The 10 Top Small Architecture Firms of 2021
Building great architecture begins with practice. Structuring a firm to take on new work is an exercise in values and scale. Design is intrinsically related to individuals and their creative approach, and this is certainly the case with the designers that run the world’s best small firms. For this reason, one of our most highly anticipated categories in this year’s A+Awards — now open for entries — is the Best Small Firm category. Enter now to get your practice in the running for a prestigious global accolade, international publication and a host of opportunities for visibility throughout 2022:
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This year, we’re making the A+Awards more accessible for small architecture firms! If your firm has 10 staff or less, enter APLUSSMALL at check out to get $50 off. Valid through October 29, 2021 for up to 3 entries.
Now celebrating its 10th year, the A+Awards program gives every architecture and design firm an equal opportunity to gain recognition, regardless of their size, location or existing standing in the industry. Each of the following firms has scooped an A+Award in the past few seasons, elevating their practice and their professional reputation as a result. As you prepare your own A+Award submissions, take inspiration from these offices, each of which are harnessing new programs, material explorations and groundbreaking research to lead the architectural profession into the next decade.
Mountain House in Mist, Zhejiang, China. Jury Winner, 2020 A+Awards, Cultural – Pavilions. Jury Winner, 2020 A+Awards, Concepts – Plus-Architecture +Learning
Shulin Architectural Design
Any list of small firms to watch would be incomplete without Shulin, who scooped the prestigious title of Small Firm of the Year in Architizer’s 2021 Firm Awards. Established by Chen Lin in 2015, the Hangzhou-based studio specializes in design for rural areas throughout the Chinese countryside. This geographic context lends itself to renovation and renewal projects. As such, “the village” acts as a starting point for the firm. Alongside their insistence on small projects, throughout their portfolio, Shulin Architectural design calls attention to rural tectonics, typology, respecting the authenticity of construction and the locality of materials, as well as researching the relationship between nature and architecture, people and the environment, and the new and the old.
Big Barn, Glen Ellen, CA. Image by Joe Fletcher Photography
Faulkner Architects
Faulkner Architects was formed in 1998 by Greg Faulkner to pursue the development of highly crafted, site-sensitive spaces. A staff of eight operate from two offices, one near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountains and one in Berkeley near the San Francisco Bay. The work of the practice ranges from hospitality projects to institutional buildings (including master planning), though the firm is best known for private houses, small and large.
Often designing building in harsh, extreme environments — noted for fires, snow, and heat — the firm’s work is recognized for it’s use of low-maintenance, durable materials that minimize risk, while preserving direct engagement of the environment. Sustainability design integration is focused on use of local resources, including photovoltaics, water collection, and natural ventilation, minimizing reliance on the grid.
Assinie-Mafia Church, Côte d’Ivoire. Image by François-Xavier Gbré
Koffi & Diabaté Architectes
Founded in 2001 by Guillaume Koffi (DESA Paris) and Issa Diabaté (YALE University), the Koffi & Diabaté Architectes office is structured around a wide range of projects. Their portfolio includes everything from residences to corporate offices, housing estates and real estate programs, in Côte d’Ivoire and West Africa. As they state, the partners’ goal is to build modern, quality buildings, all the while taking into account their clients’ lifestyle and cultural identity. The firm was also named Best of the Year > Africa in Architizer’s 2021 Firm Awards.
University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, Toronto, Canada. Jury Winner, 2019 A+Awards, Concepts – Plus Architecture +Climate Change
NADAAA
No stranger to accolades, NADAAA has regularly been on the list of firms in the Architect’s Top 50, as well as an Architizer A+ Award winner for the Beaver Country Day School Research + Design Center, Rock Creek House, Gwangju Pavilion and the Melbourne School of Design. They also received a special mention for the Best of the Year, North America category in last year’s A+ Awards. As a multi-disciplinary practice bridging between design disciplines, the firm continues to build upon a legacy of innovative, smart and nimble design.
Women’s Opportunity Center, Kayonza, Rwanda. Jury & Popular Winner, 2015 A+Awards, Concepts – Architecture +Community
Sharon Davis Design
Founded in 2007, Sharon Davis Design has built a portfolio of work for nonprofit organizations where social benefit underpins beautiful and transformative design. Centering on social justice, economic empowerment, and sustainability, and was a finalist in the Architecture – Humanitarian category for last year’s A+ Awards. Their diverse projects span from a hospital in Nepal to community centers in Rwanda.
Limestone Gallery, Anlong, Qianxinan, China. Jury Winner, 2018 A+Awards, Cultural – Gallery
He Wei Studio／3andwich Design
He Wei is a professor at the School of Architecture of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the founder of He Wei Studio／3andwich Design. Using materials and existing contexts to reimagine everyday life, He Wei’s work is inventive and tied to place. Spanning design and representative architecture in the field of rural construction, the studio’s work includes projects like the Xihe Grain and Oil Museum and the Villager Activity Center, a Youth Hostel, and the revitalization plan of the ancient village of Shangping in Fujian.
