Mike Tonkin is the judge of the Architectural Design category.
Having received a first class honours degree from Leeds School of Architecture, he completed a Master's degree at the Royal College of Art and qualified as an Architect in 1989. After working for Nigel Coates and Eva Jiricna in Japan and London, he spent several years travelling and studying before settling in Hong Kong. Tonkin Design in Hong Kong undertook projects in Austria, Indonesia, England, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong he met Anna Liu. They came together with an interest in dismantling current mythology and, through observation, invented their own. Anna was educated at Columbia University in New York. Teaching and research have formed a vehicle for exploration and together they have taught for four years at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. They also set up their practice together, Tonkin Liu.
In the public realm the practice's projects include award winning urban regeneration schemes and art installations. Projects undertaken by the practice over the last ten years range from ones for corporate clients such as Virgin Atlantic and Nike to ones for private clients. Completed and proposed projects include residences, galleries, offices, bars, restaurants, cinemas, public space, and sculpture, in Japan, Hong Kong, the United States, Austria, France, and Taiwan.
The origin of each project grows out of the place it is sited, the people who will move through it, and the culture that surrounds it at the time. This emphatic search for fresh beginnings is set out in their book “asking looking playing making”. Published in 1999, the methodology searches for archetypes that will inform the process of the project from inception to completion to the reading of the work.
The search in each project brings to the fore an interest in nature and human nature.
Awards
Winner, Dover Esplanade Design Competition
Winner, pavilion for the London Festival of Architecture Competition
Shortlisted, Olympic Park Bridge Competition
Winner, RIBA National Award, Singing Ringing Tree
Winner, RIBA Award, Promenade of Light
Winner, Landmark Wales Competition
Winner, V&A Museum Exhibition Design, China Design Now
First Prize, RIBA Urban Space Award, Old Street
Faces to Watch in 2005, The Independent Magazine
AJ Corus Forty under Forty, Exhibition of work V & A Museum,
Winner, Panopticons Competition, Burnley
Winner, Any Old Street Competition, Architectural Foundation
First Prize, RIBA Future House Award, House 1a
Unit Masters, AA School of Architecture
RIBA Award, Young House
Grand Design Series, Channel 4, House 1a
