Other than that, for the first time this year, Architect’26 has started a new project, transforming the space in front of the Sky entrance to become the “Gateway of the exposition” where 40 designers collaborated with exhibitors to create 80 Moodboards, presenting them in the form of an Exhibition called “Palette of Materials Pavilion”.

These dedicated zones reveal the expansive potential of design made possible through collaborative processes that weave together the technical know-how of material manufacturers with the realized imagination of architects.

Before construction begins and installations rise within the exhibition halls of Architect’26, we invite readers to explore and reflect on the conceptual framework behind one of the event’s most anticipated highlights: the Thematic Pavilions and Palette of Materials Pavilion

Watsadu niyom x HAA Studio

Watsadu niyom x HAA Studio take on the challenge of preserving the original condition of every material component that forms their pavilion, specifically APC (Aluminium Plastic Composite) and WPC (Wood Plastic Composite), both recyclable materials. The design ensures that these materials remain intact and can be reclaimed for further use once the event concludes. Their architectural language emerges directly from the realities of the materials themselves, shaped by structural thinking and guided by an ethical approach to material use.

Temporality need not equate to wastefulness. The pavilion thus becomes a point of recognition, both as a spatial presence and as a statement of systemic responsibility toward materials. Its form draws inspiration from the fluid movement of the aurora across the night sky, reflecting the brand, Watsadu Niyom’s ongoing journey of transformation. Familiar materials such as wood-plastic composite louvers are reinterpreted through artistic expression and spatial composition, opening new perspectives on the material itself. The pavilion communicates through an environmental aesthetic shaped by ecological awareness across the material’s entire life cycle.

Vanachai x Studio Tofu

Vanachai x Studio Tofu present ‘Ngon Pavilion,’ a project that features Woodsmith, a wood product brand under the Vanachai Group, positioned as both a companion to homeowners and an environmentally responsible choice. The pavilion transforms these materials into an installation composed in a form deeply familiar to Thai spatial behavior at ground level, whether sitting, reclining, or resting. The floor plane, serving as the primary element of the pavilion, gradually lifts and curves upward, evolving into a curved amphitheater that extends from floor to wall. This gesture allows users to inhabit and engage with the surface freely and in close proximity.

The installation process was executed from the outset with precise calculations to minimize material waste. Should any offcuts remain from production, Vanachai has established a system to channel these remnants to a biomass power plant, where they are converted into energy. The project, therefore, reflects a material-conscious approach throughout the entire process, ensuring that each component is utilized efficiently and to its fullest potential.

TODA x Supermachine Studio

The design concept begins with the statement, ‘Artificiality in the New Reality,’ reflecting a world in which the boundary between nature and the man-made is increasingly blurred. This aligns with TODA’s ongoing work in developing alternative materials for the future, including artificial leather, flooring materials, and interior films; products that have seamlessly integrated into the environments we inhabit daily in the contemporary world.

The design draws upon the atmosphere of science fiction to construct a mechanical life-form vessel enveloped in 860 metal petals. Four natural materials, leather, wood, stone, and sand, serve as representatives of the natural resources from which TODA’s alternative materials originate. These elements act as carriers of a central proposition: that the future demands design and material development oriented toward responsibility, ensuring coexistence with people over the long term.

Panel Plus x ACa Architects

Panel Plus x ACa Architects convey the experience of being immersed in nature, as though surrounded by orderly rows of rubber trees. The design integrates the systematic logic of the architectural grid with the boundless sensation of a forest. The sustainable standard board materials of Panel Plus are transformed into an architectural experience, while simultaneously demonstrating the qualities of Perfect Wood and Perfect Match, whose grain, color, and edges align seamlessly as one continuous surface.

Given the pavilion’s limited footprint, the layout employs diagonal axes and layered spatial configurations to increase both material surface area and functional use. This approach unlocks the potential of wood board products, revealing them as a generative starting point for broader creative possibilities. Wood-grain textures and color variations are juxtaposed with mirrored aluminum panels to create reflections and spatial depth, while lighting design further accentuates the material’s details through the viewer’s own sensory perception.

Häfele x Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee / HAS design and research

Häfele x Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee / HAS design and research present the ASA Megä Hill pavilion, brought to life through an interpretation of the Architect Expo as a site for professional gathering and exchange within the architectural community. The mountain-like form connects ideas, people, and activities, functioning simultaneously as structure and circulation. It becomes a constructed landscape that visitors can traverse, interact with, and explore, engaging naturally with Häfele’s components and solutions.

The pavilion’s design and installation process prioritize resource efficiency and the reduction of post-exhibition waste. Eco-friendly materials are employed to achieve complex architectural forms while reducing the load on the primary structure. The pavilion is designed for disassembly and future reassembly, enabling reuse beyond the event. In this way, the project aligns creative production with the brand’s broader direction toward sustainable building solutions for the future.

SCG x SaTa Na

SCG x SaTa Na present The Delta Stack Pavilion, developed from an interpretation of the brief, ‘Beyond Materials, Into Life.’ The design begins with the material as the central protagonist. Conceived as a cave-like space, the pavilion invites visitors to inhabit and engage with materials through their own bodily gestures, allowing contact through multiple senses. Understanding of the material is further structured through a layered triangular system formed by the placement of primary materials at a 45-degree angle, combined with DECAAR panels installed at 90 degrees to generate rhythm, structure, and spatial depth.

The pavilion demonstrates that material itself reveals processes of thought, structural strength, and architectural potential, while remaining a tactile surface within close reach of the body. When material is touched, understood, and assembled, the architectural space becomes a space for people; one that can be actively inhabited and animated from within.

SMARTMATT INTO SPEC x Context Studio

SMARTMATT INTO SPEC x Context Studio presents ‘Pransathan,’ a space dedicated to cultivating mindfulness amid the rapid pace of the contemporary world and the surrounding flux of circumstances. The act of meditative breathing is translated into the compression and expansion of interior space, organized into three primary zones: a tunnel for gathering awareness, a space for recognizing one’s present state and surrounding environment, and a central chamber where concentration culminates in heightened mindfulness.

SMARTMATT’s SPC synthetic wood material is composed with careful precision, measured intervals, and voids that form fluid, rounded geometries. These spatial gestures generate atmosphere and shared sensory experience for visitors moving through Pransathan. The material system and structural components are designed for disassembly and reconfiguration, allowing the form to be adapted to varying activities, scales, and sites. In this way, the pavilion conveys its conceptual narrative fully through form and design process.

aluframe x Unknown Surface Studio

aluframe begins its design concept within the aluframe factory itself, drawing from the image of long aluminum profiles stacked in orderly layers on industrial racks. This image prompts a reflection on the intrinsic value of material and the need to cultivate awareness of material through the pavilion as a system of resource circulation. The material stock is thus unfolded into a public space where visitors can directly experience and perceive the potential of aluminum from a new perspective.

A triangular structure unfolds in a fan-like formation, generating multiple overlapping layers reminiscent of materials drawn from storage racks and transformed into architectural space. The voids between layers filter light and create rhythms of light and shadow shaped by the constant movement of people. Surface articulation is achieved by arranging aluminum cross-sections into patterned compositions, animating the industrial material. This strategy is integrated with aluframe’s aluminum sliding system, seamlessly connecting spatial design with engineering systems.

Palette of Materials Pavilion

Another key highlight is the Palette of Materials Pavilion, a collaboration between the organizer and Looklen Architects, created as an inspiring space that showcases the ideas and creative visions of 40 designers through 80 meticulously crafted mood boards composed from 800 different materials. The pavilion allows visitors to experience the emotions, design direction, and material-blending possibilities that shape contemporary architectural expression, offering a fresh and immersive way to engage with the Architect Expo. The Palette of Materials Pavilion serves as a landmark of materials, reorienting visitors and connecting them to the innovation and design at the heart of the expo.

This pavilion features a striking design built on a sustainable concept: reusing the Aluminum structures from S-one Group, which were previously featured in last year’s Architect Expo.

Beyond the main structure, several partners provided materials and equipment to enhance the visitor experience:

● LUMICÈLE™ by CPH: Smart ceiling and lighting systems.
● UNILAMP: ALPHA spotlights.
● TODA: Smart Flex Mirror panels.
● DEFG: A 3 x 2.5 meter LED screen.
● Zonic Vision: Audio and control systems.
● IS DELIGHT: Surrounding landscape design.
● Panel Plus: MDF wood bases for the mood boards.
● Pioneer: Furniture.
● Mahajak: Sound Systems
● Bua: Outdoor Furniture

Together, these elements complete the atmosphere and create a seamless experience for everyone who enters the space.

All eight Thematic Pavilion and Palette of Materials Pavilion can be experienced at Architect’26, taking place from April 28 to May 3, 2026, between 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM, at Challenger Hall, IMPACT Muang Thong Thani. Advance registration is now open — click here to register.

For further updates and detailed information, please visit www.ArchitectExpo.com or follow the official channels on Facebook at งานสถาปนิก : ASA Architect Expo and Instagram at ASA Architect Expo 2026.

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The post Material Matters at ARCHITECT’26: When Designers Turn Building Products Into Architecture appeared first on Journal.

Now, however, the “mights,” “coulds” and “shoulds” have given way to something more urgent: a growing sense that the industry is mid-transformation, and that the architects who understand it will define what practice looks like for the next generation. It’s into this moment — charged, uncertain and alive with possibility — that the ATN Summit took form.

Two days, one stage, world-leading firms, and a deliberately TED-style format, the event was designed to make sure every talk earns its place in the room. The Summit is the flagship event of Archi-Tech Network (ATN): a platform founded by Oliver Thomas, a former Design Technology Manager at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), who has spent five years at the intersection of architecture, technology and knowledge-sharing.  It took place at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, London, from March 18th to 19th, 2026. Stay tuned for more events to come!

From Clubhouse to Conference

ATN didn’t begin with grand ambitions. It began, as many of the best things did, in the early days of COVID, with a podcast on Clubhouse, a chat app that briefly turned the internet into one enormous, unruly salon. “You were just in a room with Snoop Dogg talking about NFTs,” Oliver recalls, laughing, “and then Elon Musk would pop in. It was a weird moment.”

But beneath the chaos, Oliver spotted something real: a gap he’d been watching widen from his desk at BIG. “Even there, we were seeing junior, mid-level, and senior people come into the office without the digital skill set they needed to actually work in practice,” he explains. “If this is what we’re experiencing from people in New York, from Harvard — there’s clearly something missing between university and practice.”

The existing landscape wasn’t much help. On the one hand: formal, dry training resources. On the other: a wave of young online creators, engaging and accessible, but sometimes missing crucial real-world experience. Oliver saw the gap between them and decided to occupy it — teaching architecture technology from the perspective of practice, with the sensibility of someone who’d lived both worlds.

What began as a weekly podcast grew into a YouTube channel, then into courses covering Rhino, Revit, and Grasshopper. Inside, AI, and visualization — all taught from the inside out, the way Oliver had trained people within BIG itself. Then came the events. When he moved back to London and took up the role of Design Technology Manager at BIG’s London office, he could feel something else in the air: a post-COVID hunger to be in a room with other people. So he created one.

Pecha Kucha in the Pub was a deliberate reinvention of the architecture meetup format. In short: no hour-long talks. Instead, 20 slides, 20 seconds each, starting in a pub so people already had a drink in hand. No awkward sponsor pitches wedged into the middle. Just fast, sharp ideas and the kind of conversation that actually happens at 9pm rather than being rushed into the last beer before the last tube. Every event sold out (some within 30 minutes!). The format traveled to Copenhagen, New York, and eventually to Epic Games’ innovation lab in London.

The Summit is where all of that leads. “It’s basically a culmination of five years of doing ATN,” Oliver says (hence the name, Summit). “These little meetups have evolved into the big leagues.”