Guadalupe River House in New Braunfels, TX, United States
Low Design Office
Low Design Office is an architecture studio and an integrated design practice. Bridging design and construction, they bring high-impact buildings and landscapes to life. They also have a particular focus on low carbon footprints and environmental impact with the goal of bringing life into balance for people and place. Their core idea is simple – more with less, but their work brings together diverse ideas on design, construction and architecture.
Village Lounge of Shangcun in Jixi, China. Project of the Year, 2019 A+Awards. Jury Winner, 2019 A+Awards, Concepts Plus Architecture +Community
SUP Atelier
Exploring the sustainability of natural resources and human community, SUP Atelier was founded by Prof. Song Yehao from Tsinghua University School of Architecture in Beijing. Dedicated to research and practice on sustainable urban and architectural design, they focus on natural and local materials, tectonics and contextual strategies. SUP Atelier’s projects have been recognized internationally and have won over 60 awards worldwide, including Jury winner and “Building of the Year” as part of the Architizer A+ Awards.
Casa Candelaria in Mexico. Jury Winner, 2020 A+Awards, Residential – Private House (XL>5000 sq ft)
Cherem Arquitectos
Cherem Arquitectos is an architectural design firm located in Mexico city that was founded by architects Abraham Cherem and Jose Antonio Aguilar. As the team notes, the “quality of their work is represented by the synthesis and abstraction of the ideas” to bring a range of artistic and poetic projects to life. Their projects are defined by a respect for materials and construction, as well as embracing light and space as defining elements that characterize their work. Founded in 2012, the firm’s portfolio includes single-family residences, hospitality projects, places of worship, and office buildings, architecture that’s defined by well-executed details and carefully curated formal moves.
BIT Sports Center in Beijing, China. Popular Choice, 2020 A+Awards, Sport & Recreation — Gyms & Recreation Centers
telier Alter Architects
Founded in 2009, Atelier Alter Architects is an interdisciplinary practice based in New York and Beijing. Their work focuses on cultural facilities after winning the competition to build Qujing Culture Center in 2009. This was followed by the Senior Culture Center in 2010. Besides culture projects, the portfolio of Atelier Alter Architects ranges from small scale furniture design to educational facilities and large urban scale projects.
We’re making the 10th Anniversary Architizer Awards more accessible for small architecture firms! If your firm has 10 staff or less, enter APLUSSMALL at check out to get $50 off. Offer valid through October 29, 2021 for up to 3 entries.
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The Skinny on Supertall Skyscrapers: Problem-Solving or Problematic?
Browse the Architizer Jobs Board and apply for architecture and design positions at some of the world’s best firms. Click here to sign up for our Jobs Newsletter.
As the sea-level rises, increasing population and diminishing flatlands pose the following conundrum: How can humanity accommodate more people with limited lands? This is quickly becoming an essential and typical urban problem for architects, developers and local government. High-rise buildings have long been seen as a problem-solver capable of vertically expanding the limitations of a small site footprint in order to provide more residential and working spaces in cities. The future city, according to the booming trends of building up, might be a skyscraper forest.
Such scenes have already been depicted in many architects’ futuristic urban designs. However, as super-high-rise office buildings in central business districts compete for the top height — in many parts of the work, to accommodate more companies or satisfy certain business demands — the question worth asking: should residential buildings also compete to be the tallest and skinniest one? In recent years, New York has been a testing ground for the answer to this question.
Just as some skyscrapers advertise the privilege of working beyond the clouds, more and more developers are aspiring to satisfy the desires of the world’s elite to flex their wealth and status by promising them a home up in the air. No longer dedicated to solving the housing problems for dense populations, architects who undertake these projects guarantee buyers the best view of the cityscape (for those on the upper floors), while also maximizing the profits of the developer by reaching taller and taller. As these residential towers grow taller, they become attenuated. No longer designed to solve urban problems, are these structures destined to become problematic in and of themselves?
Image by The Skyscraper Museum
Millions of Dollars for Living in the Sky: Is It Even Worth It?
The burgeoning legal saga of 432 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York indicates that the unsolved technical problems in the super-high-rise residential buildings, such as flooding pipes, unstable elevator services and constant noises caused by structural components, are more than inconvenient; they could become life-threatening to their residents. For those who haven’t followed the coverage, residents in this building were caged for hours due to the unstable elevator services on multiple occasions.
