Professor Tom Emerson OBE RIBA (b 1970, Paris) is an architect based in London and Zurich. He
studied architecture at the University of Bath, the Royal College of Art and at the University of
Cambridge. He co-founded 6a architects in London with Stephanie Macdonald producing
buildings and landscapes for the arts and education. 6a has received several RIBA Awards, the
Schelling Medal in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in 2017. Books on 6a architects
include Never Modern (2014) and a monograph published by El Croquis in 2018.
He is dean of the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich and, since 2010, has been professor
of architecture and construction where he leads a research and design studio exploring the
relationship between making, landscape and ecology. His students produced the Pavilion of
Reflections floating on Lake Zurich for Manifesta 11 (2016), A Room for Archaeologists and Kids
in Pachacamac, Peru (2018) and an ongoing series of surveys of the future of post-industrial
cities and landscapes. Atlases have been published on Forst (2012), Galway (2013) and Glasgow
(2016). Since 2014, the studio has been cultivating a garden designed, built, planted and
maintained by several generations of students.