What Makes This Different

Architecture conferences have a reputation. There’s the trestle-table sponsor zone, the clash-detection pitch nobody asked for, the keynote speakers who’ve given the same talk three times already this year. The ATN Summit has been designed, consciously and with some glee, as an antidote to all of it.

The format is TED-style: 20–25 minute talks, back to back, one stage, no competing streams. (“I hate when you have multiple stages and you want to see two people but you can’t,” Oliver says.) The sponsor zone has been reconceived as the Innovation Pub — high-top bar tables, open conversation, and a beer tap in the afternoon. The kind of space where you sit down next to someone building the next generation of BIM software and actually want to hear what they’re working on, as if you were sitting in a pub.

The speaker lineup reflects five years of genuine relationships, not a booking agency. BIG, Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, MVRDV, Heatherwick Studio and Mamou-Mani, alongside a constellation of startups reshaping the tools of practice: Motif, Qonic, Giraffe, Finch, Speckle and Automated Architecture (and many more — you can read the full lineup here). The conversations between these worlds — established global firms and the lean, fast-moving companies building the software they’ll use next — are the kind that don’t often happen in the same room.

And the room itself is genuinely international. As of a few weeks before the event, attendees had registered from 28 countries, with over 100 firms represented in the audience. The balance skews professional — this is a conference for practitioners, not a student expo — but student tickets were available, and the ATN Influence Day running on the Saturday after the main Summit was priced specifically to be accessible to junior and emerging voices.

Architect 3.0: What You’ll Actually Walk Away With

Oliver talks about the value of in-person events with the conviction of someone whose career was shaped by them. A single conference in 2014, Smart Geometry, connected him to the people who eventually led him to BIG. “From this one conference, I met all these different people,” he says. “It was right at the time I wanted to get into computational design. Did I want to do a degree? So I simply went to a conference about it — and that really brought me into this world.”

What the Summit offers is harder to quantify than a workshop certificate, but more lasting: the inspiration of seeing what’s actually possible at the leading edge, and the serendipity of being in a room when it matters. You’ll hear from architects who are using computation and AI to drive daylight and solar analysis, from firms like Mamou-Mani who are 3D-printing recyclable furniture and taking it back at the end of its lifecycle to reprint the next project, and from startups using timber automation to make sustainable construction economically viable. And you’ll hear something more surprising — a serious conversation about game engines.

“Everyone is focused on AI, but this world of Unreal Engine, more and more architects getting into this space and then having opportunities in film, VFX, gaming — I think it’s a really slept-on aspect of the industry right now,” Oliver says. It’s one of the Summit’s deliberate interventions: to make space for the conversations the industry isn’t quite having yet, alongside the ones it can’t stop having.

Because behind all of it is a bigger question. Oliver calls it Architect 3.0 — a shift as significant as the move from drafting by hand to CAD. In this new era, AI and emerging tools aren’t replacing architects; they’re accelerating the parts of practice that don’t need human ingenuity, so the parts that do can breathe. But the profession needs to be intentional about what it does with that freedom. “We’re already doing more, even faster, for the same amount,” Oliver says. “If we’re not careful, AI will do the same thing.”

That’s the conversation the Summit exists to have.

The ATN Summit took place 18–19 March 2026 at Protein Studios, Shoreditch, London. Further information is available at atn-summit.com.

Learn more about ATN social media: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@architech.network

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/architech.network/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/architech-network/

The post Architect 3.0 Has Arrived. These Are the Firms and Startups Building It. appeared first on Journal.

The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) is seeking a licensed architect based in Colorado to join its facilities team. The role focuses on planning, design coordination and capital project oversight across a network of institutional buildings. For architects interested in working on civic infrastructure at scale, the position offers a chance to influence how critical facilities are planned, upgraded and delivered.

Unlike many architectural roles that focus on a single project or building typology, this position operates across multiple initiatives — from capital construction and facility upgrades to long-term planning and compliance with regulatory standards. This position will perform professional services to include project management, master planning, facility programming, regulatory agency approvals, design guidelines, construction standards, construction budgeting, contractor/consultant selection, code compliance reviews, design reviews, ensures compliance with legislative intent, as well as a leading role in coordination with private sector design consultants and coordination of engineering disciplines for “in-house” projects.

Learn More and Apply

Candidates must hold a current architecture license from the Colorado State Board of Licensure. The role requires strong familiarity with project delivery, construction documentation and coordination with consultants and engineering disciplines. Experience with facility assessments, ADA compliance and construction budgeting is beneficial.

In practice, the position functions as both a design leader and a systems thinker. Responsibilities include reviewing schematic design, design development and contract documents prepared by private-sector design teams, ensuring that projects align with departmental standards, budgets and legislative intent.

The architect will also play a role in facility programming, master planning and strategic planning, helping guide how buildings across the department evolve over time. That work includes evaluating new project proposals, coordinating with internal stakeholders and supporting the development of facility master plans for various sites.

More About the Role

Architects in this position serve as a bridge between public-sector goals and private-sector design consultants. By advising project managers, resolving technical challenges and ensuring compliance with codes and standards, the role helps ensure that projects move smoothly from planning to construction.

While the work focuses on institutional facilities, the broader impact is civic: maintaining and improving the physical infrastructure that supports essential public systems throughout Colorado.

For architects interested in applying their expertise beyond traditional private practice — while remaining rooted in the state — the role offers a rare opportunity to influence projects at a statewide scale.

Experience Required: Licensed Architect (Colorado)
Location: Colorado (Colorado residents only)
Employer: Colorado Department of Corrections

Interested candidates can learn more and apply at CDOC.Jobs, where additional application guidance and hiring resources are available.

In addition to a great agency and rewarding, meaningful work, CDOC offers:

• Distinctive career advancement opportunities throughout the state system.
• Strong, secure, yet flexible retirement benefits including PERA Defined Benefit Plan or PERA Defined Contribution Plan, plus 401K and 457 plans. Member Contribution Rates.
• Medical and dental health plans
• Short and long-term disability coverage
• Paid life insurance
• 11 paid holidays per year, plus vacation and sick leave
• Wellness program, tuition reimbursement, training opportunities and more
• Visit the State of Colorado Employee Benefits for more information.

Top image of Brown Mountain in Colorado by Joetography via Pexels 

The post Colorado Architects: An Opportunity to Work on the State’s Public Facilities appeared first on Journal.

This isn’t a role confined to redlines and isolated drafting tasks. IMC works across ground-up and renovation projects in multi-family residential, commercial and mixed-use typologies — the bread and butter of New York City’s evolving urban fabric. The firm is looking for someone with 4–7 years of experience who wants to be embedded in every phase of a project, from feasibility through construction administration.

Learn More and Apply

US experience is required — even better if in New York City —  and a working understanding of NYC zoning and codes is critical. Designing here means navigating complexity, and IMC is looking for someone who can manage that challenge with rigor and independence.

Image courtesy of IMC Architecture

Proficiency in Revit is essential, but at IMC, BIM is not just documentation — it’s a project delivery tool. The right candidate will help coordinate drawing sets, develop technical details and contribute to conceptual imagery. They’ll participate in schematic design, design development and construction documents, and assist during bid and construction phases. This is exposure that accelerates growth.

More About the Firm and Role

As a boutique practice, IMC offers something larger firms often can’t: visibility and responsibility early on. The firm is seeking a detail-oriented, collaborative architect who is self-motivated and eager to grow with a team. The role is fully in-office in Brooklyn, placing you at the center of project coordination and decision-making.

For architects at the 4–7 year mark, the question often becomes: stay comfortable, or step forward? IMC Architecture is offering the latter — a chance to work closely with project managers and clients, to refine technical fluency, and to build real project ownership in one of the world’s most demanding design environments.

Compensation: $70,000–$80,000 annually
Experience Required: 4–7 years
Location: Brooklyn, NY (in-office)

Interested candidates should submit a PDF resume and work samples (under 5 MB) to info@imcarch.com, including salary requirements in the cover letter.

Learn More and Apply

The post Small Firm, Big Responsibility: IMC Architecture Is Hiring an Intermediate Architect appeared first on Journal.

The Brooklyn-based firm specializes in ground-up and renovation projects across multi-family, commercial and mixed-use typologies. At this scale, success depends on clarity of coordination, depth of technical knowledge and confident client leadership. IMC is looking for an architect who can operate at that level.

Learn More and Apply

This is not a back-office role. The Project Architect will manage full drawing sets, oversee production teams, coordinate consultants and maintain direct client relationships. Responsibilities include site surveying, design development, construction documentation, specification writing and shop drawing review. Construction administration and site meetings are integral to the role.

Image courtesy of IMC Architecture

New York City experience is crucial. Candidates should be fluent in the city’s zoning and code requirements and comfortable navigating the realities of urban construction. Revit proficiency is required, but beyond software, IMC is looking for leadership — someone who can supervise teams, maintain design intent and deliver coordinated, buildable documents.

Strong interpersonal skills are key. Client account management requires trust and clarity. Internally, the role demands the ability to motivate and mentor younger team members while maintaining project schedules and technical excellence.

More About the Firm and Role

IMC Architecture describes itself as energetic and growth-oriented. For a senior architect, that translates into real influence. In a boutique firm, leadership is visible and consequential. The right candidate will not only manage projects but help shape the trajectory of the practice.

For architects ready to move beyond execution into stewardship — of projects, teams and client relationships — this role offers a chance to lead from the front.

Compensation: $80,000–$100,000 annually
Experience Required: 10+ years
Location: Brooklyn, NY (in-office)

Interested candidates should submit a PDF resume and work samples (under 5 MB) to info@imcarch.com, including salary requirements in the cover letter.

Learn More and Apply

The post Lead, Coordinate, Build: IMC Architecture Is Hiring a Project Architect in Brooklyn appeared first on Journal.

Urbanization has shaped the face of our planet since the 1950s. The rural to urban migration marches on as cities continue to thrum with economic, social, and cultural activity. It is one reason why so many people struggle to find affordable housing in cities of the global north. Surprisingly, the majority of global urbanization is grassroots, affordable and representative of its own unique heritage, and that’s because over 50% of urban housing around the world is produced informally.

Informal Urbanization Is Already the Global Norm

Narrow old street in Old town of Kotor, Montenegro | Photo by Viktoriia Kondratiuk via Pexels

Worldwide, informal settlements grow at an annual rate of nearly 10%, and by 2050, 50% of city-dwellers will live in informal settlements, totaling 3 billion people. Industry professionals and policymakers frequently overlook these self-built communities and treat them as problems to fix. Researchers, however, have studied these communities for decades and have identified the potential of these communities to develop regeneratively.

“Regeneration” may be a bit of a buzzword these days, but regenerative design specifically refers to a mindset and methodology for development that pursues going beyond sustainable by revealing the hidden potential of communities. To accomplish this, regenerative designers seek to enmesh communities with each other and with the natural systems within which they exist; an equal partner in the evolution of place. Over half of all urban production is already grassroots, affordable, and representative of its unique place. Regenerative design principles can empower these communities to draw out their inherent potential.

Why Formal Development Keeps Missing the Point

In some respects, informal settlement is defined by its counterpart, formal development. Economically, this is the dominant mode of urban production: it is estimated that between 2020 and 2030, roughly $90 trillion will be spent on infrastructure worldwide (contrast this with the estimated $6 trillion investment that would be needed to upgrade informal settlements globally). These planned projects represent standard formal development; projects with the requisite government approval for their construction and use. At its best, formal development ensures the safe, organized and sustainable creation and maintenance of communities.

In its current practices, it also extracts, exhausts and pollutes on a scale so large that it destroys habitats and produces wide-ranging global consequences, like extinction. Furthermore, the globalization of formal processes paves the road to the world that James Kunstler describes, where “every place looks like no place in particular.” As a mode of production, formal development is one of homogenization, biodiversity decline, and climate catastrophe.

