The UIA Gold Medal, the most prestigious honour awarded to an architect by fellow architects, goes to Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, in recognition of a body of work defined by intelligence, restraint and a profound sense of responsibility toward society. His architecture elevates the human experience not through spectacle, but through rigour and precision, reflecting an uncompromising commitment to necessity and proportion. The donation of his archive further signals his commitment to architecture as a shared and evolving cultural practice.
The 2026 Triennial Prize laureates are:
- Patrick Abercrombie Prize for Urban Planning and Design — Paola Viganò (Italy), for her influential theoretical and practical work repositioning ecological systems as generative frameworks for metropolitan form.
- Auguste Perret Prize for Technology in Architecture — Fetdeterra (Spain), for their low-carbon modular construction system, demonstrating how innovation and poetics can coexist.
- Jean Tschumi Prize for Architectural Writing and Critique — Jacques Gubler (Switzerland), for his distinguished contribution to architectural history and criticism in the Swiss and European context.
- Robert Matthew Prize for Sustainable and Humane Environments — Song Yehao (China), for an architecture that fuses sustainability, traditional wisdom, and poetic creativity.
- Vassilis Sgoutas Prize for Implemented Architecture Serving the Impoverished — Caravatti Caravatti Architetti (Italy), for their participatory practice across disadvantaged contexts in West Africa and southern Europe.
- UIA Young Architects Prize — Cierto Estudio (Spain), for their commitment to architecture as a tool to improve living conditions, embodying a model of shared authorship grounded in common values.
Discover the full profiles and selected works of all laureates
The International Union of Architects (UIA) has announced the laureates of the 2026 UIA Gold Medal and Triennial Prizes, awarded every three years in recognition of outstanding contributions to architecture worldwide. The awards will be conferred at an official ceremony, by invitation only, at the Sagrada Família in Barcelona during the UIA World Congress of Architects.