OBEL Foundation

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For a long time, architecture was understood as an essentially individual activity, dependent on the figure of a creative genius and centered on the ability to solve problems through drawing. Over time, this image began to fade. The protagonism once concentrated in a few names reached its peak during the era of the starchitects and gradually became distributed among offices, collectives, and multidisciplinary teams. Today, architects are expanding their boundaries into other fields such as gastronomy, music, design, and the corporate world, applying spatial thinking to address challenges of various kinds. As social, environmental, and political crises deepen, the role of the architect continues to evolve from a solitary author to a mediator, activist, and collective agent of transformation. This shift reflects an ethical awakening and a recognition that design, regulation, and care are inseparable dimensions of contemporary practice.

Concrete, steel, wood, glass. Every year, millions of tons of construction materials are discarded, piled up in landfills, and silenced beneath the weight of the next building. Entire structures disappear to make way for others, restarting a voracious cycle of resource extraction, material production, and replacement. Along with the debris that accumulates, something deeper is also lost: time, human labor, stories, and the collective memory embedded in matter. At a time when climate goals demand reducing emissions and extending the lifespan of what already exists, demolition is increasingly recognized as a form of urban amnesia, one that erases not only cultural continuity but also the embodied energy of buildings. And even though it is often said that the most sustainable building is the one that already exists, that principle rarely survives when other interests come into play.

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During the opening week of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, a consortium of six major architecture awards, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Holcim Foundation Awards, the EUmies Awards, the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, the OBEL Award, and the Ammodo Architecture Award, convened at TBA21–Academy's Ocean Space for a critical discussion titled "Beyond the Prize." This forum aimed to reflect on the role, relevance, and future potential of architecture awards amidst pressing social and environmental challenges. ArchDaily attended the public event and took the opportunity to ask the participants: What would the field of architecture look like if we stopped organizing architecture awards?

A moderated discussion hosted by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Holcim Foundation Awards, the EUmies Awards, the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, the OBEL Award, and the Ammodo Architecture Award will take place in Venice during the opening week of the 19th Architecture Biennale. This consortium of six architecture awards, alongside international architects associated with the prizes, will gather on Friday, May 9, 2025, at TBA21–Academy's Ocean Space to discuss the overarching impact of architecture awards and their potential to promote meaningful change. Titled "Beyond the Prize," the event aims to critically reflect on these awards' purpose, trajectory, and potential in the face of contemporary social and environmental challenges.

The OBEL Award is an international prize for architectural practice, presented annually by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation. The jury, composed of representatives from firms such as Snøhetta and MVRDV, alongside professionals from other disciplines, selects a theme to guide the choice of winners for each edition. The goal is to steer proposals toward solutions that foster dialogue and generate knowledge on emerging issues, aiming to promote architecture in service of social and ecological development worldwide. For its seventh edition, the 2025 call focus is Ready Made, targeting projects that place reuse and repurposing at the core of architecture for the common good.

Architect Jørn Utzon, globally recognized for projects like the Sydney Opera House, introduced an innovative design featuring its iconic shell-shaped roofs. Though he achieved great fame in Oceania, Utzon was born in Denmark, and it was in his childhood city that his final project was realized. Inaugurated in 2008, the Utzon Center, which hosted the 2024 Obel Award ceremony, not only honors the culmination of his distinguished career but also marks the beginning of his enduring legacy.

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Recognized for completing 36 distinct yet cohesive public projects across Mexico in just 36 months, Colectivo C733 showcases the impact of collaborative design on public spaces and communities. The 36 projects were part of a national effort to revitalize vulnerable urban and rural areas in Mexico, earning them the 2024 Obel Award focused on the theme of "Architectures With". The team behind the designs, Colectivo C733, is a collaborative group formed by the joint offices of architects Gabriela Carrillo (Taller Gabriela Carrillo), Carlos Facio, and José Amozurrutia (TO), along with Eric Valdez (Labg), and Israel Espin. In a recent conversation with ArchDaily's Editor-in-Chief, Christele Harrouk, the collective discussed their approach to public architecture, the process of integrating diverse voices, and remaining flexible to the challenges of local conditions.

The Obel Award is an international prize seeking to highlight unconventional and original initiatives within the architectural profession. Supported by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation, each annual award is centered around a specific theme. By exploring a different challenge of the built environment each year, the award remains open to a wide range of solutions and architectural innovations, honoring those contributions that have a positive impact on both people and the planet.

The Obel Award is an international prize for architectural achievement presented annually by the Henrik Frode Obel Foundation. Each year, the jury selects a specific theme and grants an award to a promising solution. For the 2024 edition, the prize that honors architectural contributions that positively impact both people and the planet will be focused on “Architecture With”.

Material researchers and Ph.D. students at Imperial College London, Sam Draper and Barney Shanks have won the 2022 OBEL AWARD for Seratech, a solution for carbon-neutral concrete. With a special focus this year on “embodied emissions”, the OBEL AWARD jury selected scientists to obtain the architecture award to “encourage innovative cross-disciplinary solutions to the challenges of climate change”.

The 15-minute city urban theory receives the 2021 Obel Prize in recognition of the concept's value for creating sustainable and people-centric urban environments. First coined in 2016 by Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno, the term defines a highly flexible urban model that ensures all citizens can access daily needs within a 15-minute distance, thus breaking the hegemony of the car and reintroducing the qualities of historic cities within contemporary urban planning.

The inaugural Obel Award has been awarded to Art Biotop Water Garden by Junya Ishigami+Associates. Announced at a ceremony at the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark, the award recognizes architectural achievement and is presented annually by The Henrik Frode Obel Foundation. The prize is 100,000 Euros and an artwork by leading artist Tomás Saraceno.