Informality as a Design Process, Not a Problem

Man in Yellow T-Shirt and Yellow Hat Riding on Brown Boat, Lagos, Nigeria | Photo by Lagos Food Bank Initiative via Pexels 

Contrast formal development with informal settlement, which, when broadly defined as a verb, is the “incremental, unauthorized, and self-organized production of new urban neighborhoods.” This represents an opposing mode of urban production where no authority dictates the development of infrastructure, roads, parcel zoning or structural form. Instead, residents develop their community themselves, in a process that is complex, unique to each place, adaptive and emergent.

In Ghana and Tanzania, self-built housing is the predominant method through which people of all income levels acquire homes. Only a very limited amount of housing is developed by private companies. Even when Brazil’s favela communities are strongly correlated with lower incomes, they generate significant value — Brazilian favelas alone represent $27.7 billion in annual purchasing power. These developments tend to occur through rapid iteration, making informal settlements highly adaptive. Due to their characteristics, scale and diversity, they are best understood not as the outcome of any final urban form, but as a process of iterative urbanization that is constantly evolving. Understanding informal settlements this way allows for the recognition of their suitability for regenerative design.

Where Regenerative Design Finds Its Natural Counterpart

Regenerative design is a methodology that, like informal settlement, diverges significantly from more formal processes. While both the formal and informal would benefit from regenerative methodologies, the affinities between regenerative design and informal settlement appear stronger. Additionally, serious and valid concerns have been raised by academics about ivory tower saviors intervening in autonomous communities like informal settlements. Interventions potentially threaten the respect of cultural heritage and may express distrust in the communities themselves. This important discourse is one that should be foundational to any regenerative design project working with informal settlements. An abridged summary of regenerative design follows (for a deeper exploration, read Regenerative Development and Design by Pamela Mang and Ben Haggard):

1. Partner with Place. Regenerative designers understand that co-evolution occurs in specific places using tailored approaches to create bonds. They do this by asking, “What is the essence of this place?” and then listening in an attempt to uncover the community’s vocation (as defined by Aristotle, “where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation”).
2. Work from Potential. Regenerative designers understand the difference between solving problems and seeking potential, with emphasis on the latter. They do this by asking, “What can this place become?” and inviting the community to evolve towards greater potential.
3. Make Nodal Interventions. Regenerative designers map a community’s nodes and flows of exchange in the five forms of capital: Social, Natural, Produced, Human, and Financial. Then, they make small, strategic and conscientious interventions to increase beneficial human impact.

The Opportunity Architects Can No Longer Ignore

Historic Architecture in Matera Old Town Alley, Italy | Photo by Magda Ehlers via Pexels 

Regenerative design insists that everybody is a designer, a notion epitomized in informal settlements. Creating one’s home is an incredibly powerful human experience. At its core, informal settlement is “driven by desires for a better life, for affordable housing with access to jobs, and for a foothold in the city.” This understanding reveals the true potential of informal settlements: the human resource, driven by the virtually universal value of desiring “a better life.” Considering the vast resources devoted to urban development, it would be a monumental failure to overlook the value and potential of the most ubiquitous form of urbanization: informal settlements.

This is a call to stakeholders involved in the urbanization of these vibrant, grassroots and affordable communities. Let the work begin. Do not view any informal settlement as a problem to be solved, but instead partner with the place to uncover a vast wellspring of human potential.

Jamie Jang is a former Architecture 2030 Intern and a graduate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s M. Arch program. This article is a summary of part of his thesis project, Informal Regeneration. Jamie is now practicing architecture in Northern California, where he continues to engage in research on the built environment.

Top image: Bird’s Eye View of Houses in an Urban Area by Amos Kofi Commey, Accra, Ghana via Pexels

The post Designing Without Designers: Informal Urbanism as Regenerative Practice appeared first on Journal.

In recognition of this fact, Architizer is proud to present the Visionary 100, a celebration of the world’s most innovative architectural thinkers: studios, individuals and collaborators whose ideas are not only powerful, but powerfully shared.

Rendering by ELEMENT VISUALIZATIONS

Comprising a diverse array of architects, rendering artists, photographers, videographers, model makers and more, each visionary was selected based on their recognition in the 2025 Vision Awards, either as a category winner or as a finalist distinguished by Architizer’s editorial team. Together, they represent a snapshot of the profession at its most articulate, experimental and engaged.

Works by many of the creators listed below will be published in our upcoming book, How to Visualize Architecture. If you’re a designer, creator or storyteller working to shape architecture’s future, we invite you to be part of the next chapter: Register for the 2026 Vision Awards and join the global conversation!

Without further ado, scroll through and read more about the 100 architectural ideators, storytellers and communicators to watch in 2025 and beyond…

The Visionary 100 2025

Agence Ter – Akoaki
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Public Space

Detroit Cultural District by Agence Ter – Akoaki

Akoaki and Agence Ter bring together distinct yet complementary practices in architecture, landscape, and urban design. Akoaki, led by Anya Sirota and Jean Louis Farges, works where cultural production and spatial strategy meet, advancing projects shaped through collaboration and civic engagement.

Agence Ter, founded by Henri Bava, Michel Hössler and Olivier Philippe, offers internationally recognized expertise in ecological thinking and the design of open, adaptable urban landscapes. Together, the studios align architectural intention with environmental intelligence, developing context-specific frameworks that clarify complex sites, activate public life, and foreground long-term stewardship as a design ethic.

Alan Lochmaier
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Interior Photograph

Alan was trained as an architect however is particularly drawn by the hobbies of music and photography. Alan’s view on what makes a good photograph is depth, rhythm, dynamics, and perspective with a touch of irony. Alan is instinctive and quick with the camera using it as a tool to understand the immediate environment.Alan worked under the great Joseph Reshower. The primary photographer that inspires Alan’s work is Alexandre Rodchenko.

Alexander Htet Kyaw
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Presentation Model

Alexander is a researcher working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics, design, and fabrication. He is developing systems and products that enable natural interactions between humans, machines, and the world around us. He is a graduate student at MIT in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Architecture.

He completed his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University, where he received a minor in Computer Information Science. His professional experience includes roles at Microsoft Research, Autodesk Research, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, BRIC Architecture, and Proximity Design.

Anique Ahmed
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & People Photograph

Anique Ahmed is a Dubai-based architectural photographer who is recognized for his refined approach to architectural and interior imagery, where light and form converge to reveal the emotional core of design. His work embodies a fine art sensibility grounded in precision and atmosphere, capturing spaces not only as built environments but as visual narratives that reflect the intent and spirit of architecture.

Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller GmbH
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Renewal

Extension of Siegerland Museum by Architekten Wannenmacher+Möller GmbH

Wannenmacher + Möller Architects is an internationally active firm with offices in Bielefeld and Münster, Germany, led by Andreas Wannenmacher, Hans-Heinrich Möller and Madeleine Möller-Niedermeyer. While the practice maintains its principal focus on the East Westphalia-Lippe region, it has also realized a significant number of projects across Germany, throughout Europe, as well as in the United States and China.

With approximately forty employees, the firm has received numerous awards for its architectural work. In 2014 and 2016 Wannenmacher + Möller was invited to participate in the Venice Architecture Biennale.

AUX Architecture
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Wellness

Founded in 2008, AUX Architecture designs the future for people, institutions, and communities. Led by Brian Wickersham, the Los Angeles-based practice brings craft and clarity to designs at every scale — from hearth to urban realm.AUX’s team of architects and designers produce sophisticated environments ranging from single and multifamily residential to commercial, hospitality and cultural buildings. Functionality, sustainability, and beauty are hallmarks of AUX designs. AUX’s international portfolio has received more than 40 design awards from leading organizations and has been published in 19 countries worldwide.

Baskervill
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Public Space

Baskervill offers creative architectural, interior design and MEP engineering solutions to deliver purposeful placemaking for hospitality, education, workplace, civic and cultural environments. Employing their proven Ask. Listen. Create. methodology, Baskervill works collaboratively to design spaces that empower ideas and connect people.

Benjamin Rosenthal
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Environment Photograph

Architect and burgeoning artist, Benjamin Rosenthal, is an Associate at NYC-based architecture firm David Smotrich & Partners, where he specializes in higher education projects for clients including the Fashion Institute of Technology. Having placed as a finalist in Architizer’s 2022 One Photo Challenge, his photography work focuses on textures and proportion in the built environment.

In 2024, Mr. Rosenthal attended the Pingry School’s inaugural Pottersville Arts Residency, developing an archive to catalog the history & design of the tennis racket press. He is also a board member of the Tennis Collectors of America, an organization dedicated to the preservation of tennis history.

BINYAN Studios
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Rendering Artist of the Year

BINYAN is a global creative agency specializing in high-end architectural visualisation, film, and immersive digital experiences. With a focus on craft, strategic thinking, meaningful collaboration and a pursuit of excellence, the agency partners with leading developers, architects and brands to shape the world’s most ambitious built-environment projects. BINYAN’s core purpose is to elevate iconic projects through imagery and storytelling that create a sense of place and belonging.

Brad Feinknopf
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & People Photograph
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Color Photograph

In Context by Brad Feinknopf

Brad Feinknopf’s passion for photographing architecture directly stems from the influence of his grandfather and father, both successful architects. He has personally been shooting photography for 35+ years, since graduating from Cornell University with his undergraduate degree in Design.

Brad went on to spend his post-collegiate years in New York City assisting prominent photographers Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Arnold Newman and Joyce Tenneson.Today, many of the ideals Brad obtained from his New York experience carry over to his clients; the consistent pursuit of perfection, attention to detail, uncompromised professionalism and the utmost of quality in service.

Following his return to Columbus, Ohio, Brad established feinknopf photography, where a strong clientele among architectural firms rapidly grew. In serving these clients, Brad has traveled throughout the World shooting projects, several hundred of which have been published in internationally or nationally and a similar number have been international or national award winners.

Brendan O’Rourke
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Illustrator of the Year

Brendan O’Rourke is an illustrator and design architect based out of the central Connecticut area. He provides clients with pencil and digital watercolor artworks for a variety of architectural projects. Brendan is a recipient of several drawing awards from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators as well as the American Institute of Architects.The style of his work has the unique approach of blending digital modeling tools with traditional painting techniques. Brendan is also a Senior Associate and Designer with The SLAM Collaborative Architects, a multi-discipline architecture firm with many offices across the United States.

Brick Visual
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Photorealistic Rendering

Brick Visual is an international creative production studio that translates great ideas into high-end visual solutions. Founded in 2012, the company’s business mindset, artistic approach and cutting-edge technology have established the brand as one of the most sought-after studios in the industry.

Brick Visual strives for excellence in applying the talents of our qualified artists, accelerating design processes and crafting powerful narratives. The most influential architecture firms, developers, creative agencies, design and production studios turn to the company with confidence to help their visions become reality. Their team of nearly 100 professionals hails from over 20 countries, producing groundbreaking work from our headquarters in Budapest and satellite offices in Cluj-Napoca and Verona.

C+S Architects
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Housing
Architectural Concept of the Year

C+S Architects is an Italian cross-disciplinary design practice founded by Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini, with offices in Venice and London, working in the fields of Architecture, Interior and Urban Design. Their innovative and inquisitive approach to design, forward- looking but sensitive — unique in its pursuit of expansion of the active role of designers in society, through new technical and material possibilities, combined with the sensitivity towards heritage and community engagement — have distinguished them as leading architects of their generation.

CHEN GUANHONG
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Atmosphere Photograph

Sands Temple by Chen Guanhong

Chen Guanhong is an award-winning Chinese architectural photographer who scooped a Vision Awards accolade for “Sands Temple”, a stunningly atmospheric image of a structure at Burning Man. Chen describes the image: “In the depths of the desert, the Black Rock City only exists for eight days a year. Two travelers walk towards the temple that will be burned.”