The 425-meter-tall residential tower, which includes 125 living units whose price ranges from some 5 million dollars to over 100 million dollars, is supposed to offer privileged living experiences. Unfortunately, apart from the house price, residents in 432 Park Avenue have now had to spend extra money hiring engineering consultants and lawyers in order to fight for the comfortable and safe domestic living that they say that they paid for. So far, more than 1,500 construction and design defects were identified as “life safety issues” by the engineering consultant. In September 2021, residents sued the building’s developers based on the engineering report.
As architects, we know that a part of the reasons for the high price is that these foreseeable technical problems on super skinny towers are difficult and costly to tackle — or to ever fully solve. For example, the elevators, a necessity of skyscrapers, are highly likely to malfunction due to possibility of uneven force distributions among elevator cables, especially when buildings sway severely during windy days. Additional problems include drastically difficult emergency evacuation, undesirable stack effect and noises caused by air friction in deep elevator shafts, extra efforts to set up and maintain water and electricity supply for the whole building, etc.
Sometimes, even though all technical issues are predicted and thoroughly considered, any small mistake in the building’s design, construction or maintenance could still trigger the above problems. The question requiring reflection becomes: Should we, as architects, stop designing and pursuing the skinniest and tallest buildings, as we wait to be sure that these technical issues can be well handled?
The conceptual project Planet City that tackles future urban problems by Liam Young, image via Worldarchitecture.
Should We Stop Building Skinny Skyscrapers for Good?
Before answering the question, let us ask another question: what is so attractive about living in the sky? The answer might be the ‘unblocked’ views. In cities with high-rise jungles, views from lower floors are rarely that desirable. Unblocked vistas that fly over lower buildings’ roofs — as well as the distant coasts or mountains — therefore become a privilege and a scarce resource. Living in an upper-floor home, therefore, is closely engaged with the richest and most powerful “1%” of the society.
As Adrian Forty wrote in his book Objects of Desire, “…design tells people what they ought to think about the home and how they ought to behave there.” Design has the power to influence people’s behavior; yet, disrupting the chain of supply-demand is only possible if designers are joined by managers/developers, customers and local governments. At present, this truly seems like a pipe dream.
While there is still a need to explore more economical and practical ways for solving technical issues of super-high-rise residential buildings, are these skinny residential buildings the only way to respond to the demands of “unblocked view”? As architects, at least until there are engineering breakthroughs for these issues, should we stop the fashion of building taller and skinnier skyscrapers for residential uses? Could we, by employing other technologies such as vertical gardens, holograms and virtual/augmented reality, come up with other ways to approach domestic sight enjoyment without sacrificing residents’ safety and convenience? Hopefully, decades or centuries later, when skinny skyscrapers are no longer rare and expensive, there will be one day that these towers are built for the general welfare.
Browse the Architizer Jobs Board and apply for architecture and design positions at some of the world’s best firms. Click here to sign up for our Jobs Newsletter.
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The Jennings Supportive Housing // Alexander Gorlin Architects
Project Status: BuiltYear: 2020Size: 25,000 sqft – 100,000 sqftBudget: 10K – 50K
Text description provided by the architects.
The Jennings creates safe, permanent, affordable housing for homeless domestic violence survivors and their families. It is owned and operated by New Destiny Housing, a non- profit organization dedicated to serving this population and which develops supportive housing to provide residents with the platform to live stable, violence- free lives.
© Alexander Gorlin Architects
© Eric Petschek
This project not only addresses the leading cause of homelessness in New York City – domestic violence – but also establishes a striking architectural statement on an intersection in The Bronx that was completely destroyed in the 1970’s.
The Jennings provides 42 affordable apartments ranging in size from one- to three- bedrooms.
© Eric Petschek
© Eric Petschek
Twenty-three are set aside for homeless domestic violence survivors. Tenant safety is of primary concern. Security features include electronic access- controlled entry, CCTV, video intercom and a manned security desk. On- site services for residents include counseling, case management, children and family programming, and job readiness coaching to foster housing stability and safety.
© Eric Petschek
© Eric Petschek
Amenities include a multi- purpose program space, staff offices, a library/computer room, secure landscaped courtyard with a children’s play area, and laundry room. The neighborhood is well- served by public transportation, critical for accessing employment opportunities, as well as daycare and after school programs that support parents and enable children to thrive.To keep costs down the project was designed with materials that were off the shelf/readily available, as well asenvironmentally sustainable.
© Eric Petschek
© Eric Petschek
Building systems such as block and plank were used to enhance the pace of construction. To lower long- term operational costs, we designed energy- efficient appliances and heating systems, as well as a green roof.In 1977, President Jimmy Carter visited this exact site to witness the destruction of the South Bronx (see final photo).
© Eric Petschek
© Eric Petschek
We are proud to be part of the meaningful renewal of this formerly devastated neighborhood..
© Eric Petschek
© Alexander Gorlin Architects
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