AR Emerging

Ahadu Abaineh’s treehouse in Addis Ababa was highly commended in the 2002 AR Emerging awards for ‘the notion of making a living building in harmony with nature’.His treehouse, the first in several iterations of the idea, aimed to ‘improve the urban ecological balance’ and ‘reduce consumption of environmentally destructive products’.

In this issue, we revisit three projects recognised in previous editions of the awards. In Xiashi Village in south‑east China, Li Xiaodong Atelier’s Bridge School, AR Emerging winner in 2009, was praised by the jury for its ‘potential to transform life in China’s rural margins’. Jaime Chu assesses how demographic, climatic and political shifts have transformed both Xiashi Village and the building.

When Barkow Leibinger delivered what is now Biosphäre Potsdam, receiving a distinction in the 2001 edition of the awards, the practice was just eight years old and the project set to be ‘a commercial attraction for 20 years’. The building repeatedly saw its future threatened until, this spring, the city of Potsdam committed to invest in its next chapter.

This issue also introduces the work of the 15 practices shortlisted for the AR Emerging awards 2025. The shortlist includes architects mining existing buildings for materials, experimenting with rammed earth and cork, and breathing new life into neglected corners of the city. As these pages document, it is the experimental work of architects at the beginning of their careers that continues to address the most pressing challenges facing the planet.

1526: AR Emerging

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cover (above) tomas schmit archiv, Berlin/ Drawing Matter Collections
Architects do not materialise fully formed but emerge over time. And, like drawing a circle, there are multiple ways to emerge. Two New Ways to Draw a Circle, 1971 (detail) by Tomas Schmit.

folio (lead image)
The winners of the AR Emerging awards, announced in London on 20 November, will receive a trophy made by low‑carbon brick manufacturer Kenoteq. Each object was cut to expose the recycled aggregate from which they are made

revisit
Biosphäre Potsdam by Barkow Leibinger in Potsdam, Germany
Florian Heilmeyer

revisit
Treehouses by Ahadu Abaineh in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Brook Teklehaimanot Haileselassie and Michael Bekele Deribe

revisit
Bridge School by Li Xiaodong Atelier in Xiashi Village, Fujian Province, China
Jamie Chu

Materra-Matang
Florence Wright

ARB Architects
Julia Cabanas

DeRoche Projects
Laxmi Andrews

Pihlmann Architects
Florence Wright

Weyell Zipse
Leela Keshav

Atelier Régis Roudil Architectes
Julia Cabanas

KUMA&ELSA
Chloe Shang

3ME Arquitectura
Julia Cabana

Atelier Wo-Land
Laxmi Andrews