The DigitalFUTURES Mark Cousins Theory Award 2025 is awarded to DAD professor Albena Yaneva

Every year, the independent platform DigitalFUTURES, an independent online platform for architectural education, assigns the “Mark Cousins Theory Award” for outstanding contributions in the field of architectural theory. For 2025, this prestigious award has been presented to Albena Yaneva, Professor of Architectural Theory at Department of Architecture and Design-DAD, where she directs the Invisible Cities Lab.

The award – named after Mark Cousins, long-time Director of General Studies and Head of the Graduate Programme in Histories and Theories at the Architectural Association – celebrates unconventional approaches to the theory, with great openness regarding the orientation of proposed studies, prioritizing work of high reflexive critical writing above all else. In previous years, the award went to figures such as Ana Maria Duran Callisto, Aleksandra Jaeschke, Andrej Radman, and Eyal Weizman. For 2025, the commission – composed of Andrej Radman, Michael Just, Dulmini Perera, and Neil Leach – decided to award Professor Yaneva for her “consistent and extraordinary contribution to architectural theory”.

“I am honoured to receive this prestigious award – stated Professor Yaneva – and I am pleased to see that the pragmatist approach to architecture is gaining relevance for both architectural scholarship and pedagogy across different educational and cultural contexts”.