Thomas Vincent Emerson OBE (born 29 September 1970 in Paris) is a British architect based in London and Zürich. His practice, 6a architects, founded with Stephanie Macdonald in 2001 is best known for designing buildings for the arts and education for which it has won several RIBA Awards, the Schelling Medal for architecture.[1] and the Tessenow Medal 2023.[2] He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to architecture and education.[3][4][5] In 2023 Emerson and Macdonald were elected Royal Academicians by the Royal Academy in London.
Emerson was born in France and brought up in Belgium.[6] For his studies, he came to the United Kingdom. He studied architecture at the University of Bath, the University of Cambridge and at the Royal College of Art where he met his partner Macdonald.[6]
In 2001, Emerson founded 6a architects alongside Macdonald. Projects have included Raven Row, 2009, South London Gallery 2010-18 incorporating a garden by Gabriel Orozco and the conversion of the Fire Station,[7] the V&A fashion gallery, Sadie Coles HQ in London and MK Gallery in Milton Keynes winner of an RIBA South Award in 2021. The studio complex for Juergen Teller won RIBA London Building of the Year 2017 and was nominated for the Stirling Prize 2017. 6a architects' competition-winning design for a new court at Churchill College Cambridge was completed in 2016. Works by 6a architects are particularly noted for their use of materials of strong relationship to landscape and gardens.
Since 2010 he has been Professor of Architecture and Construction at the ETH Zurich Faculty of Architecture. As part of his teaching and research on landscape and making, his students produced the Pavilion of Reflections floating on Lake Zurich for Manifesta 11 and urban landscape studies on Forst, Galway and Glasgow which was exhibited at Glasgow International in 2016. Before ETH Zurich, he taught architecture at the Architectural Association (2000–04) and the University of Cambridge (2004–10). He was awarded the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize in 2018 for his academic work with ETH.[citation needed]
Emerson has published a collection of essays as Dirty Old River, Park Books, 2025 and several academic journal articles including for AA Files,[8] as well as articles for Architects' Journal.
Tom Emerson lives in London and Zürich. In London, he lives with his partner Stephanie Macdonald.[9]
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