AIA Awards: The Latest Architecture and News

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced on Thursday, December 4, 2025, that architect Shigeru Ban is the recipient of the 2026 AIA Gold Medal. The award is the AIA's highest individual honor, recognizing individuals whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. On this occasion, the Japanese architect's work was highlighted for its inventive use of renewable materials such as paper and timber, his innovation in timber architecture, his commitment to social service through design, and his 30 years as an educator at universities including Harvard, Cornell, and Columbia. Previous honorees include Deborah Berke, the first female dean of the Yale School of Architecture, in 2025; David Lake and Ted Flato of the San Antonio–based practice Lake|Flato in 2024; and civic design leader Carol Ross Barney in 2023.

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Influential figure Deborah Berke, FAIA, LEED AP, has been announced as the recipient of the 2025 AIA Gold Medal, in recognition of her four-decade career integrating design prowess, and academic leadership demonstrating social and environmental responsibility. Her work, encompassing residential, institutional, and adaptive reuse projects, demonstrates a commitment to sustainability and community engagement. Founding Deborah Berke Partners (now TenBerke) in 1982 and serving as the first female dean of the Yale School of Architecture, she has held various leadership positions within the architectural profession and contributed to discussions on design ethics, sustainability, and education.

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Rafael Viñoly Architects’ Tokyo International Forum has been honored with the prestigious AIA Twenty-five Year Award. Celebrating its “distinctive transparent character and capacity to engage with the public in the largest metropolitan area in the world.” Rafael Viñoly Architects was first selected to design the structure through Japan’s first international design competition facilitated by Kenzo Tange, the architect of Tokyo’s City Hall and the first Japanese laureate of the Pritzker Prize.

nArchitects has just received the 2023 National Design Award in Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The award brings national recognition to the different forms of design that improve and enhance everyday life. In fact, the Architecture award selects a studio or individual for their holistic understanding of spatial experiences, and this year the committee picked nArchitects famous for their New York Micro-Apartment experiment, the cultural center A/D/O in Brooklyn, and many more interactive works.

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Nine projects have been recognized this year by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in the 2019 Institute Honor Awards for Interior Architecture. A five-member jury evaluated entries’ sense of place and purpose, ecology and environmental sustainability, and history to choose this year’s most innovative interior spaces.

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