Cheng Wei Lee
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + Atmosphere Rendering
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Nature

Cheng-Wei Lee is an architectural designer and CGI artist working between London and the Netherlands. A graduate of The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where he earned his Master of Architecture with Distinction, Cheng-Wei brings a refined design sensibility to visualization. As a senior visualizing designer at a leading superyacht design firm, his work explores how storytelling, form and generative design as tools for innovation in spatial and aesthetic experience.

Christensen & Co. Architects and EDIT
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Education

CCO Architects is a Danish firm working across Scandinavia, Europe, and North America. The studio creates high-quality, innovative architecture that delivers lasting value and enhances everyday life. Placing people at the center of every project, CCO designs experiential spaces that foster social interaction, support community, and promote learning.Guided by empathy and precision, CCO’s architects craft environments that make a meaningful difference, spaces that adapt and evolve with their users’ needs. Their work combines innovative thinking with responsible resource use, cultural sensitivity, and a deep understanding of how architecture shapes human experience.

David Valinsky Photography
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Color Photograph

David Valinsky studied architecture in Cambridge and London, and practiced as an architect, before starting to work as an architectural photographer in 2019. Since then he has developed his passion for photographing great architecture, new and old, big and small, and his work has been recognized by numerous national and international awards.In addition to working with architects to capture the best of their projects, his recent work includes photography for a new book on Sir John Vanbrugh, and for his own forthcoming monograph on the Arts and Crafts architect Edward Schröder Prior, both published by Lund Humphries.

Dekleva Gregoric Architects
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Sustainability
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Materials

Detail from the Slovenian Pavilion for EXPO Osaka 2025 by Dekleva Gregoric Architects

Dekleva Gregorič Architects is an award-winning international architectural practice with projects in the European Union and the USA. Since its establishment in 2004, the firm has been dedicated to designing thoughtful and innovative solutions across a range of scales and typologies.

The company’s portfolio includes public buildings, educational and research facilities, collective housing and custom homes, each reflecting their commitment to context, materiality and sustainable design. Dekleva Gregorič Architects’ work has been recognized with numerous international awards, underscoring their pursuit of architectural excellence and ability to harmonize intellectual rigor with the unique characteristics of every project.

DesignTomorrow
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Wellness

DesignTomorrow’s work is rooted in the belief that architecture should begin with how a place makes people feel, emotionally, physically and collectively. The studio approaches design as an act of optimism. Each project becomes a collaborative investigation into what is possible, not just in form but in experience. The team works iteratively, guided by a respect for place, a sensitivity to human behaviour, and a shared ambition to create environments that uplift and endure.

DesignTomorrow’s work prioritizes spatial quality, environmental stewardship, and human wellbeing. The studio believes architecture must not only tread lightly but also actively contribute to the resilience of ecosystems and the vitality of urban life.DesignTomorrow is not just a name, it is a proposition: that thoughtful, generous architecture can help shape a better collective future.

Devon Ruscheinski
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Presentation Model

Devon Ruscheinski is driven by the story of design; by treating our environment as simultaneously the setting and a key character within our lives, he enjoys exploring the very narrative of architecture around us. As a new Intern Architect in Vancouver, Canada, he is fully within the first chapter of his own architectural journey. The people around him, the west coast culture he loves dearly, and the potential of design to positively impact space around us all serve as inspirational plot points for Devon’s own personal story of design.

Eilís Finnegan
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Visionary of the Year
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Artistic Rendering

Eilís Finnegan is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Design in the College of Architecture, Design, and Construction at Auburn University. Within the program, Finnegan leads the “Scénographies” unit, which focuses on crafting digital & physical environments through multimedia storytelling, immersive world building, and advanced design representation.

Finnegan’s creative work and research explore hybrid project generation, namely through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital modeling, speculative programming, and collaborations with adjacent and divergent fields. These works have been featured and published in venues like the Chicago Architecture Biennial, AD: Architectural Drawing Journal, The Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), and supported by various grants.

ELEMENT VISUALIZATIONS
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Rendering Artist of the Year

Rendering by ELEMENT VISUALIZATIONS

Element Visualizations, founded in 2014 by two architects, is an award-winning studio dedicated to translating ideas into compelling visual content for real estate, architecture, design and branding clients. Approaching their work with a photographer’s eye, they focus on portraying each project’s true value with clarity and honesty rather than idealized imagery. For Element, effective visualization balances client objectives with visuals that resonate meaningfully with audiences.

Elias+ Inc
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Landscape

Ina Elias, a Toronto-based landscape architect, founded Elias+Landscape+Interiors+Design in 1993. The projects weave historical memory into landscapes from concept to construction. Crafted spaces attuned to light, climate, and context, translate objectives into environments at various scales, from extra-small to extra-large.

Creativity guides the practice, recognized internationally for an innovative urban-ecology approach. Ina Elias designs aesthetics that create a cinematic experience as people move through space. We create landscapes that foster connection and well-being—courtyards, plazas, shared housing spaces enriched by expressive topography, integrated seating, and layered planting. Her work extends seasonal joy into the landscape, encouraging connection, dialogue, and inclusivity.

Estudio AMA
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Housing

Estudio AMA is a creative space encompassing all aspects of design: architecture, interiors, graphic design, and art. With the conviction that an integral project requires a significant process starting from a story that deserves to be told, the key initial element is the narrative. A “bunker of ideas” that evolves through creative collaboration, the studio’s broad vision allows it to understand present and future needs.

AMA has worked on a range of projects from masterplans to interior design, and with different architectural firms such as SOM and Esrawe studio. Estudio AMA proposes a clear and honest path, always striving for excellence in design and the creative process.

Eugene Tan
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Illustrator of the Year
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Computer Aided Drawing
Architectural Drawing of the Year

National University of Singapore architecture graduate Eugene Tan’s work focuses on representing architectural illustration as a form of dialogic design. Tan believes that good architectural representation can do more than act as a static method of instruction, but also serve as a mode of inquiry for the creative user. Through architectural illustration, Tan’s goal is always to raise more questions and allow the audience to be able to draw conclusions, critique and “inhabit” the spaces portrayed.

Evan Shieh
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Transport

Evan Shieh is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at New York Institute of Technology and the director of Emergent Studio. Author of Autonomous Urbanism (AR+D Publishing), his research focuses on the spatial impact of mobility infrastructure and new mobility technologies on the future of cities. Shieh’s work has been exhibited at the Venice, Seoul, and Shenzhen Biennales of Architecture & Urbanism and he is an award-winning educator recognized for his teaching by ACSA/AIAS and Metropolis Magazine. Shieh holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California.

Fergal Tse
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Concept Model

Poché, Revisited by Fergal Tse

Fergal Tse is a multidisciplinary designer based in Hong Kong and New York. His work explores material culture and aesthetics between the intersections of art, architecture, craft, and design. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Design and Architectural Studies from the University of Hong Kong, where he was recognized as an Undergraduate Research Fellow. His design research works have been exhibited at the V&A backed Design Society Shenzhen, DeTour at PMQ, K11, among others. Fergal is currently a Master of Architecture Candidate at the Yale School of Architecture, where he is a James Gamble Rogers Scholar.

Form Found Design
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Vertical Living

Form Found Design was founded by Joseph Sarafian, AIA and Ron Culver, AIA on the simple idea of allowing the forces of nature to sculpt architecture through form-finding. This is a process in which optimal geometries can be derived to achieve design elegance, a purity of form in which nothing is extraneous and one solution serves many functions. This desire for nature drives Form Found Design to seek new technology for experimentation and to more clearly realize intuitive forms within the spaces they sculpt.

Fortes Vision
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + People Rendering

Fortes Vision is a creative studio serving the real estate development, architecture and interior design industries. The company specializes in bringing project visions and concepts to life through outstanding, eye-catching content — long before construction begins. From affordable housing to signature towers in a city’s downtown, Fortes Vision works to transform ideas into exceptional material that enhances project value and showcases the unique features of every property.

Franco Casaccia
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Photographer of the Year

Growing up in Argentina, Franco Casaccia discovered his interest in photography while studying architecture, and what began as a casual interest became a lifelong passion. Franco combines his architectural background with photography to bring a documentary sensibility that values authenticity over perfection, focusing on how people use and change the spaces around them. He captures both monumental structures and intimate moments. Storytelling plays an important role in his practice, helping create images that feel alive. Images that reveal not just architecture, but the human stories it holds.

FTG Studio
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + People Rendering

Sky Dome Opera by FTG Studio

Since established at Hong Kong in 2008, FTG Studio has been working on the innovative ideas of architectural visualization and communication. It has three offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing of China. Its core services are architectural renderings and videos by leveraging the latest 3D and AI-generated technologies.

Led by its founder Fay Yu, a visionary leader with over 20 years of industry experience and strong cross-cultural management, FTG’s artists have won numerous awards in Architizer and CG Architect. With excellent quality and solid cross-timezone collaboration capabilities, it has delivered thousands of projects all over the world.

Gabriel Saunders
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Interior Rendering

Costa Gabriel and Veronica Saunders are the co-directors of Gabriel Saunders, a visualisation studio and cerebral design house that curates environments celebrating how people live. Costa, a trained architect with rigorous attention to detail, brings intuitive editing and collaborative creativity to every project, pursuing marginal gains and quality. Veronica, with her interior design degree and fine art background, brings tactility and emotion to her work. There eye for visual depth has seen them collaborate with world-renowned architects, designers and artists. Together, they lead a multidisciplinary team creating captivating visual narratives grounded in reality, bridging digital and physical environments.

Greg Tate
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, AI-assisted Rendering

Greg Tate is a US-based architect and former Associate Principal at Bauer Architects, where he oversaw award-winning projects like the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach and Dirks Pool at UCLA. With over 30 years of experience, he now explores the intersection of AI and architecture, to create speculative visions that blend reality and imagination. Inspired by Los Angeles’s eclectic landscape, his work playfully blurs the line between art and design. Tate’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Dwell, and Metropolis, and earned recognition from Architizer, AIPEX, and the AI Design Awards, with exhibitions in Los Angeles, Barcelona, and London.

Henriquez Partners Architects
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Sustainability

Henriquez Partners Architects is a Canadian architectural studio, based in Vancouver and Toronto. Led by Gregory Henriquez and his belief that architecture has the potential to be a poetic expression of social justice, the studio seeks to re-examine the role of ethics, activism, and critical commentary in architectural practice. Henriquez Partners seeks to re-establish the role of the architect as one of leadership in the creation of the collective space that form the fabric of our daily lives and communities.

Henriquez is best known for inclusive zoning within mixed-use large scale projects such as the Woodward’s redevelopment and Oakridge Redevelopment in Vancouver, in addition to three major projects in Toronto: 1.0 million ft² Mirvish Village, 800,000 ft² affordable housing with CreateTO at 5207 Dundas St W, and 1.0 million ft² CreateTO & Co-op Federation of Toronto mixed income project Kennedy Green.

HISM
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Photorealistic Rendering

New York Skyscraper by HISM

HISM creates high-quality, emotional and atmospheric renderings and are here to help architects with the presentations of their projects to stand out and emphasize design concepts, impress the clients and the public. HISM have made visualizations for different architectural companies in Scandinavian countries, such as Arkitema, AART and Utopia, and have worked with major brands such as Ryanair, Mercedes, Hyundai, Volvo and Volkswagen.

HKS Architects
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Retail & HospitalityAnthony Montalto is the Chief Design Officer at HKS Architects, where he leads the firm’s global design vision with a focus on innovation, sustainability, and human-centered architecture. With decades of experience, Anthony champions creative collaboration across disciplines to deliver meaningful design solutions that shape communities and elevate the built environment. His leadership inspires teams to explore new technologies, foster inclusive design thinking, and push boundaries in architectural excellence. Passionate about mentorship and design culture, Anthony continues to influence the next generation of architects while ensuring HKS remains at the forefront of global design and transformative practice.

