WSA graduate’s Niwa House shortlisted for best UK building

The accessible family home by Takero Shimazaki Architects is in the running for RIBA’s coveted 2025 Stirling Prize.

A Welsh School of Architecture graduate’s project has been shortlisted for the UK’s most highly-regarded architecture award – the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize.

Niwa House has already won the RIBA London 2025 Award and is also shortlisted for the Architects’ Journal (AJ) Manser Medal for House of the Year.

The client said: “Most houses in London are quite inaccessible and I use a wheelchair, so being able to get in and out of the house and around the house is quite important.”

Takero Shimazaki said: “This inspired the architectural design, in terms of its openness and how we positioned structures and columns, and spacings for openings and doors as well as how the feeling of the space doesn’t become dictated by functionality.”

“The client’s connection with Japan inspired a relationship between the house and the garden (‘niwa’) rather like the concept of ‘engawa’, a covered corridor running along the perimeter of traditional Japanese dwellings.”

“The house is conceived as a lightweight pavilion; a continuous series of open plan spaces interrupted by courtyards and the garden, forming a unique figurative shape that fits within as-found vacant land.”

Watch RIBA's video of Niwa House on YouTube.

The judges said: “Carefully designed and located courtyards puncture the lower level and flood the bedrooms and circulation areas with natural light, creating lovely vignettes of gardens and sky."

“The quality of light throughout the home is breathtaking. Large, full-height sliding doors and full-height glazed walls seamlessly blend indoors and out – opening spaces to gardens, courtyards and balconies. It is difficult to see where the building ends and the gardens begin."

The client said: “It hopefully shows that it’s possible to design accessible spaces that don’t compromise on being really beautiful or really enjoyable for everyone to use.”

Takero graduated from the Welsh School of Architecture (formerly the University of Wales, Cardiff) and The Bartlett School of Architecture, London, and worked in private practice before co-founding Toh Shimazaki Architecture with Yuli Toh in 1996, which became Takero Shimazaki Architects (t-sa) in 2009.

The winner will be announced at RIBA’s Stirling Prize celebration evening on 16 October.