Awards: The Latest Architecture and News

Each year, The Architectural League of New York awards its prestigious Emerging Voices award to eight practices across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, whose work “represents the best of its kind, and addresses larger issues within architecture, landscape, and the built environment."

This is Emerging Voices' 35^th year running, with the competition organized by League Program Director Anne Rieselbach and reviewed by an esteemed jury.

"The 2017 Voices personify the versatility of contemporary practice. Many firms take on multiple roles of designer, developer, and/or builder to address pressing issues in housing, institutional design, and the public realm. They embrace material experimentation, challenging sites, and an economy of means within budgetary constraints to create exemplary architecture," said Rieselbach.

This year’s recipients are…

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IKEA’s flat-packed refugee housing solution, the “Better Shelter,” has been announced as the winner of the Beazley Design of the Year 2016. Presented by the Design Museum in London, the award is given to the project that best meets the criteria of design that “promotes or delivers change,” “captures the spirit of the year,” “enables access,” and “work that has extended design practice.”

Selected as the winner of the Architecture category, the Better Shelter beat out winners from five other categories, including Digital, Fashion, Graphics, Product and Transport, to take home the top honor of Design of the Year.

In addition to the 18 architectural projects selected as recipients of the 2017 Institute Honor Awards, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have also named 5 projects as winners of the 2017 Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design.

Tamayouz Excellence Award is delighted to invite students of Architecture / Urban / Architecture Technology / Landscape Design worldwide to register and submit their Graduation Projects. An independent international jury will review all entries and will select the winners of Tamayouz International Award 2017. Prizes include: An MSc Scholarship for 2 Years at the Polytechnic University of Milan, 2 scholarships for the Stadslab (European Urban Design Laboratory) master classes, Medals for 7 Honorable Mentions, supervisor the Year Medal, University of the Year Medallion. All the selected winners making the Top 10 list, the supervisor of the year and the university of the Year will be invited to attend our annual Tamayouz Excellence Award ceremony (Travel Expenses covered by the organisers of the Award).

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) have named 18 architectural and interior projects as recipients of the 2017 Institute Honor Awards, the profession’s highest recognition for excellence in design.

According to the AIA, “the 2017 Architecture program celebrates the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type. These stunning projects show the world the range of outstanding work architects create and highlight the many ways buildings and spaces can improve our lives.”

The awarded projects were selected from nearly 700 submissions. The winners will be honored at the 2017 AIA National Convention in Orlando.

The Center for Architecture and Design has announced Theaster Gates as the 2017 recipient of its Edmund N. Bacon Award, which honors one individual who has advocated for excellence in urban development, planning, thought, and design.

A Chicago-based artist and community developer, Gates is the founder of the Rebuild Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of urban life by planning and designing active and engaged communities. “Under Gates’ leadership, the Rebuild Foundation currently manages projects in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. Program sites include the Stony Island Arts Bank, the Black Cinema House, the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, Archive House, and Listening House.”

In the past 10 years, the Curry Stone Design Prize has grown to become one of the world’s preeminent awards honoring socially impactful design professionals and the influence of design as a force for improving lives and strengthening communities.

This year, in honor of the prize’s 10th anniversary, the Curry Stone Foundation will acknowledge the largest group of influential practices yet, recognizing 100 firms over the next twelve months as members of the “Social Design Circle.” Each firm will be profiled on the award website, as well as participate in the foundation’s new podcast, Social Design Insights, beginning on January 5th, 2017.

Aedas' Mapletree Business City Shanghai and VivoCity Shanghai has been named the "ultimate world's Best International Mixed-Use Architecture" of 2015, according to the International Property Awards that were announced in London. The mixed-use development merged retail, dining and entertainment with Grade A offices to "create a dynamic environment for both business and leisure." All facilities are seamlessly connected and share a number of amenities, thus providing a "new benchmark" of 'live, work and play' in Shanghai.

The Ninth European Prize for Urban Public Space (2016) has officially issued a call for entries. The biennial honorary award “has been offered since 2000 in order to recognize, encourage, and publicize examples of good practice in the ways in which the public spaces of European cities respond to the many challenges they presently face.”

