Barbara Buser awarded 2026 Jane Drew Prize for women in architecture
Swiss architect Barbara Buser has won the 2026 Jane Drew Prize for elevating the profile of women in architecture through her contributions to building reuse.
Buser is the co-founder of numerous built environment studios, including Bauteilbörse, a building parts exchange that encourages circular construction, which she established with her partner Eric Honegger in 1996.
Buser and Honegger, along with other co-founders, also established Swiss architecture studio Baubüro In Situ, urban planning studio Denkstatt Sàrl, an initiative that promotes the temporary use of vacant private property named Unterdessen, and circular construction planning office Zirkular.
"Recognition is long overdue"
The Jane Drew Prize is an annual award that forms part of the W Awards, formerly known as the Women in Architecture Awards, which was founded by UK publications The Architectural Review and Architects' Journal.
Buser follows last year's winner Anne Lacaton and 2024 winner Iwona Buczkowska. Other notable architects to have been awarded the prize, which is named after modernist pioneer Jane Drew, include Kate Macintosh, Yasmeen Lari and Zaha Hadid.
"Barbara Buser's multi-pronged approach to reuse treats building materials and components as what they are: finite resources that must be carefully stewarded in an ever-evolving cycle of assembly and reassembly," said The Architectural Review editor Manon Mollard.
"The wider building industry forgets this reality at its peril."
"Buser is a precursor; she was well ahead of her time and her recognition is long overdue," she continued.
Also forming part of the W Awards is the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, which this year has been awarded to British artist and curator Lubaina Himid.
Named after architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable, the prize aims to celebrate individuals who have contributed to architecture from the fields adjacent to it.
Himid was part of the British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s and curated a number of exhibitions that introduced Black artists and communities to new audiences in London. In 2017, she became the first Black artist to win the prestigious Turner Prize.
"Lubaina Himid's work challenges architects to question who designs our homes and cities and for whom," said The Architectural Review deputy editor Eleanor Beaumont.
"Her artworks depict an alternative spatial practice that offers a seat at the table to those who are systemically denied this right."
The top photo of Barbara Busa is by Anna Buser.
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