Overview

The Open Door project, delivered in partnership with Royal Institute of British Architects, is a programme to promote and celebrate outstanding conservation work by emerging architects in the UK and mainland China.

The project will celebrate the best of recent architecture heritage projects, champion the environmental and cultural benefits of building conservation, and promote knowledge exchange between experts in both countries. The project is aimed at architects that are no more than ten years qualified, to encourage more young professionals to become involved in the sector and build relationships with experienced practitioners.

Projects will fit into two categories:

• Twentieth Century (C20) heritage buildings
• Historic buildings built before 1901

Why Enter Open Door?

1. Your work will be assessed by a prestigious Expert Advisory Group,  all leaders in the heritage sector from the UK and China:

• Group Chair: Ben Derbyshire, Chair of HTA Design LLP London and Commissioner for Historic England
• Lu Wenyu, Co-founder of Prizter Prize winning firm – Amateur Architecture Studio, Hangzhou
• Chen Xiong, Director of BOD, Deputy General Manager and Chief Architect of Guangdong Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. (GDAD) 
• Geoff Rich, Architect and Managing Partner at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Bath, London and Manchester
• Dr Wei Yang, Chair of Wei Yang & Partners, Immediate Past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute 

Eligibility

Open door aims to promote young talent in the conservation sector.  The project is open to emerging architects as individuals or to a group of young professionals that include a person with a recognised architecture qualification. For this project, ’emerging’ means no more than ten years qualified.