Ho-gyeum Kim
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Housing

Ho-gyum Kim is a New York–based architect whose work investigates how complex geometries can be thoughtfully rationalized into bold, expressive forms that shape more resilient and imaginative urban environments. His projects span mixed-use, cultural, and housing innovation across the U.S. and Asia. His research—most recently exhibited at the 2025 OHNY (Open House New York) Weekend—advances new strategies for adaptable, community-centered living.He is the winner of the 2025 Forge Prize and the Architizer Vision Awards Jury Selection in Vision for Housing. He holds an M.Arch from Columbia GSAPP and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Hongik University in Seoul.

Horoma Studio
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + People Rendering
Architectural Rendering of the Year

Horoma is a one-man architectural visualization studio founded by Simon Oudiette, operating between Sofia, Barcelona, and São Paulo. It is founded on the conviction that compelling visuals arise from a rigorous understanding of the client’s vision and a faithful translation of the project’s conceptual intent, rather than superficial wow effects.

Horoma’s work bridges the gap between architects, developers, and visualization studios through a dual approach: in-house research that informs commissioned projects, alongside educational initiatives such as articles, the online course From The Ground Up, and on-site training. This approach aims to enhance theoretical knowledge and stimulate creativity in architectural visualization.

Hristo Rizov
Editor’s Choice Winner, Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Exterior Rendering

Hristo Rizov is a Bulgarian born graduated architect whose true passion is visualizing ideas. Which lead him to pursue a career as an architectural visualizer. A converging point for his love for architecture, design and art. He has amassed around 10 years of experience working in the industry. His current role is Art Director in REDVERTEX.

Huanhai Cheng
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Exterior Photograph

Huanhai Cheng is an architectural lighting designer and photographer based in Los Angeles. His work explores the relationship between people, architecture, and the surrounding environment, emphasizing how light defines spatial character and perception. With a background in architecture, he approaches both design and photography with a balance of technical precision and aesthetic sensitivity, capturing the subtle interplay of structure, material, and atmosphere within the built environment.

Jason O’Rear Photography
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Urban Life Photograph
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Details Photograph
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Details Photograph
Architectural Photograph of the Year

Torrey Heights Façade by Jason O’Rear

Photography, like architecture, is built in layers— light, texture, perspective, and intent converging to tell a story. Jason O’Rear’s work embraces this layered approach, capturing the dynamic relationship between design, environment, and the human experience.With a foundation in architecture and years spent studying the built environment, Jason’s process is raw and unfiltered, shaped by personal experience, the project’s environment, how it responds to light, and how it influences those who move through it. The result is a collection of images that reveals architecture as a lived story.

Jimena Ruiz Sing
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Transport

Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Artistic RenderingJimena Ruiz Sing’s Nomadelle 2080 is a project that suggests a very speculative and unorthodox vision for transport. It carries us to year 2080, when a major flood strikes the province of Limón, Costa Rica, devastating its central and coastal areas. Consequently, the population is forced to migrate to higher ground within the province. The design proposes a series of autonomous mobile vehicles that offer transportation throughout the flooded landscape as well as respond to the immediate social and economic activities.

Joe Russell & Emma Sheffer
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Reuse and Renovation
Architectural Model of the Year

Harvard GSD students Joe Russell (MArch ’27) and Emma Sheffer (MArch ’27) scooped two Vision Awards accolades for their project “Theseus”, winning in both the Vision for Reuse and Renovation category and taking Architectural Model of the Year. The project addresses questions around climate adaptation, material scarcity and long-term housing stability. By reusing locally sourced steel and integrating public programming, “Theseus” reframes housing as civic infrastructure. Scalable to other port cities, it proposes a new architectural typology rooted in industrial heritage, designed not just to shelter but to support life, work, care and community over time.

JPAG Atelier
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Visionary of the Year

JPAG is an atelier founded by Jean-Paul El Hachem, exploring a dialogue between architecture, design, and digital art. The studio approaches architecture and visualisation as inseparable—a narrative instrument transforming form, light, and texture into layers of meaning.It creates spaces that are monumental in presence yet intimate in experience, where raw materials and natural textures connect people to the architecture and the environment.Beyond aesthetics, JPAG’s work raises awareness, addresses social issues, and engages audiences far beyond the architectural world, standing as a common ground where architecture becomes poetry in built form—reflective, intentional, and deeply human.

Julian Edelmann
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Presentation Model

ENSEMBLE: Configurations of Objects, Forms and Spatial Relations by Julian Edelmann

Julian Edelmann is a German architect whose work investigates how digital processes shape form and material, turning conceptual ideas into spatial and material solutions. Previously, he has collaborated as a designer with Coop Himmelb(l)au and contributed to academia as a researcher in digital fabrication and lecturer. He is currently at 3XN in Copenhagen, developing competition projects across a range of scales and functions.

Klima Architecture / Chris Price
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Profile or Interview

Klima Architecture’s work is profoundly rooted in place, treating each project as the beginning of a multi-generational act of stewardship shaped by an ecological ethos and a commitment to carbon-efficient design. Founded by architect Chris Price—who grew up in northern New Mexico and has long felt a deep connection to the planet’s wild and fragile landscapes—the firm draws on his experience working across Utah’s deserts and mountains, as well as his background leading Park City Design + Build.

With degrees from the University of New Mexico and the University of Utah, and licensure as an architect, general contractor and Passive House Consultant, Price has shaped Klima’s approach to environmentally attuned design that honors the powerful yet delicate integrity of mountain and desert climates.

Kooshk Office
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Housing

Kooshk Office is an award-winning architecture firm based in Tehran, Iran. Founded in 2014 the firm is a full-service architecture firm specializing in custom residential, cultural, institutional, and commercial buildings. Architectural designs are developed using vernacular technics and materials, sustainable technologies, and guided from schematic design through the successful completion of construction.

Krueck Sexton Partners
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Culture

Krueck Sexton Partners, founded in Chicago in 1981 and shaped by the city’s legacy of clarity and pragmatism, is distinguished by its ability to uncover a project’s hidden potential, turning constraints into opportunities that enhance impact and value. Treating client goals and budgets as their own, the firm brings curiosity and broad insight from a diverse portfolio to create environments that meet needs, support ambitions and elevate the human experience, while using design to confront the pressing challenges of our time.

Kyle MertensMeyer
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Localism

Baghere Nutritional Center by Kyle MertensMeyer

August Green founder Kyle MertensMeyer is an award-winning sustainable design leader and researcher committed to advancing innovation alongside clients and colleagues as part of a collective effort to rethink how we build for the future. Since 2016, August Green has worked globally to develop strategic, sustainability-driven solutions for complex challenges, delivering projects across varied mediums and practice areas. The studio collaborates with public and private partners to translate ideas into action, using emerging technological and economic frameworks to shape a more sustainable and human-centered built environment.

Laura Killam Architecture
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Localism

Laura Killam Architecture is a boutique design studio located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Specializing in custom residential projects on remote, wild sites along the BC coast, the studio approaches each project with quiet confidence. Influenced by the ethos of Sea Ranch California, the legacy of West Coast Modernism, and a commitment to environmental stewardship, LKA creates buildings that defer to the landscape. The goal is not to impose, but to reveal. LKA designs spaces that aim to enrich the human experience through thoughtful architecture, seeking a balance between function and beauty, as well as understatement and presence.

Lemay
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Making Of Video

Lemay has been imagining new ways to create spaces that engage users and bring people together since 1957. Over 600 architects, designers, industry leaders, and change-makers work tirelessly to cultivate innovation in their own backyards, and in communities around the world. Inspired and strengthened by transdisciplinary creativity, the firm has also developed its very own NET POSITIVE approach to guide teams towards sustainable solutions that shape a better future. With the people’s experience at its heart, Lemay strives to design with empathy and create spaces to grow.

Liu Yao
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Concept Model

Liu Yao is an architectural designer roaming between China and Singapore, happily blurring the lines between ecology, art, and culture. Fueled by curiosity and far too much coffee, Yao treats each project like an experiment in how spaces can think, breathe, and tell stories. Whether analyzing ecosystems or sketching playful forms, Yao chases ideas that connect people with the living world around them — proving that architecture can be both intellectually rigorous and delightfully unexpected.

Maanit Bajaj
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Hand-Drawn Drawing

Maanit Bajaj is a current MS Fiction and Entertainment student at SCI-Arc, whose work blends speculative design thinking with bold creative risk-taking. Known for crafting out-of-the-box drawings and narrative-driven worlds, he draws deeply from art, history, and theory to imagine futures that challenge convention. His practice moves fluidly between architecture, storytelling, and visual experimentation, producing work that is both conceptually rich and visually inventive.

MAP Studio
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Visionary of the Year

Architect Katherine Lambert, AIA, + media director /designer Christiane Robbins lead MAP/MAP Studio—a post-disciplinary architecture + research practice operating between built environments, media culture, and emerging technologies. MAP Studio, established in 2015 as the firm’s research arm, investigates architecture as a media ecology shaped by synthetic vision, algorithmic aesthetics, and AI-driven spatial systems.

Their collaborative practice has been exhibited globally, and is represented in leading museums including the Getty Museum, the Whitney Museum, SFMOMA, and the Center for Architecture. MAP Studio brings a uniquely hybrid perspective to contemporary architectural discourse, design and visual culture.

Maryam Liaghatjoo
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, AI-assisted Rendering

Shelter/Weapon by Maryam Liaghatjoo

Maryam Liaghatjoo is redefining what it means to design in the age of intelligence. As a Technical Designer and Regional AI Leader at Gensler, she pushes architecture beyond form and function—into a living, responsive dialogue between people and technology. Driven by curiosity and creativity, she believes the future of design is not made by hand alone, but by the shared imagination of humans and machines.

Masataka Yoshikawa
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Concept Model

Masataka Yoshikawa is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University. His research focuses on architectural representation and the contemporary design process, exploring how architects’ design sensibilities evolve in the digital age. He develops innovative design workflows that incorporate 3D simulations, modeling in physical and virtual environments using extended reality, digital fabrication tools, and AI. Yoshikawa’s recent works have been exhibited in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Matthew Buchalter
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Environment Photograph

Matt Buchalter often thinks about the ways urban environments directly shape life experiences. As a doctor, lifelong New Yorker, and amateur photographer, he’s used at least three lenses to explore this idea. Medicine offers many of the rational tools that come with a scientific mindset – careful observation and hypothesis-testing among them. New York City provides the energy, pulse, and life-blood for creativity. And photography provides the eye and process for him to reflect and share interpretations of the world.

Mobina Mirzaee
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Vertical Living

Mobina Mirzaee is a Tehran-born, Berlin-based young architect. She earned her bachelor’s degree in architecture in Tehran, where she also gained practical experience, and continues her studies with a master’s degree in urban design in Germany. Besides winning the Architizer Vision Award 2025, she has received other national and international recognitions. Her research and practice explore how architecture, particularly public space, can engage cultural identity within contemporary contexts. She also analyzes existing urban fabrics to identify opportunities for adaptive design, building transformation, and future development that respond to the evolving needs of cities and architecture.

Mohannad Khalaf
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Reuse and Renovation

Second Wind by Mohannad Khalaf

Mohannad Khalaf is an Iraqi–Swedish architect exploring the intersection of sustainability, spatial experience, and design-led research. Viewing architecture as both a reflection of culture and a mirror of the individual, his work seeks a calculated balance between surface and emotion, space and experience.

Mozses
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Experimental Video

Mozses founder Karim Moussa is an architect, film maker and ex Taekwondo international champion. Karim has over 20 years of experience in art directing internationally recognized projects, where he worked with several high profile architectural practices/developers/brands and designers like KPF, Zaha Hadid, BIG, SOM and Woods Bagot. Concept communication and exploration of ideas define the core of Mozses work.