The Prize seeks interventions that recover or improve the democratic quality of urban spaces that are endangered by “segregation, inequalities, unchecked urban construction, unsustainable squandering, and serious shortfalls in making effective the right to the city.”

The Royal Institute of British Archtects (RIBA) has announced the launch of its new global architecture award for the world’s best new building, called the RIBA International Prize. Open to any qualified registered architect around the world, the new prize will be awarded to a building that “demonstrates innovative and visionary design whilst making a distinct contribution to its users and to its physical context.”

The President's Design Award, which honours Singapore designs and designers, has named its three Designers of the Year for 2015. Dr. Colin K. Okashimo (sculptor and landscape architect), Mr. Franklin Po (Principal of landscape architecture practice Tierra Design) and Mr. Siew Man Kok (co-founder of MKPL Architects) were selected from 111 nominations by a 14-member panel, which included British architect Richard Rogers.

Designed by Félix Guyon of Les Ateliers Guyon in Verchères, Quebec, "Sails Benches" is a monument to the original founding families of Verchères, commissioned by the municipality. Having worked in Montreal for many years, Guyon returned to his native village for this personal project, which was selected as the winning design of the Furniture Category at the World Interiors Awards 2015 in London, "charming" the judges with the personal narrative and sensitivity of his Sail Benches, according to a press release. Read more about the project after the break.

Alberto Campo Baeza’s Office Building in Zamora, Spain has been selected as the winner of the 2015 BigMat International Architecture Award, with the judges commending how the design combines “the contemporary nature of the building with a respectful understanding of its existing surroundings.”

Recognized with a prize of 30,000 euros, Campo Baeza’s project was selected from 750 projects located in six different European countries. Five national winners and five finalists were also announced, while Samuel Delmas (a+ samueldelmas architects urbanistes) was awarded the Special Mention for Young Architects for his building in Nozay, France.

View all of the award winning projects after the break.

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The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has selected Richard Rogers as the 2015 recipient of the J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. The Institute’s highest honor, the award "recognizes a person or a person representing an institution who has demonstrated a longtime commitment to the creation of communities that reflect the highest standards of design and development."

Rogers was selected as the prize's 16th recipient for "his career-long focus on creating sustainable communities that thrive by providing a high quality of life for all citizens."

The Noguchi Museum has selected Tadao Ando, alongside artist Elyn Zimmerman, as recipient of the third annual Isamu Noguchi Award, "given to recognize individuals who share Noguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness, and East-West exchange." Complimenting Ando's "minimalist approach, sensitivity to light, and incorporation of natural elements," the judges believe the self-taught Japanese architect's "unparalleled work with concrete" embodies many of the principles embraced by Noguchi.

"Like Noguchi’s sculpture, which gave equal importance to the object and the space it inhabited, Ando’s work harmoniously integrates edifice and environment, while interior and exterior are intimately connected through his incorporation of water, light, wind, sky, and landscape into his building designs," the museum described in a press release.

Alongside the release of this year's Gold Medal and firm award winners, the American Institute of Architects has named recipients of three other national awards: Edward C. Kemper Award, Topaz Medallion, and Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.

Honored for being a "tireless advocate for social justice and diversity within architecture," R. Steven Lewis, AIA, has been selected to receive the 2016 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. "Steve enlightened a generation of architects on the importance of knowing the history of those who came before them. He built bridges that they crossed," Purnell wrote in support of Lewis's nomination for the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. "He has mentored minority architects through his brilliant leadership by example.”

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has named Skene Catling De La Pena's Flint House the winner of its annual "House of the Year" award. A "marvel of geological evolution and construction," the home was formed within the "flint-layered fields" of Rothschild’s estate at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. As the judges say, the home's clever use of a locally prevalent materials and intelligent layering of space "delivers a stunning piece of livable, provoking, modern architecture that marries into the earthly yet beautiful countryside."

LMN Architects, a 145-employee firm based in Seattle, has been chosen as the recipient of the 2016 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Firm Award.

“LMN Architects exemplify the best in architecture firm culture,” said 2015 AIA President Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA. “Not only is their work proof of this, but the amazing talent they are cultivating will have a reverberating impact on the profession for years to come.”