Dezeen has announced the architecture shortlist for its 2026 awards programme, selecting 152 projects across 19 categories. The list, published on 21 September 2026, draws on entries from studios based in 36 countries. Category winners and the overall project of the year titles will be revealed on 16 November 2026 at a ceremony held at the Royal Opera House in London. The programme covers architecture, interiors and design, and the architecture shortlist was the first of the three to be released.
The shortlisted work reflects a broad geographic range. Participating studios are based in countries including China, Finland, Kuwait, Portugal, Thailand and Uruguay, alongside entrants from across Europe and North America. The architecture categories cover residential buildings, civic and cultural venues, workplaces, educational facilities, heritage projects, hospitality spaces, infrastructure and sustainable design, with each category judged on its own. The shortlisted projects were drawn from a larger pool of entries reviewed by the programme’s judges.
Several projects were highlighted in the announcement. The Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Qatar features a perforated, blanket-like roof of stone-clad steelwork. A country house in the United Kingdom was built with walls of unstabilised rammed earth. In Ukraine, a group of guesthouses pairs glass walls with thatched roofs. A Japanese office building uses metal awnings described as breathing to reinterpret the form of traditional housing. Together the entries range from small rural structures to large civic and cultural commissions.
Work by established practices appears alongside entries from smaller and emerging studios. The shortlist includes projects by Dorte Mandrup, Farshid Moussavi Architects and Herzog & de Meuron. Shortlisted projects were chosen from submissions assessed by the programme’s judges, and category winners will progress to compete for the larger architecture prizes. The interiors and design shortlists were published separately as part of the same awards cycle.
The judging panel for the 2026 programme includes Annabelle Selldorf, Daniel Libeskind, Ma Yansong, Amanda Levete and Norman Foster. The awards are organised into architecture, interiors and design sections, each with its own shortlist and set of categories. Winners across all sections are due to be named at the November ceremony in London, when the overall title holders for each discipline will be confirmed. The full shortlist is available on the awards website.
