Awards: The Latest Architecture and News

The Praemium Imperiale is a global arts prize that recognizes exceptional achievements in architecture, painting, sculpture, music, and theater or film. The award has been presented annually since 1988 by the Japan Art Association, with one postponement in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous laureates include Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, Japanese architect and humanitarian Shigeru Ban, and Burkinabé-German architect Francis Kéré, recognized by the association as professionals "who transcend national and ethnic boundaries, embodying the culture and arts of our time." This year, the laureate in the architecture category is Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind, co-founder of Studio Libeskind, known for the design of the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the World Trade Center Master Plan in New York City.

Since its launch in 2020, the ArchDaily Next Practices Awards have spotlighted forward-thinking architecture practices that are redefining the boundaries of the discipline. Over five editions, the initiative has recognized 105 practices from 44 countries, amplifying voices from around the world and fostering a global conversation about architecture's evolving role in society. Across the winning practices, recurring values emerge: contextual sensitivity, sustainable material use, co-creation with communities, experimental and interdisciplinary approaches, memory and heritage, social responsibility, and human-scale interventions.

The program reflects what is next: the ideas, practices, and projects that should be brought forward. 'Next' embodies practices that find solutions to today's urgent challenges while anticipating the needs of tomorrow. By spotlighting these practices, we hope to illuminate the paths that can lead to a more meaningful and resilient future for architecture and beyond.

A week of architecture news has highlighted the growing connections between environmental change, public systems, and the evolving role of architectural practice. Extreme weather events in different regions have drawn attention to the vulnerability of settlements, infrastructure, and territorial networks, while new approaches to housing demonstrate how changes in procurement, construction, and governance can influence architectural outcomes. At the same time, the recognition of established practitioners points to the lasting impact of architectural ideas across generations, as the profession continues to engage with questions of resilience, systemic change, and the broader conditions shaping the built environment.

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On 1 September 2026, the Balearic Social Housing Model was announced as the recipient of the 2026 OBEL Award. The focus of this award's cycle was "Systems' Hack," calling on architecture to critically engage with the systems that underpin contemporary society and to examine how these interconnected networks might be reconfigured in response to accelerating global challenges. The Balearic Social Housing Model, created by economist and independent consultant Cris Ballester and architect and civil servant Carles Oliver, is a six-point approach to public housing developed between 2019 and 2023, providing additional value and comfort to traditional affordable housing by bringing procurement, architecture, materials, energy, tenure, public capacity and learning together as responses to current social, environmental and economic challenges. In this interview with ArchDaily, the model's creators discuss its origins, ambitions, and material challenges in making social housing a desirable place to live.

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Amid growing economic, political, and climatic instability, the 2026 OBEL Award highlights the need for architectural approaches that rethink both existing and emerging infrastructures. The title for this edition is "Systems' Hack," where "systems" are understood as interrelated mechanisms governed by shared rules and "hacking" is framed as a strategic intervention that seeks to alter how these mechanisms operate. Within this framework, the OBEL Foundation has announced the Balearic Social Housing Model as the winner of this year's award, while also announcing a new cycle in 2027 under the same topic. The Balearic Social Housing Model is recognized for "transforming the role of social housing administration in the Balearic Islands between 2019 and 2023," proposing new approaches in response to an acute housing shortage and a critically limited public rental housing stock in Spain.

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The European Cultural Centre Italy has announced the finalists of the ECC Awards, presented as part of Personal Structures – Confluences, the eighth edition of its international contemporary exhibition, running in parallel with the Venice Art Biennale. Running in Venice from 9 May to 22 November 2026 across Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora and the Marinaressa Gardens, the exhibition provides the backdrop for the awards, which celebrate artistic practices engaging with the show's theme, Confluences, through research, interdisciplinarity and dialogue with place. The winners will be announced on 22 November 2026, during the exhibition's closing event.

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Showcase your project at the 25th Tile of Spain Awards

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the six shortlisted projects for the 2026 RIBA Stirling Prize, marking the award's 30th anniversary. Established in 1996, the Stirling Prize recognizes the building considered to have made a contribution to the evolution of architecture in the United Kingdom. This year's shortlist spans a broad range of typologies, including a new public square above one of London's busiest transport interchanges, the adaptive reuse of a 1970s theater into a cultural venue, a high-density residential development, two projects for Cambridge colleges, and a family home set on the edge of Epping Forest. The winner will be announced on October 15 at Old Billingsgate in London.

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On June 30, 2026, Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura received the 2026 UIA Gold Medal, the highest distinction awarded by the International Union of Architects, during a ceremony held at the Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona. Presented as part of the 2026 UIA World Congress of Architects, taking place from June 28 to July 2, the award recognizes Souto de Moura's sustained contribution to architecture through a body of work defined by contextual sensitivity, material precision, and a lasting influence on contemporary architectural culture.