Mozses leads the custom creation of visual directions, 3D animations and experiences to unfold different design identities and connect narratives, emphasizing the fabric of every unique project aspect. Mozses’ expertise in directing multicultural projects at diverse scales have been forged over many years of work, dedication and experience.

NOMINN
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + Environment Rendering

NOMINN is a Minneapolis-based visualization studio founded by artist Jake Williams. Drawing inspiration from the quiet landscapes of Northern Minnesota, the studio creates architectural imagery rooted in realism, atmosphere, and craft. Known for its detailed storytelling and sensitivity to light, season, and setting, NOMINN collaborates with architects and designers to bring unbuilt ideas to life—balancing technical precision with a photographer’s eye for mood and place.

Nour El Refai
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Photographer of the Year

Architectural photographer Nour El Refai obtained a bachelor degree of Architecture at Cairo University and has been working in the Middle East and North Africa since 2005. He also worked on stories and documentary assignments in several countries. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Huffington Post, Architectural Digest, Interior Design, ArchDaily and many more. He taught architectural photography at various universities and continues to give talks, workshops, and courses in Cultural and Art Centers.

OBJECT TERRITORIES
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Materials

VALELACA ROKATAKI (PRISMATIC PARASOL) by OBJECT TERRITORIES

OBJECT TERRITORIES is a Hong Kong and New York City based critical design practice founded by Marcus Carter, Miranda Lee, and Michael Kokora. Working at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism, OBJECT TERRITORIES engages the built environment at scales ranging from strategic interventions to architectural projects and regional masterplans.

ODA
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Vertical Living

ODA is leading a quiet but unyielding revolution to replace the dogma of resigned and compromised city living for one that enriches our lives and adapts to our needs. They believe we can and must rethink our reliance on the extruded big box concept, and instead design permeable buildings to help restore our relationship to nature. Their view is that our collective and individual consciousness is constantly fluctuating by the context we actively shape. For ODA, radical change to the common built environment doctrine is a crucial element in maintaining our physical and psychological wellbeing.

Okdraw
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Rendering Artist of the Year

Okdraw is an architecture visualization studio based in Portugal since 2013. The studio features a multidisciplinary team with broad experience on a wide range of project scales, focused on narrative, accuracy, and detail. Okdraw’s images evoke atmospheres that can mirror an episode of a certain architectural story — the architecture, the camera and everything in between.

Olson Kundig
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Profile or Interview
Architectural Video of the Year

Olson Kundig is a collaborative global design firm whose work expands the context of built and natural landscapes. Now in its sixth decade of practice, the firm’s work includes private and multi-family residential, commercial and mixed-use design—including wineries and sports facilities—cultural and museum projects, exhibition design, hospitality projects, places of worship, interior design, product design and landscape design. With offices in Seattle, Chicago, and New York City, the firm and its team of over 350 work with clients around the world.

OSD (Office of Strategy + Design)
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Cities
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Landscape

Flatiron & NoMad Streetscape Plan by OSD (Office of Strategy + Design)

Simon David, Founding Principal & Creative Director of OSD, has over two decades of multidisciplinary design and planning experience. Simon founded OSD with an “outside-in” ethos, asking what the needs of the land and people are as a starting point for planning and designing our built environments.

Simon’s leadership of OSD includes the creative direction of all projects at OSD, and include projects that range from streetscape plans, to healthcare institutions, parks, and cultural campuses. Simon’s projects have earned recognition with TIME Magazine’s “100 Greatest Destinations of 2025,” PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, The Architect’s Newspaper, the Architecture MasterPrize, the National American Society of Landscape Architects, and over twenty international and national awards.

Rafael Gamo
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Photographer of the Year

Rafael Gamo is an award-winning architectural photographer who transforms the built environment into captivating visual storytelling. Commissioned by architects, designers, artists, and media for architectural and fine art assignments, his work encompasses everything from large-scale public structures and cutting-edge buildings to intimate interiors and one-off installations.

Rafael Gamo initiated his photography career in Mexico City, following his BA in architecture and subsequent graduation from the International Center of Photography in New York City. Currently residing between both cities and traveling worldwide for commissioned projects, Rafael’s work transcends mere documentation, creating a window that allows viewers to experience the beauty of contemporary international architecture.

RAU
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Community
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Culture

RAU Architects is an Amsterdam-based architecture studio internationally recognized for pioneering circular, regenerative design since 1992. Founded by Thomas Rau, the firm creates energy-positive buildings as material banks — adaptable, and designed for continuous reuse. RAU’s work integrates systematic approach to circularity, demonstrating that architecture can operate within planetary boundaries while enhancing social value. With award-winning projects such as Juf Nienke and the Triodos Bank, RAU continues to push the profession toward a future where materials retain value, buildings evolve over time, and design becomes a catalyst for fundamental change.

Revery Architecture
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Nature
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Landscape

Revery Architecture (Revery) is an internationally acclaimed design practice offering architecture, interior design, and planning services. Guided by the philosophy of Building Beyond Buildings, Revery integrates architecture with broader community initiatives, cultivating thoughtful spaces that are contextually sensitive, engaging, and full of spirit.

With deep expertise in community-driven projects, Revery’s transformative designs transcend traditional typologies and evoke meaningful connection between people and place through enduring design solutions.Led by Principal Architect Venelin Kokalov, the Vancouver-based studio has garnered global recognition for its extraordinary projects. Balancing elegance, purpose, and functionality, Revery continues to reimagine the possibilities of design with electrifying one-of-a-kind spaces.

RICHÄRD | KENNEDY ARCHITECTS
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Work

Richärd Kennedy Architects is an internationally recognized design practice based in Phoenix, Arizona. Dedicated to public work, the studio has been honored with a “National Honor Award” for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects, named Firm of the Year by AIA Arizona, designated an “Emerging Voice” by the Architectural League of New York, and recognized as one of the “New Vanguard” by Architectural Record. Predicated on the belief that great architecture is transformative, the studio has received over 120 awards for its commitment to design, sustainability, and community impact.

Robert Majkut Design Ltd.
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Culture

Founded in 1996, Robert Majkut Design (RMD) has grown from a practice focused on branding and product design into a studio delivering large-scale architectural projects across global markets. Known for setting sector standards and developing methodologies that support groundbreaking work, RMD has completed hundreds of original designs distinguished by individuality, functionality and aesthetic sensitivity. With a deep understanding of design execution, the studio integrates interiors, branding, architecture and strategic development, collaborating with international firms, manufacturers and cultural institutions — from theaters and ballet stages to art galleries.

Safdie Architects
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Retail & Hospitality

Old Port Square by Safdie Architects

Safdie Architects is a design studio driven by a spirit of innovation and idealism, founded on the guiding principles that architecture should be inherently timeless, connected to nature, and profoundly humane. Our design philosophy is rooted in Moshe Safdie’s powerful metaphor, “For Everyone a Garden.” It envisions architecture as a generous act that connects us to nature and creates meaningful spaces of community and vibrant public life. The practice is intentional in its response to context, maintaining a nimble, bespoke approach to delivering the world’s most imaginative commissions across scales, geographies, and typologies.

Scott Specht
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Concept Model

Scott Specht is a founding partner of Specht Novak Architects, a firm known for modern buildings that don’t look related and honestly refuse to speak to each other. He lives with his wife, Shiraz, in the Stealth House, a windowless experimental dwelling that keeps winning awards even though some people insist it “shouldn’t exist.” He paints, builds things, appears on podcasts, and is quietly founding both a museum and a political party. He is 5’-11” (180 cm) tall, has never committed a felony, and absolutely did not break that glass bowl on purpose, so please stop asking.

Sergei Tchoban
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Sketch

Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, SketchSergei Tchoban is an internationally active German architect and artist. He is the managing director of TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten. Tchoban studied architecture at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. He has lived in Germany since 1991 and has held German citizenship since 1995. In 2009, the Tchoban Foundation was established, which is based in the Museum for Architectural Drawing built for this purpose in 2013. His drawings have been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries worldwide as well as in various private collections. In 2018, Sergei Tchoban was awarded the European Prize for Architecture for his lifework.

Shinsegae Art&Space Team
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Making Of Video

Shinsegae Art & Space Team explores the evolution of Korean heritage through artisans applying traditional materials, craftsmanship and generational wisdom to contemporary living. The team includes designers, researchers, curators, and merchandisers led by architect KyungEn Kim.

By weaving together tradition and modernity, the heritage department store connects customers with artisans and designers committed to materials and techniques in danger of being forgotten. Presenting exhibitions, publications, and workshops alongside a Korean dessert salon, the team also curates and develops Korean gifts and collection items. Together these experiences explore an evolving definition of timeless Korean beauty by season, material, and occasion.

Shoayb Khattab
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Photographer of the Year

Shoayb Khattab is an award-winning architectural photographer, filmmaker, and practicing architect working globally. With over a decade of experience, he blends architectural expertise with a refined visual approach to create powerful and innovative imagery. His multidisciplinary background shapes a portfolio known for fresh perspectives and boundary pushing work. Shoayb has collaborated with renowned firms such as Foster + Partners and BIG, and his craft has earned him more than 60 international awards in the field.

Sohaib Ilyas
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Videographer of the Year
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Building Portrait Video

Sohaib Ilyas is an architect turned filmmaker who interprets spaces through a cinematic language that reveals how place, light, material, and time shape human experience. Trained in architecture, he captures how spaces are lived and emotionally felt, moving beyond style to explore their human essence. Twice named Architectural Videographer of the Year by Architizer (2023 & 2025), his films have been featured at the Venice Architecture Film Festival, Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, and Greece International Film Festival. A juror and winner at the Architecture Hunter Awards, he bridges architecture with emotion, culture and time.

Somayeh Mousazadeh | HDR
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Work

Detail from Convergence Prototype by Somayeh Mousazadeh | HDR

Somayeh Mousazadeh, OAA, MRAIC, is a design principal based in HDR’s Toronto architecture studio and a global design leader for the firm’s education and science practice. With fifteen years of experience working on complex urban and institutional projects across North America, Somayeh’s designs combine intuition with rationality and a deep sense of responsibility, resulting in architecture that is both creative and purposeful. She draws on an optimistic framework where nature, humans and economy can equally thrive — where efficiency and quality coexist.

STOPRO Architects
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Localism

STOPRO ARCHITECTS is a Prague-based studio led by father and son, building on more than 30 years of experience. The team designs projects of all scales — from family houses to public buildings — with a focus on precision, innovation, and contextual sensitivity. Working closely with in-house engineers, they turn ideas into enduring architecture that balances clarity of form, technical excellence, and respect for context and client vision.

Studio Andrea Dragoni
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Cities

Andrea Dragoni. Architect, he is an adjunct professor at the DICA of the University of Perugia. He has created projects in Italy and abroad, and has received numerous international awards, including the Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, the Emerging Architecture Award from Architectural Review, the Architizer Awards, the German Design Award and Iconic Award from the German Design Council. His work has been published in all the most important international magazines in the field and exhibited at institutions such as the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Frankfurt, the Milan Triennale, and the Venice Biennale.

Studio MK27
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + Atmosphere Rendering

Studio MK27, founded in São Paulo in the late 1970s by architect Marcio Kogan, is a 50-person practice recognized for its refined, modernist-influenced architecture and meticulous attention to detail. Led by Kogan—an AIA Honorary Member, Politecnico di Milano professor and board member of MASP and MUBE—the studio is organized under four directors who guide its architecture, interiors and operations teams.

Deeply rooted in the legacy of Brazilian modernism, the firm has earned more than 250 national and international awards and represented Brazil at the 2012 Venice Biennale. Today, MK27’s partners and collaborators continue to advance a design ethos centered on formal simplicity, craftsmanship and a collaborative creative process.

