AA Intermediate 1 Tutor Paolo Emilio Pisano Is Shortlisted for the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize with Takero Shimazaki Architects

AA Intermediate 1 Tutor Paolo Emilio Pisano has been shortlisted for the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize for Niwa House, a project designed and delivered by Takero Shimazaki Architects, where Pisano worked as Project Architect.

Located in South London, Niwa House is a fully accessible family home that has already received a RIBA National Award and is also shortlisted for the AJ House of the Year – Manser Medal.

Conceived as a lightweight pavilion, the house unfolds as a sequence of open-plan spaces interspersed with courtyards and gardens, occupying an ‘as found’ plot of vacant land and forming a distinctive figure that respects the surrounding context.

A glazed envelope maintains a strong connection between inside and out, enclosing a network of timber columns and beams stacked to create clerestory-like apertures. Above, a limestone ceiling provides thermal mass and rigidity, resulting in a groundbreaking hybrid timber-and-stone structure that sets a new precedent for sustainable, low-carbon architecture.

The project was a team effort by Takero Shimazaki (practice director and former AA tutor), with Paolo Emilio Pisano and Cécile David (Project Architects), alongside Webb Yates Engineers and contractor New Wave London.