Bartlett Alumni Win 2025 W Awards Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture

Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi (Situated Practice MA) have been awarded the prestigious AR Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture 2025. The announcement was made at a ceremony held on 09 May during the Venice Architecture Biennale.

The Moira Gemmill Prize recognises emerging designers under the age of 45 who are leading their own practices. Sara and Nojoud established their practice Syn Architects in Saudi Arabia in 2019. 

Their major project to date is the Shamalat Cultural Centre, which transformed a series of traditional mud houses into an arts space in Diriyah, near Riyadh. Completed in 2023, this restoration marked their first experience with earthen architecture and sparked questions about restoration and adaptive reuse that laid the foundations for their practice approach.

Sara and Nojoud are also representing Saudi Arabia at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, where they have designed the Saudi National Pavilion – The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection. Taking its name from a neighbourhood in central Riyadh, their pavilion creates a living archive exploring the city's architectural heritage through ecology, identity and place-based pedagogy.

The jury, which included Sandra Barclay of Barclay & Crousse, Eva Jiřičná of AI Design, Karen Livingstone of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Cristina Monteiro of DK-CM, praised the quality of their work, stating: "The quality in design and material sensitivity in Syn Architects' work are evidence of a highly refined vision. We also commend the practice's more research-driven work, which constitutes an important contribution to Saudi architecture and culture."

In addition to their architectural work, Sara and Nojoud are co-founders of an online database documenting modernist and post-modernist buildings in Saudi Arabia, which constitutes an important contribution to the region's architectural history.

The W Awards 2025 ceremony also honoured Rachel Elliott of Lynch Architects with the MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice, Suad Amiry with the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize for Contribution to Architecture, and Anne Lacaton with the Jane Drew Prize for Architecture.

Read more

• Learn about the Situated Practice MA programme
• Discover the Saudi National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Image credits (Gallery): The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection, The National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2025 | Photo credit @alvise.busetto | Courtesy of Ministry of Culture