STUDIO TENEV
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Interior Photograph

Norwegian practice Studio Tenev is an architectural firm in Bergen that specializes in single-family homes, cabins, extensions and property development. The firm creates bespoke architecture with a focus on materiality, daylight and interaction with the surroundings.

tHE gRID Architects
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Education

tHE gRID Architects | Research & Design Studio Founded in 2002 by Bhadri and Snehal Suthar in Ahmedabad, India, tHE gRID Architects is a research-led studio exploring the intersection of empathy, ecology, and design through architecture, interiors, landscapes, and installations.

Their daughter, Manasvini Suthar, recently joined the practice, bringing a global outlook grounded in local understanding. The studio’s work is guided by the belief that “Designing is a Spiritual Journey,” where context, craft, and sustainability converge. Winners at the World Architecture Festival 2024 and Jury at WAF 2025, they have also been recognized by Dezeen, The Plan, Architizer and Surface Design Awards London.

The Warner Group Architects, Inc.
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Interior Rendering

A Ritual of Light, Water, and Shadow by The Warner Group Architects, Inc.

The Warner Group Architects, Inc., with studios in Montecito and Newport Beach, is an award-winning architecture and interior design firm specializing in one-of-a-kind private homes and select hospitality projects since 1966. Founded by Jack Warner, the firm is celebrated for crafting bespoke spaces that embrace light, landscape and a refined way of living. A four-time AD100 honoree, The Warner Group Architects continues to carry forward a legacy of timeless design, thoughtful craftsmanship, and an enduring connection to place.

Thomas Gomez Ospina
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Computer Aided Drawing

Thomas Gomez Ospina is a Master of Architecture graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation who now works at Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). His Vision Award-winning drawing “Liquid Domesticities” envisions soft, lightweight infrastructures along Puerto Rico’s rivers that recast everyday domestic rituals as acts of ecological care and resilience. Drawing inspiration from the migratory behavior of freshwater shrimp, the project proposes architectures that support water sovereignty and multispecies coexistence, offering a model for a more water-autonomous future.

Tim Griffith
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Atmosphere Photograph

Tim Griffith has been photographing architecture and design related images for over forty years. Melbourne born and now working from San Francisco, Tim travels extensively on assignments in Asia, Europe and North America for a number of the world’s leading design firms. His inventive and graphic images are included in several private and public art collections, widely published in a diverse range of international design journals and sought after by corporate and advertising clients around the world.

Tsimailo Lyashenko and Partners
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + Atmosphere Rendering

Architectural Bureau Tsimailo Lyashenko & Partners was founded in 2001. The company designs objects of any scale – from urban planning concepts to interior design. The bureau’s approach is to create the unique architecture and get maximum pleasure from the working process. It is important for the company to be involved in all the stages of a project: attention to detail ensures high quality realization. The bureau’s portfolio includes more than 60 realized projects of different functional purposes. Today the bureau employs more than 100 people.

TT Architects
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture + Environment Rendering

Te Ahi Kā by TT Architects

TT Architects is an architectural practice based in New Zealand and New York. Rich Tam and Rob Tse founded the practice in 2012 when they won first prize in an international architectural competition for a super tower, mixed use design in Nanning, China. Both partners bring vast experience in educational, cultural, science research, community, mixed-use and multi-unit residential buildings having worked for over 15 years with such luminaries as Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Foster Architects. Together they run operations in Auckland and New York, successfully working in collaboration with associates on a variety of design-led projects.

Ty Skeiky
Editor’s Choice Winner, Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Hand-Drawn Drawing

Ty Skeiky is a Master of Architecture candidate at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. He also holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Placing emphasis on graphic representation, Ty’s work examines how drawing can elevate the narratives behind the physical construction of our built world that so often go untold. His selected drawing, Death of the HOA, has been recognized by the Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition and Archisource’s Drawing of the Year Awards.

UArchitects / Misak Terzibasiyan
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Community

The founder and principal architect of UArchitects, Misak Terzibasiyan, is both personally and professionally focused on an international context and the influence of cultural themes. This perspective is largely rooted in his ethnic background, as Misak Terzibasiyan (of Finnish and Armenian origin) was born in Helsinki, Finland. He founded UArchitects in the Netherlands.Our investigative attitude is reflected in the intensive dialogue we maintain with our clients. The scope of our reflection extends beyond the projects themselves to encompass the broader cultural context of architecture, urban development, and sustainability.

Reflection plays a vital role in our interaction with different cultures, helping us to understand our position in relation to the universal themes that shape society. Understanding a society’s identity is fundamental to our approach when designing projects in diverse cultures and locations.

Vassilis SIafaricas
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Interiors

Vassilis Siafaricas is an entrepreneur, designer, developer, and the founder of ECLÉDE, a studio leading sustainable, luxury developments across Greece. With 20+ years spanning real estate and prop-tech, he unites design, civil engineering, and product thinking to deliver zero-energy buildings and eco-conscious land projects.

His work has earned numerous global awards in architecture, design, and sustainability, including Architizer recognition for ECLÉDE and the Architizer Vision Award for Boomerang Athens and Siafaricas himself. He designed and developed Greece’s first LEED Platinum residence, underscoring his commitment to measurable performance and timeless craft. Siafaricas champions responsible innovation that elevates people, places, and long-term value.

VMI, a Journey studio
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Interiors

VMI, a Journey studio, are global leaders in CGI visualisation and Unreal Engine-powered virtual twins for real estate and architecture clients, from planning all the way through to final marketing collateral.Established in London in 2012 by a collection of architects, 3D designers and reconstructive archaeologists, VMI Studio has evolved into one of the world’s most respected creative technology practices.

A spirit of fearless experimentation and technical excellence defines our projects, such as “Illuminated River,” a long-term art installation transforming the Thames at night, and “Thresholds,” a virtual reality artwork by Mat Collishaw. No matter what we’re helping our clients visualise, we work tirelessly to protect and evolve their vision.VMI is a founding studio of Journey, the global design and innovation agency shaping the future through multidimensional experiences (MDX) that connect people, brands, and culture.

WEI FENG
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Renewal

Wei Feng is a UK-trained emerging architect whose work bridges heritage stewardship, community infrastructure, and more-than-human ecologies. Educated at the Manchester School of Architecture (MArch, RIBA Part 2) and the University of Liverpool (BA Hons), he couples atmospheric, site-specific design with rigorous tectonic craft and model-driven testing. Recognitions include the B.15 Modelmaking Prize, Swedish Wood Student Architect Award (runner-up) and the Sikorski Memorial Prize. Professionally, he has worked in the UK Lake District on heritage-sensitive rural and listed projects, and previously held design/project-assistant roles at an experience-design studio in Shanghai; his work has also been exhibited and featured internationally.

Wonseok Chae
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Illustrator of the Year

Illustration by Wonseok Chae

Wonseok Chae is an architect, researcher and educator based in Wuppertal, Germany. He leads Studio Off-ground and teaches at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, where his doctoral project The Language of Fragments explores adaptive reuse and the formal languages emerging from architectural remains. His work connects theory, digital representation, and design practice to reinterpret the built environment through the lens of fragments and transformation.

X.C STUDIO
Finalist, 2025 Vision Awards, Vision for Public Space

X.C Studio is an architecture and cross-disciplinary design practice founded by architect Xuechen Chen. The studio focuses on civic and cultural projects, merging urban insight with a human-centered approach rooted in universal design and art. Drawing on Xuechen’s international experience with large-scale mixed-use and high-rise developments, X.C Studio brings a nuanced understanding of contemporary urban challenges. Through architecture, interiors, and visual arts, the studio creates thoughtful, community-focused work that enriches public life and expands the possibilities of cultural engagement.

Youyuan Lin
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Urban Life Photograph

Youyuan (Andi) Lin is a designer, researcher, and photographer whose work bridges architecture, memory, and sustainability. A graduate of McGill University, Lin is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Architecture at TU Delft, exploring how spatial design and visual culture shape collective experience. Their contributions to projects span ecological construction, humanitarian archives, and sensory representation, including the Türkiye Earthquake Memory Project and TRACE Lab research on life-cycle design. Lin is a consecutive Architizer Vision Awards winner and International Photography Awards honouree, recognized for integrating architectural storytelling with poetic visual expression.

Yunchao Xu Atelier Apeiron/SZAD
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Building Portrait Video

Yunchao Xu is the founder and principal of Atelier Apeiron, an internationally acclaimed studio based in Shenzhen. His philosophy, Apeironology of Architecture, envisions design as an open system without fixed form—where architecture becomes a living dialogue between humanity, nature, and time. Xu’s works, including the Hengqin Culture & Art Complex and the Kindergarten of Museum Forest, explore spatial fluidity, ecological intelligence, and poetic material expression, advancing a new architectural ethos that transcends boundaries of scale and typology.

Zhu, Yumeng
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Photographer of the Year
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architecture & Environment Photograph
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Experimental Video
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Exterior Photograph
Editor’s Choice Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Architectural Videographer of the Year

Zhu Yumeng is an architecture photographer and the founder of Coppak Studio in Beijing. The studio is dedicated to producing vivid and enduring images of contemporary architectural exteriors and interiors. With a commitment to professional excellence, Yumeng aims to break away from clichéd perspectives, capturing buildings in their best light within their environments. Believing that truth elevates aesthetics, he focuses on incorporating insights from cultural, historical, and human behaviors into his work. Zhu Yumeng seeks to interpret and convey the latest developments in architecture, making them accessible and appreciated by the wider public.

ZOA Studio
Jury Winner, 2025 Vision Awards, Rendering Artist of the Year

Rendering by ZOA Studio

ZOA Studio is an international architectural visualization studio based in Budapest and Valencia, specializing in cinematic renderings and animations. With 20 years of global experience across the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, ZOA transforms architectural concepts into signature animations and visual stories. Collaborating with leading names in architecture and real estate such as UNS, Zaha Hadid Architects, Snøhetta and Emaar, ZOA’s motion-led content helps architects win competitions and developers sell faster. Blending architectural insight with filmcraft, the studio creates visuals that make unbuilt architecture and developments both understandable and unforgettable.

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It’s true. Over the past decade, the architectural industry has faced a lot of criticism regarding its culture and unhealthy systems. What was once considered a fulfilling and creative profession, calling for intellectual rigor, critical communication, and visual mastery, is now walking on broken glass, fragile under the weight of its own contradictions and long-ignored problems.

Architects are trying to crack the code. Why is our work constantly underpaid and undervalued? Has our profession turned into a service of mere luxury because there is no other place for us in the construction industry? Is it technology’s fault that we are gradually becoming obsolete? And yet, as in any honest therapy session, the first step is to look inwards – reflect and understand our innate patterns of behavior – because only then can we recognize that the issues we face are deeply systemic.

There have been many incredible pieces of writing trying to unpack these issues – one prominent example being Evelyn Lee’s three-part series on architectural culture. Frankly, this article is not introducing a groundbreaking revelation; instead, it retells these same conversations, because repetition itself is meaningful. The fact that we keep revisiting the same concerns reveals how deeply embedded these practices are in the industry and how urgently we need to address them.

I’m aware that this article may come across as cynical, which is not my usual tone. However, it’s important to acknowledge these red flags and offer a sharp critique of the profession’s current culture – not to abandon the field, but to help improve it. This article is a call for reflection.

1. The “Passion Discount”

Image generated by Architizer via Midjourney

“Do it for the love of it.” Albeit innocent upon first glance, this phrase is extremely problematic. It paints a very romanticized image of the architect: the sleepless creative, the one who sketches late into the night, doing everything for the craft, the design and the process of making. And yet, since the early years of architectural education, this endless dedication is celebrated and rewarded. Consequently, when stepping into the industry, many young architects discover that practices such as low starting salaries, unpaid internships, as well as continuously reduced compensation are seen as normal. Actual pay is seen as secondary, since passion has become the primary currency. The irony? The industry’s own sustainability is now suffering because labor is not valued fairly. If practices are unable to recognize the value of their own workforce, how are they supposed to argue for an increase in their fees?

