Entries open for 2026 Architect of the Year Awards

Entries have opened for this year’s Architect of the Year Awards.

The awards are Building Design’s annual celebration of the very best work being produced by practices today. Uniquely, a majority of the trophies are awarded for a body of work, not just for an individual building.

There are new and updated categories for 2026, including Digital Design Innovation and Optimisation, Public Realm and Placemaking Architect of the Year, Radical Retrofit and Reinvention Architect of the Year and Regenerative Design Architect of the Year, making a total of 21 awards to be won (view all categories below).

2026 categories include the Gold Award for “the best of the best” which is chosen from the winners of the project focussed categories. Haworth Tompkins was honoured with this prestigous accolade last year, also winning Best Architect Employer and Higher Education Architect of the Year, confirming its continuing influence across the sector.

>> Explore stadout projects from the 2025 shortlist in our “What made this project…” series

The Lifetime Achievement award went to Patty Hopkins, recognising her long-standing contribution to British Architecture, while CAN won the prestigious Young Architect of the Year Award, which recognises practices where the majority of principals have been practising for 12 years or less. 

This year’s winners will be revealed at an evening ceremony on 7 October co-locating with the Building the Future Conference at Convene Sancroft, St Pauls, London.

For full details of the awards and how to enter click here.

The deadline for this year’s awards is 8 May.