RIBA Charles Jencks Award 2026 - Anna Puigjaner

The Jencks Foundation and RIBA The Jencks Foundation and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are delighted to announce that Anna Puigjaner has been named the recipient of the 2026 RIBA Charles Jencks Award. Presented annually, the award recognises an individual or practice that has made an outstanding contribution to both the theory and practice of architecture. Join us for this special evening celebrating Anna Puigjaner's work and achievements, featuring the 2026 Jencks Award Lecture and a live conversation with the award recipient. About Anna Puigjaner: Anna Puigjaner is an architect and researcher who co-founded the practice MAIO in Barcelona and is Professor of Architecture and Care at ETH Zurich. Her theoretical and built work with MAIO has reframed the question of how we live together collectively, revealing that the structures that organise our spaces and their functions are historically contingent rather than fixed. Her work has repositioned housing as a question of collective infrastructure, care, and social organisation, opening up new ways of thinking about domesticity and urban life. Puigjaner's theoretical position was first developed through Kitchenless City in 2016 and has since evolved to focus on how architecture can reorganise the infrastructures of everyday life. Her current work examines how housing, shared resources, and civic space might support more diverse and equitable ways of living together. Projects developed with MAIO test these ideas in practice, including 110 Rooms, which reimagines collective housing through adaptable domestic arrangements, and 40 Social Housing Units, which explores flexibility, shared space, and changing household structures. Her work has influenced a new generation of architects, researchers, and educators. Through her hybrid practice, Puigjaner has forged a rare synthesis between theory and building; these are not only theories tested through architecture, but architecture tested through theory as well. By maintaining both a theoretical and a built practice, Puigjaner has found ways to explore and realise new models of collective infrastructure and care. Event Programme 5:30pm - 6:00pm Arrival and registration 6:00pm - 6:20pm Welcome and citation by Adrian Dobson and Lily Jencks 6:20pm - 7:15pm RIBA Charles Jencks Award 2026 Lecture Anna Puigjaner 7:15pm - 8:00pm In Conversation: Anna Puigjaner Including audience Q&A, hosted by Thomas Aquilina 8:00pm - 8:30pm Reception and close Photo credit: José Hevia Terms and Conditions If RIBA has to postpone or cancel the event the booker is entitled to a full refund of the ticket price only. On entry to the event you agree to accept and abide by any venue rules. RIBA reserves the right to refuse admission to any ticket holder. By registering for this event, you agree to your contact details being shared with RIBA sponsors and corporate partners associated with this event. You can unsubscribe from communications with these partners at any time. The details you provide will be used in line with RIBA's Data Protection obligations. For information on how we will handle your personal data please see our Privacy Policy. Where tickets are refunded, please note ticketing fees are non-refundable. Your information, including dietary and accessibility requests, may be shared with our partners, including third-party venues and security. By accepting an invitation or purchasing a ticket you have consented to being photographed, filmed or recorded as a visitor attending the event for all general purposes in relation to the event including without limitation, publicity and promotional purposes. You consent to us using your voice, name and/or likeness, without compensation, for exploitation in promotional and publicity materials, online, books, newspapers, newsletters, magazine articles and social marketing whenever we choose to do so, in perpetuity.