2. Credit Where Credit isn’t Due

In the spirit of busting open another myth, let’s address the image of the “starchitect”,i.e., the lone genius whose name adorns every drawing. Architecture is a team sport, requiring immense collaboration and layered authorship to successfully deliver a project. Even though it is quite common to use young architects primarily as drafters and less as actual designers, their contribution still matters but is often dismissed. The credit goes to the partner, usually the one whose name is on the door. This hierarchy may seem reasonable, but it reinforces the message that recognition and professional growth will be slow to arise, thus leaving many young architects with a lack of confidence, or worse, viewing their role as dispensable – just another “CAD monkey” in the system.

3. The Cult of Long Hours

Image generated by Architizer via Midjourney

In architecture school, pulling an all-nighter is a rite of passage and constant exhaustion for the sake of the project is worn as a badge of honor. Similarly, firms equate working long hours with being a loyal employee, disguising poor management as devotion. This glorification of burnout remains perhaps the most pervasive red flag in the profession. However, architects don’t need to suffer to produce their best work. The myth of the tortured designer is once again painting this false image of creativity as endurance, which honestly serves no one; it merely normalizes unhealthy work as a price for excellence.

4. Silence around Money

Perhaps the most taboo topic within the industry, money is a matter where opacity runs deep. In a previous article, I explored ways architects could price their services, posing the question “What are they really paid for?” Although there are many fee structures that provide frameworks for different types of projects, they don’t seem to be making much of a difference. Why? The problem is not the tools but the mindset. The reluctance to discuss fees or salary ranges is what keeps architects greatly undervalued, as well as reinforces the power gap between designers and clients. The answer is very simple: just include the number. Don’t hide behind conditions or disclaimers such as “fees to be discussed after design approval,” or “depends on project scope.”

5. The Crit Performed as a Spectacle

Image generated by Architizer via Midjourney

The “crit.” I am sure that this word causes PTSD to most architects. It starts in school, where, instead of being treated as a safe space for sharing ideas and engaging in dialogue, it is often conducted in a very hierarchically driven way. Although this does not happen in every university, it is quite common to see tutors critiquing the work through a very authoritative, almost cruel manner – turning what should be a moment of learning into a performance of power. Naturally, this culture often bleeds into practice as well, making it harder for architects to speak up, share ideas and have productive discussions due to a fear of rejection. Still, in creative work, there is rarely a definitive right or wrong — so how can we judge with such certainty, when the very essence of design lies in exploration and interpretation?

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Recently, I was invited to give a lecture on Drawing Practices in Architecture. The catch? The audience was a rather large group of first-year students. While preparing for the presentation, a couple of questions came to mind: how do you explain something as complex and deeply ingrained in architectural culture to people who have been studying architecture for only two months, and, perhaps more importantly, how do you stress its importance in architectural practice – especially to people who know nothing of architecture?

Drawing is the architect’s bread and butter, and yet the common misconception is that it is merely a medium used to represent either the world that exists or the building that exists only in the architect’s mind. Architectural representation, however, is just one of the languages or modes of thought that drawing is capable of. It can also become very explorative, either through analysis or speculation. It can reveal relationships between conditions (material or immaterial), scales and narratives, all through the single act of drawing.

Drawings by Eugene Tan, Architectural Illustrator of the Year, 2025 Vision Awards

When discussing analytical drawing, the operative idea is “drawing to understand.” From detailed surveys of historic buildings to thorough site analysis plans that record sun paths, wind, vegetation, movement, smell and so forth. These drawings are all about documenting, measuring and clarifying conditions found on a site, a city, a landscape or a building. They are the working surface upon which a later design proposal or speculation may emerge. However, it has another equally important function: it opens up questions or — to use a more architectural phrase — threads of investigation.

A great example of such drawings is this year’s Vision Awards winner, Eugene Tan, as Illustrator of the Year. In his project description, he states, “My work focuses on representing architectural illustration as a form of dialogic design. I believe that good architectural representation can do more than act as a static method of instruction, but also serve as a mode of inquiry for the ‘creative user’.”

The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscapes on Pedra Branca by Eugene Tan, Editor’s Choice Winner, Computer Aided Drawing, 2025 Vision Awards

His drawing of The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape plots the political and ecological significance of disputed islands in Pedra Branca. It is composed through a series of aerial views and multiple elevations to construct a comprehensive depiction of the island and its surrounding context. In parallel, the drawing challenges the island’s status as a political territory and proposes to transform it into a space for public enjoyment and environmental appreciation. Specifically, the archatographic map acts as both a survey and a critical instrument that tackles questions of ownership and ecology.

On the other hand, speculative drawing looks beyond what is there and asks, “What if?” It becomes a narrative device that constructs worlds in order to test things; it showcases environments – built or otherwise – that are often beyond the sphere of physical materialization. Zaha Hadid’s early paintings, the Archigram comics and the Superstudio collages exemplify the speculative lineage within architectural representation – one that remains remarkably alive in contemporary practice.

Nomadelle 2080 by Jimena Ruiz Sing, Jury Winner, Vision for Transport, 2025 Vision Awards

Nomadelle 2080 by Jimena Ruiz Sing for instance, is a project that suggests a very speculative and unorthodox vision for transport. It carries us to year 2080, when a major flood strikes the province of Limón, Costa Rica, devastating its central and coastal areas. Consequently, the population is forced to migrate to higher ground within the province. The design proposes a series of autonomous mobile vehicles that offer transportation throughout the flooded landscape as well as respond to the immediate social and economic activities. The vehicles also adapt to different types of terrain, with one distinct example being a banana processing plant that enables the transportation from the plantations to the Port of Moín, where the goods are prepared for exportation.

At a much larger scale, TERRAS MEDITERRANEAS a floating city for Rome by Studio Andrea Dragoni, reimagines a city as a ship. Portuguese author Josè Saramago, in his book, The Stone Raft, envisions that the Iberian peninsula detaches itself from the mainland and begins to sail towards an imaginary landing place. He conceives the open sea as the extension of Italian cities. In response, the project tests this speculation by drawing up a reconversion of large ships destined for decommissioning into small floating cities. Both projects act based on an assumption – a speculation of a flooded landscape or a drifting territory. They explore different ways of moving through a terrain or rebuilding future cities, all through the act of architectural drawing.

TERRAS MEDITERRANEAS a floating city for Rome by Studio Andrea Dragoni, Editor’s Choice Winner, Vision for Cities, 2025 Vision Awards

Whether the drawing is regarded as analytical or speculative is irrelevant. Although this distinction helps us articulate the many possibilities of architectural drawing, their relationship is far from binary. An analytical drawing can turn speculative, where measured data is transformed into an investigative act, and a speculative drawing can be grounded in research, based on real-world information or geographies.

Ultimately, the argument posed through this article is that drawing is not merely a tool of representation but rather a mode of inquiry. It is a fluid process that observes as well as invents facts and fictions, blurring the line between research and imagination. Within this continuum, architectural drawing becomes a form of research in its own right through the act of making, reminding us that drawing is not just about showing architecture, but about thinking architecturally.

Architizer's Vision Awards spotlights radical architectural concepts and compelling visual storytelling — from renderings and drawings, to photos and videos. Take advantage of Early Entry discounts through April 17th by submitting today. 

Featured Image: Nomadelle 2080 by Jimena Ruiz Sing, 2025 Vision Awards, Jury Winner, Vision for Transport

The post Lines of Thought: Why Architects Still Draw — and Why That Matters appeared first on Journal.

Architizer's diverse jury of global experts is currently reviewing submissions to the 14th A+Awards! Sign up to receive updates on Public Voting and spring winner announcements.

Since its inception, Architizer has championed architecture that matters. Not just projects that look good in renderings or rack up social media likes, but buildings that make a meaningful impact on the world — for the people who inhabit them, the cities they shape and the cultures they reflect.

For more than a decade, the A+Awards has served as the world’s largest platform for recognizing these works, offering global visibility to architects who push design forward with thoughtfulness and integrity. As we welcome entries for the 14th season of the program, that mission feels more relevant — and more necessary — than ever.

The Stone Pavilions by DODESIGN, Chongqing, China | 13th A+Awards Finalist in the Architecture +Art and Pavilions categories; photo by Arch-Exist.

We live in a moment defined by acceleration. Architects today face a daunting mix of challenges: the urgent need for climate action, economic volatility, geopolitical unrest, social fragmentation and a tech landscape that evolves faster than any one profession can keep up with.

Artificial intelligence, automation and algorithmic design promise to “disrupt” everything — from how buildings are drawn to how they are permitted, built and managed. In response, architects are feeling pressured to be faster, cheaper and more efficient than ever before.

But in this rush toward efficiency, something vital is at risk of being lost: craft. That word — so often misunderstood — is the core theme of this year’s A+Awards.

No Footprint Wood House by A-01 (A Company / A Foundation), Uvita, Costa Rica | 13th A+Awards Popular Choice Winner in the Architecture +Prefab & Modular category.

To be clear: Craft, in this context, is not about nostalgia. It is not purely about traditional joinery, hand-carved finishes or artisanal embellishments, though these can each be part of a winning project.

At its heart, craft is about care — about the decisions architects make at every scale, from the layout of a masterplan to the handrail of a stair. It’s about material intelligence, contextual awareness and the translation of design ideas into built form — all carried out with rigor and clarity. In a world dominated by abstraction, craft returns architecture to its physical roots, reminding us of the skill and expertise needed to make something real. Something that works. Something that lasts.

This renewed focus on craft is not a retreat from technology, but a challenge to use it better. The best architects today are not rejecting innovation by any means. They are merging new tools with age-old principles of detailing, proportion, texture and light.

They are asking not just what a building can be, but how it should be made and why that matters. In doing so, they are redefining what design excellence looks like in the 21st century. These are the projects we seek to celebrate.

Streaming Light Exhibition Hall by Daipu Architects, Wuzhishan City, Hainan, China | 13th A+Awards Popular Choice Winner in the Architecture +Metal category.

The 14th A+Awards is a global call to action: to architects, designers, engineers and makers who still believe that how a building is made matters just as much as what it looks like.

This year, we are looking for projects that demonstrate this ethos, balancing technological sophistication with timeless principles of architectural craft. Whether through new construction, adaptive reuse, renovation or radical innovation, we want to honor buildings that are shaped by intention and brought to life with care.

When you enter the A+Awards, you’re not just competing for a trophy. You’re joining a global movement that affirms architecture’s cultural, social and material value. Projects are recognized by a multidisciplinary jury of leading voices from across design, technology, media and more — and by the public, through our open voting platform.

Winners are featured across Architizer’s global channels, reaching millions of professionals and enthusiasts, and published in The World’s Best Architecture, our annual compendium of exemplary projects from around the world.

RT2 Apartments by Jorge Urias Studio, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico | 13th A+Awards Finalist in the Architecture +Concrete category.

At a time when architecture risks being reduced to a set of outputs — generated, optimized, rendered, approved — this year’s A+Awards poses new questions:

What does care look like in built form? What does detail say about intent? What can architecture become when we refuse to take shortcuts?

If your most recent project reflects those values — if it shows your firm’s commitment to the enduring importance of craft — we want to see it. We want to celebrate it. And we want to share it with the world as a model for what architecture can and should be in this new era.

This is your invitation to join us. Enter the 14th Annual A+Awards and help define the future of architecture — one detail at a time.

Enter the A+Awards →

Architizer's diverse jury of global experts is currently reviewing submissions to the 14th A+Awards! Sign up to receive updates on Public Voting and spring winner announcements.

Top image: Centro DIF Comitancillo by AIDIA STUDIO, San Pedro Comitancillo, Oax., Mexico, 13th A+Awards Finalist in the Architecture +Small Projects category.

The post Dear Architects: It’s Time to Fight for Your Craft appeared first on Journal.