Architecture for the People: The Stunning Winners of Architizer's New Award

We’re thrilled to announce the full list of winners of the first annual Architizer A+ Awards. But before getting into the specifics—don’t worry, they’re coming quick—we think that with the conclusion of the awards year one, we’ve accomplished our goal of breaking architecture out of the echo chamber™ (ha!). We’ve always thought that the oh-so-private world of architecture should be opened up to the public at large, where people can consume buildings (and maybe even some archi-drama) like they do the daily news, food porn, and movie trailers. We can say now that the A+ Awards helped us achieve this—in addition to the overwhelming number of submissions from over 100 countries, plus the highly-esteemed jury we amassed, Public Voting garnered 150,000 votes from every corner of the world. And with that #humblebrag, onto the winners!

A total of 87 buildings won the Jury and Popular votes for each of the Award’s 52 Typology and Plus categories. Instead of celebrating one architect and making architecture into something rarefied and arcane (ahem), the A+ Awards celebrate the diversity of the world’s architecture. The winners list runs the gamut of architectural typology and form, ranging from enormous towers to the smallest apartments and nearly everything in between. There are wind-swept memorials, a gallery/house with a pool in the middle of it, “iceberg” apartments in the Baltic, a conference center from the future, a floating chapel, a polka-dotted parametric pop-up, and the most sublime tourist path imaginable—the National Tourist Route Trollstigen by Reiulf Ramstad Architects. The latter held the title for most awards won by a single project, with a final tally of 4 awards, including two Jury awards and two Popular Choice awards.

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Two firms, in particular, did exceptionally well: JDS Architects took home prizes for their Holmenkollen Ski Jump (best Sports Venue) and their spiky Iceberg Dwellings (Residential Mid-Rise). Similarly, Steven Holl Architects nabbed two awards for the Daeyang Gallery and House (Residential: Single Family Home) and the newly opened Sliced Porosity Block (Residential High-Rise) in Chengdu, China.

Fourteen projects won both the Jury and Popular vote, OMA’s Milstein Hall, Artech Architect’s China Steel Coporation HQ, and Rafael Vinoly Architect’s Carrasco International Airport among them. Even with all those great buildings, we can’t neglect the other stunning projects that will be awarded an A+ trophy. Henn Architekten’s aquiline Porsche Pavilion, MASS Studies’ DAUM Space 1, Osterwold+Schmidt’s Bicycle Station, and LifeEdited—the modular 420 square-foot apartment—can all be found in the winners list below.

“The mission of the Architizer A+ Awards is to remind everyone in the world that they are fans of architecture, even if they don’t realize it. This year’s winners make our job easy. They are projects where noble ambitions match their formal sophistication – they represent the best architecture from across the globe – and more than one project that I had never seen before!” – Marc Kushner AIA, CEO Architizer.

Oh, and to wrap up our extensive Awards coverage, we’ll be rolling out profiles for each of the winning projects over the next month. Below is a sampling of the winners, and you can click here to see the complete list of finalists of the A+ Architecture awards.

National Tourist Route Trollstigen by Reiulf Ramstad Architects

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Dolomitenblick by Plasma Studio

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Iceberg Dwellings by JDS Architects

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Soumaya Museum by FR-EE Fernando Romero Enterprise

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Louis Vuitton Yayoi Kusama’s Pop Up Store by MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY

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Porsche Pavilion by Henn Architekten

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Milstein Hall by OMA

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Wuxi Grand Theatre by PES-Architects

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Carrasco International Airport by Rafael Vinoly Architects

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Sugamo Shinkin Bank / Shimura Branch by Emmanuelle Moureaux