhibition, kicking off with the launch event and an evening of networking on Thursday 30 April 2026.
Run in association with Marley (@marley_ltd ), which has sponsored the awards for 15 years, AJ Small Projects spotlights schemes delivered for £399,000 or less, demonstrating that limited budgets can produce bold, impactful design.
Discover more and register to attend the free launch event on 30 April via linkinbio
Image: Nick Kane
#Architecture #Event #Liverpool #AJSmallProjects
TYPE (@type_architects ) has extended and reworked a terraced Victorian house in Denmark Hill, south-east London, using hand-moulded bricks.
The project consists of a new kitchen and dining space, a rooftop extension and overall refurbishment for the clients, a young family. A focus on tactility and craftsmanship aims to create a feeling of warmth throughout the internal spaces.
Materials include hand-moulded bricks in a subtle two-tone layout, clay-fired floor tiles, cork, unpainted plaster and bespoke ash joinery.
The main materials – brick, terracotta and timber – were chosen to be simple, affordable and durable, giving the project a distinct character while also reflecting the historic construction of the original house.
Read more about the project via linkinbio
Images: Lorenzo Zandri (@lorenzozandri )
Nordic (@nordicooa ) and Haptic (@hapticarchitects ) have completed the first phase of Norway's huge new government quarter scheme in Oslo.
Built on the site of the July 2011 terrorist attack in which a bomb heavily damaged several buildings, the first phase of the project comprises three buildings as well as new parks, plazas and cafés.
The masterplan includes five new buildings and two restored buildings in a ring framing a series of interconnected public spaces, stitching the quarter into Oslo’s historic centre.
The ‘design for democracy’ scheme aims to create a new model for bringing government ministries together in an open yet secure civic development.
Find out more about the project via linkinbio
Images: Hufton + Crow (@huftonandcrow )
Why do women architects continue to be erased? And how is it that the first time we discover so many of them is when we read their obituaries?
‘Diminishing the achievements of women architects feeds into today’s inequalities,’ write Biba Dow (@dowjonesarchitects ) and Ros Diamond (@rosamunddiamond ) as part of the AJ’s IWD focus.
This International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the women who built our world. Head online now to read our IWD pieces for free, covering women in leadership, the erasure of important figures in history, and the lessons we can learn from other industries to ensure women’s voices are heard
Image 1: Mary Medd (Source: Paul Barnes, personal archive, Cambridge)
Image 2: Portrait of Lydia Dransfield (Source: LCC)
Image 3: Betty and Jim Cadbury Brown-designed house in Aldeburgh (Source: Biba Dow)
Image 4: Portrait of Pat Tindale (Source: RIBA)
Image 5: Patty Hopkins alongside her contemporaries. 12 years ago, the BBC infamously edited her out of the photograph (Source: RIBA and Jackie King)
Read our IWD stories now via linkinbio
#InternationalWomensDay #Architecture #Architects
Hidden behind a narrow passageway on Catford Broadway shopping parade is an amalgam of a building: part-farmhouse, part-Victorian pub, part-clubhouse.
In 2020, Hayatsu Architects was commissioned by Lewisham Council with a deceptively simple task: to bring this venue, the oldest building in the town centre, back to use as a contemporary pub and community space.
‘Not a pub, but a diverse set of functions,’ is how practice director Takeshi Hayatsu (@takeshi_hayatsu ) describes the building today. The ground floor bar and dining room have been reinstated while, above them, a series of spaces – including a community kitchen and an events room – provide more enclosed, structured rooms suitable for holding training courses.
Together, these uses extend the building’s life well beyond the rhythms of a typical pub.
Read more about the project via linkinbio
Images: Jim Stephenson (@clickclickjim )
Pioneering in its approach to materials, Rammed Earth House by @tuckeydesignstudio is a home of tactile beauty, as well as one of the few examples in the UK that utilise unstabilised rammed earth on this scale
'It is a home of sensual beauty designed with impressive climate literacy in a delicate orchestration of materiality, daylight, views and landscape,' writes Hattie Hartman for the latest Natural Materials edition of the AJ.
Following the practice's 25-year track record in the retrofit and reuse of existing buildings, the home is Tuckey Design Studio's first new-build house.
Rammed earth was used as the primary material for the walls, formed mainly using a mix of clay, crushed aggregates and brick from demolition waste on the site, which is located on the grounds of a former brickworks.
Read more about the project via linkinbio
Images: Jim Stephenson (@clickclickjim )
#Architecture #Design #RammedEarth #House
