Beyond recognition: Exploring the role of architectural awards

June 2026 — Architectural awards have long recognised excellence and brought visibility to significant achievements. While awards do not produce architecture, they shape how we perceive, discuss, and ultimately value architecture. Through independent processes of selection and distinction, awards help construct a contemporary narrative around the architecture and architects that matter, influencing public discourse, professional priorities, and the work that gain cultural legitimacy and historical visibility.

In today’s context of accelerating global challenges, the role of architectural awards must evolve. Their independence allows them to define and communicate different understandings of quality, expanding the discourse beyond a single canon. By establishing distinct criteria and reflecting varied cultural and professional priorities, awards help redefine architecture’s responsibilities and direct greater attention toward environmentally responsible and socially conscious forms of practice.

The debate at UIA Barcelona will continue the conversation initiated in Venice — shifting from questioning the relevance of awards to exploring how they contribute to shaping practice, institutions, and public discourse. They aim to explore how architectural awards move beyond recognition to actively shape the future of the discipline. Also, the session represents an important next step in expanding the reflection beyond the awards institutions themselves. In this spirit, architecture critics have been invited to bring an external perspective to the programme, while invited architects from the networks of the awards hosting the event, together with the directors of the participating awards, will join the conversation as “front-row peers,” drawing from their direct engagement with contemporary practice and the broader questions shaping architecture today. ”

Architecture critics: Federica Zambeletti, Founder and Managing Director of koozarch Christele Harrouk, Editor in Chief of Archdaily Amit Gupta, Founder and Editor in Chief of STIR Front-Row Peers: José Pablo Ambrosi, Co-founder of Taller Capital Tatiana Bilbao, Founder of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio Gabriela Carrillo, Founder of Taller Gabriela Carrillo & Co-Founder of Colectivo c733 Loreta Castro, Co-founder of Taller Capital Alejandro Echeverri, Architect, Distinguished Professor in Urbanism, TEC Monterrey Margarita Jover, Co-founder of Aldayjover Rahul Mehrotra, Founder Principal of RMA Architects of Mumbai + Boston Kate Orff, Founder of SCAPE Studio Mauricio Pezo, Co-founder of Pezo von Ellrichshausen Gustavo Utrabo, Founder of Estúdio Gustavo Utrabo Farrokh Derakhshani, Director, Aga Khan Award for Architecture Marleen van Driel, Director, Ammodo Architecture Ivan Blasi, Director, EUMies Awards Laura Viscovich, Executive Director, Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction Dirk Denison, Director, Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize Jesper Eis Eriksen, Executive Director, OBEL Award