On 4 October 2025, Indian architectural firm ReSa Architects, led by Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies alumni Shivani Shah and Revati Shah, was named the winner of the fifth edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale Début Award. The recognition celebrates emerging practices demonstrating originality, critical engagement, and experimentation in architecture. Past winners include Vão (Brazil, 2022), Bonell+Dòriga (Spain, 2019), Umwelt (Chile, 2016), and Jimenez Lai of Bureau Spectacular (USA, 2013).
The firm approaches architecture as a collaborative social activity, integrating built works and artistic research to challenge and redefine its boundaries. The duo prefers to think in terms of situations instead of fixed sites, fostering dynamic connections between images, texts, and bodies, which enables architecture to broaden its role in social and ecological interventions.
“Spaces are made within bodies, within neck rotations — looking. In this process of space making, we are also rewriting the bodies that inhabit these spaces. The agency found within the bodies creates the possibility for a subversion of the structures of economic systems that sustain them.”ReSa Architects
The 2025 Début Award shortlist included five finalists: Bangkok Tokyo Architecture (Thailand), Palma (Mexico), ReSa Architects (India), Robida Collective (Italy), and TEN (Switzerland). This year’s competition received 75 entries from worldwide applicants. Other notable shortlisted practices were Atelier Local (Portugal), Avneesh Tiwari (India), Banga Coletivo (Angola), BeAr Arquitectos (Spain), Estúdio Flume (Brazil), Exutoire (Vietnam), Indalo World (South Africa), and RC Architects (India).
The announcement took place during the opening celebrations of the Triennale, which also awarded Yasmeen Lari from Pakistan the Lifetime Achievement Award, making her the first recipient from the Global South. Lari joins a prestigious list of winners, such as Marina Tabassum (2022), Denise Scott-Brown (2019), Lacaton & Vassal (2016), Kenneth Frampton (2013), Álvaro Siza (2010), and Vittorio Gregotti (2007).
ReSa Architects’ recognition highlights an increasing emphasis on architecture as a socially conscious, research-based practice. By moving away from conventional display methods and emphasising context-aware, ethical representations, the team is reshaping the international circulation of architectural work, demonstrating the field’s ability to make a significant impact on social, ecological, and bodily issues.
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