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Established through a collaboration between the International Union of Architects (UIA) and UN-Habitat, the UIA 2030 Award recognizes projects that demonstrate how design can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Announced during the 2026 World Urban Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, the third cycle of the biennial award honored projects that address issues ranging from water management and affordable housing to participatory planning, access to public space, and climate resilience.

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A collective discussion titled "Beyond Recognition: Exploring the Role of Architectural Awards" is taking place on June 29 in Barcelona, on the occasion of the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026. The debate starts from the conviction that, in today's context of accelerating global challenges, the role of architectural awards must evolve. The event follows the conversation initiated during the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, where the relevance of awards was questioned, paving the way for a new conversation on how architectural awards can contribute to shaping practice, institutions, and public discourse. The discussion sessions are convened by representatives of major international awards: the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Ammodo Architecture Award, EUmies Awards, Holcim Foundation Awards, Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, and the OBEL Award, and are joined by prominent figures in the field of architecture and design.

Buildner has announced the results of its Museum of Emotions Competition Edition 7. The Museum of Emotions is an annual international design competition that tasks participants to explore the extent to which architecture can be used as a tool to evoke emotion.

The brief calls for the design of a conceptual museum with two exhibition halls: one designed to induce negative emotions; the other designed to induce positive emotions. Participants are free to choose any site of their liking, real or imaginary, as well as choose the scale of the project. The meaning of 'positive' and 'negative' is up for interpretation: What two emotions might a designer consider contrasting? How might an architect conceive spaces which elicit fear, anger, anxiety, love or happiness? 

This week's stories reveal a growing focus on reconnecting design with physical reality, whether through construction, landscape, public space, or collective participation. From the curatorial direction of the upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale 2027 to internationally recognized projects addressing flood resilience, affordable housing, and ecological restoration, many of the week's discussions challenged architecture's increasing detachment from material, environmental, and social conditions. At the same time, major cultural interventions, temporary structures, and public forums explored how institutions and civic spaces can become more accessible, adaptable, and engaged with everyday urban life.

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Buildner has announced the results of its competition, the Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial No.6. This competition is held each year to support the universal ban on nuclear weapons. In 2017, on the 75th anniversary of the 1945 bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which claimed the lives of over 100,000 people, the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

"I want to start by thanking architecture itself." With these words, Chilean architect Smiljan Radić, the 55th laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, opened his acceptance speech in Mexico City. Reflecting on what he calls "distractions," he thanked the many encounters that have accompanied him throughout his life and practice: from art, cities, materials, structures, and compositions to landscapes, poetry, nature, forms, stories, and memories. He spoke about what, within them, provoked him and the marks they left on his architectural imagination.

From the black light in Chandigarh and the interior of San Salvatore in Rialto, to the heaps of stone on the Croatian island of Brač; from the fallen columns of the Temple of Poseidon and the abandoned shires scattered across Chile, to People Meet in Architecture, Kazuyo Sejima's 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale, the traveling Chilean circus, and the silence of the water within the cisterns of Hagia Sophia, his speech unfolded as a tribute to moments, encounters, and distractions. A collage of memories and impressions that, together, shaped the architect he became.

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Buildner has launched Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2026, the third edition of its annual competition, offering a 100,000 EUR prize fund.

Buildner has also announced the results of Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2025, the second competition in a series celebrating architectural design that has yet to be realized. With a generous 100,000 EUR prize fund, this initiative provides a global platform for architects and designers to showcase their most compelling unbuilt projects, whether conceptual, published, unpublished, or fully developed.

In the high desert of the San Rafael Valley, a few miles from the United States-Mexico border in Lochiel, Arizona, an adobe schoolhouse has stood for more than a century. Built before 1905, before Arizona was an incorporated state, the schoolhouse served generations of Mexican American students from Arizona and Sonora, cultivating shared cultural experiences, stories, and relationships that transcend physical and political boundaries. Over decades of education and shared histories, it became a place where language and narrative moved freely, even as geopolitical tensions continued to rise along the border. Today, it is one of the last remaining one-room adobe schoolhouses in the United States.

Adobe is among the oldest building technologies in the American Southwest, and among the most demanding to steward. In desert climates, earthen walls face intense weathering from temperature extremes, cracking due to seasonal shifts, and accelerated decay after storm events. These vulnerabilities require sustained and skilled maintenance over many seasons and compounding decades. After years of encroaching abandonment and structural threats, a twelve-year restoration effort by local community members who understood this building as critical cultural infrastructure brought the schoolhouse back from the edge of demolition. That the community chose to undertake this effort, given everything Adobe construction demands of those who care for it, is a statement about what the loss of this building would have cost. The result is a structure that now stands as a monument to Mexican American heritage and a living archive of rural border education.

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Buildner has launched the Unbuilt Award 2026, the third edition of its annual competition, offering a €100,000 prize fund. At the same time, the results of the Unbuilt Award 2025 have been announced, marking the second competition in a series that celebrates architectural designs that have yet to be realized. The initiative provides a global platform for architects and designers to showcase their most compelling unbuilt projects—whether conceptual, published, unpublished, or fully developed.