Every year I go through the architecture winners of the A’ Design Award, and every year the same thing happens: I open one project link “just to check the photos” and lose an entire afternoon. The 2025–2026 crop of winners in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category is especially dangerous in that regard — a weather station in Taipei, a boat-shaped cultural museum in Pingtung, a primary school that doubles as a landscape, and a whole parade of houses I now want to live in. Below, I’ve rounded up more than twenty of the winning projects so you can lose your afternoon too.
And if you’re an architect or designer with a project you’re proud of, the competition’s call for entries is ongoing — register today to submit your work before the next deadline.
| Award | A’ Design Award & Competition |
| Category | Architecture, Building and Structure Design |
| Next Deadline | Wednesday, September 30, 2026 (Standard Deadline) |
| Results Announced | May 1, annually |
| Register to Enter | https://competition.adesignaward.com/registration.php |
| Category Press Kits | https://competition.adesignaward.com/press-packs.php |
First, a Quick Word on the A’ Design Award
If you’re new to it, the A’ Design Award & Competition is one of the world’s largest annual international juried design competitions, spanning creative fields from industrial and product design all the way to architecture. Entries are peer-reviewed and judged anonymously by a grand jury of academics, press members, and established design professionals. Winners receive the A’ Design Prize — a genuinely stacked winners’ kit that includes a metal trophy, an excellence certificate, a gala night in Italy, exhibition of the awarded work, a hardcover yearbook, and a full PR campaign with translation into more than a hundred languages.
The competition runs on three deadlines each cycle: an early deadline on June 30, a standard deadline on September 30, and a late deadline on February 28, with results announced every May 1. As I’m writing this, the nearest one coming up is the standard deadline on Wednesday, September 30, 2026 — so there’s still a comfortable runway to prepare an entry.
FYI: When you feature or share these projects, the design name, function, and designer credit matter — each project page linked below includes full photo and image credits, plus the complete design story straight from the architects themselves.
The Winners: Architecture, Building and Structure Design, 2025–2026
Here are the projects that took home the category’s top honors this period, from the single Platinum winner down through the Golden and Silver tiers. Click any design name to see the full project page, photos, and design description.
Platinum A’ Design Award Winner
The Platinum title is the competition’s highest distinction, and this period it went to a single architecture project:
Park1538 Gwangyang Cultural Facility
PinDesign Function: Cultural Facility | Designer: Unsangdong Architects and Posco A&C
Designed for Posco, Park1538 Gwangyang turns an industrial steel campus into a public-facing cultural destination — exactly the kind of unexpected typology this category keeps rewarding.
Golden A’ Design Award Winners
Horizon Shade Sunshade Curtain
PinDesign Function: Sunshade Curtain | Designer: Kris Lin, Kris Lin International Design
PinDesign Function: Residential House | Designer: Kris Lin, Kris Lin International Design
Higeta Building Headquarters Office
PinDesign Function: Headquarters Office | Designer: Nobuaki Miyashita
Changchun Aerospace Expo Comprehensive Cultural Building
PinDesign Function: Comprehensive Cultural Building | Designer: Cheng Sun, Dagang Qu and Xi Huang
PinDesign Function: Senior Residence | Designer: UDS Ltd.
PinDesign Function: Guest House | Designer: Keiji Harada
PinDesign Function: Cultural Museum | Designer: Pingtung County Government and C.M.Chao
The Taipei Weather Station Meteorological Instruments Center
PinDesign Function: Meteorological Instruments Center | Designer: IMO Architecture and JC Cheng Associates
Silver A’ Design Award Winners
Intelligent Openings Window System
PinDesign Function: Window System | Designer: Kris Lin, Kris Lin International Design
Armada 3 Mixed Use Architectural Complex
PinDesign Function: Mixed Use Architectural Complex | Designer: A Tasarim Architect
Barn Quartet Single Family House
PinDesign Function: Single Family House | Designer: Katarzyna Starzyk, APAKASTA Studio
Learning Landscape Primary School
PinDesign Function: Primary School | Designer: People’s Architecture Office
Ascending Ground Community Library
PinDesign Function: Community Library | Designer: Hao Zhong
PinDesign Function: Hospice | Designer: Minghan Lin, Yuchen Qiu and Hao Zhong
YN International School Educational Facility
PinDesign Function: Educational Facility | Designer: Nobuaki Miyashita
Miroku Nissho In Blue Industrial Factory
PinDesign Function: Industrial Factory | Designer: Nobuaki Miyashita
PinDesign Function: House | Designer: Caroline Andrusko
PinDesign Function: Residential House | Designer: David Guerra
Unesco Ancient Theatre Revitalization Cultural Facility
PinDesign Function: Cultural Facility | Designer: LYT-X Studio
Terminal 2 Guwahati International Airport
PinDesign Function: International Airport | Designer: Nuru Karim, Nudes
The Amazing: Part The geographic spread. This single category's winners span Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, India, Nigeria, and beyond — residential houses sit next to airports, factories, hospices, libraries, and a UNESCO ancient theatre revitalization. It's a rare snapshot of what architects everywhere are building right now.
What This Year’s List Tells Us
A few threads run through the 2025–2026 winners. Cultural and civic buildings dominated the top of the podium — the Platinum winner and three of the Golden winners are museums, cultural centers, or public facilities. Japanese practices had a remarkable showing, with UDS Ltd. and Nobuaki Miyashita each landing multiple projects across the Golden and Silver tiers. And the category’s definition of “structure” stayed refreshingly broad: alongside full buildings, the jury awarded a sunshade curtain system and an intelligent window system, both from Kris Lin International Design.
For anyone thinking of entering, that breadth is the takeaway. This category isn’t just for completed towers — senior residences, guest houses, train stations, factories, and building-scale systems all won this period.
Your Project Could Be on Next Year’s List
If you’ve got a building, structure, or architectural system that deserves a wider audience, the standard deadline on September 30, 2026 is your next window — register today via the same registration link listed in the overview at the top of this article. And if you just want more eye candy, you can see more award-winning designs from every category, not just architecture.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the next A’ Design Award deadline?
The nearest upcoming deadline is the standard deadline on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. If you miss it, there’s a late deadline on February 28, and the following cycle’s early deadline lands on June 30. Results are announced every year on May 1.
What do winners actually receive?
Winners receive the A’ Design Prize: a 3D-printed metal trophy, an international design excellence certificate, an invitation to the gala night in Italy, online and offline exhibition of the awarded project, inclusion in the hardcover yearbook, a press release and PR campaign, translation of the project into 108+ languages, and license to use the A’ Design Award Winner logo — with no contractually obligated further fees for eligible Professional and Digital Edition winners.
Where can I see the full project details and photos for these winners?
Every design name in this article links directly to its official project page, where you’ll find the complete photo set, image credits, and the designers’ own description of the work. Press members can also access high-resolution images through the category press kits linked in the overview table above.
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