Mobile header image

Elevating the year’s best
buildings, landscapes, and
interiors from around the world

ABOUT THE 2024 BEST OF DESIGN AWARDS

The Architect’s Newspaper speaks directly to leaders in architecture and design with news, products, developments, trends, and updates. With our magazine, AN Interior, our outreach to the design community has grown exponentially.

Our 12th annual Best of Design Awards is a unique project-based awards program which showcases great buildings, building elements, interiors, and installations. Entrants are invited to submit completed works in 53 categories which reflect AN’s editorial coverage, as well as the interests of our readers.

The Best of Design jury will judge entries based on several criteria: strength of the presentation, evidence of innovation, creative use of new technology, sustainability, and, most importantly, good design. Winning projects will be featured on archpaper.com where they will reach a national and international audience and will be promoted via our online and social media platforms. Winners will also receive a limited-edition print from Archigram produced especially for AN.

A submission to AN’s Best of Design Awards is an opportunity for your work to be seen by 1 million+ AN readers and members of the AEC community.

Winners will be announced in December 2024.

PUBLICATION AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS

Winning projects will be published in print in AN’s Best of Design 2024 issue, which will arrive at the end of the year. Photos, descriptions, and juror comments will appear in this gorgeous publication that reaches readers nationwide and is distributed at industry events and conferences throughout 2025.

This coverage will also be featured on our website, where it will reach a national and international audience, and will be promoted via our online and social media platforms. Winners will also receive a limited edition print from Archigram produced especially for AN. Be seen by 1 million+ AN readers and members of the AEC design community!

JURY

Coming Soon…

Joshua Aidlin

Founding principal

Aidlin Darling Design

Katherine Darnstadt

Founding principal

Latent

Omar Gandhi

Founder and principal

Omar Gandhi Architects

Walter Hood

Founder and Creative Director

Hood Design Studio

Li Hu

Founding partner

OPEN

Alexandra Lange

Design critic

alexandralange.net

David M. Powell

Principal

HASTINGS

Mónica Rivera

Principal

Emiliano López Mónica Rivera Arquitectos

Emily Conklin

Managing Editor

The Architect's Newspaper

Jack Murphy

Executive Editor

The Architect’s Newspaper

CATEGORIES & SUBCATEGORIES

Adaptive Reuse:

  • Commercial
  • Education
  • Hospitality
  • Residential

Architectural Lighting

Building Renovation:

  • Commercial 
  • Education
  • Hospitality
  • Residential

Civic

Commercial:

  • Hospitality
  • Office Small (5,000 square feet and under)
  • Office Large (Over 5,000 square feet)
  • Retail
  • Sports & Entertainment

Cultural

Digital Fabrication

Education—Higher Education:

  • Residential
  • Instructional
  • Recreation & Leisure

Education—Kindergarten, Primary & High School

Emerging Architects Project Award (Firms founded five years ago or less)

Exhibition Design

Facades

Healthcare

Infrastructure

Interior:

  • Healthcare
  • Hotels
  • Institutional
  • Residential (New Build)
  • Residential (Renovation)
  • Restaurants & Bars
  • Retail
  • Workplace Small (5,000 square feet and under)
  • Workplace Large (Over 5,000 square feet)

Landscape

Libraries

Religious

Residential:

  • Mixed Use
  • Multi-unit
  • Single-unit

Restoration & Preservation

Social Impact

Student Work

Temporary Installation

Unbuilt:

  • Commercial
  • Cultural & Civic
  • Education
  • Conceptual
  • Landscape, Urban Design & Master Plan
  • Residential: Multi-unit
  • Residential: Single-unit

Urban Design & Master Plan

AWARD DATES

LAUNCH

Friday, June 21, 2024

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION

$245 until August 2 (midnight ET)
$125 until August 2 (midnight ET) with Emerging Firm discount

REGULAR REGISTRATION

$295 from August 3 until September 13 (midnight ET)
$150 from August 3 until September 13 (midnight ET) with Emerging Firm discount

STUDENT REGISTRATION

$45

To support student participation, AN offers reduced pricing for the Student Work category and for applicants in other categories who are students. The Student Discount will automatically be applied to cart when submitting Student Work and if you list your company and/or job title as student. Applications will be checked to verify current or past student status.

EMERGING FIRM DISCOUNT

$120/$145

To uplift emerging firms, AN offers reduced pricing applicable to all categories of the awards. This discount is available for multiple entries. To qualify as an emerging firm, your practice must have been founded within the last five years. Use the discount code EMERGING EARLY during the early-bird period or the discount code EMERGING during regular registration.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Deadline extended to September 25, 2024 (midnight ET).

TROPHY

Winners will receive an archival print from the Archigram archive signed by Archigram members. A new print will be selected, produced, signed, and mailed to winners for this year’s competition.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

ELIGIBILITY

In order for a project to be eligible for submission, it must have been completed within two years’ time of the submission deadline, so since October 2022. Landscape, public, unbuilt, and representation projects must have been initiated within three years’ time of the submission deadline, so since October 2021.

To be considered for the Emerging Architects Project Award, the firm must have been founded within the last five years. Please use each submission to highlight one project.

The Best of Design Awards is open to any and all projects in any place of the world.

Entrants are allowed to submit multiple projects for the same category or the same project in multiple categories but must enter each as a separate submission.

Representatives of firms and developers are allowed to submit on behalf of their clients. Please provide your direct contact information but include the name of the applying firm in the “Company” field on the registration form.

The Adaptive Reuse category is intended for projects where a change of use takes place. The Building Renovation category is intended for projects where improvements are made but the use remains the same. Entrants may submit adaptive reuse/renovation projects in other categories as desired; the winners of other categories are not required to be new construction. Note that the submission of the same project to multiple categories will require the payment of additional registration fees.

REQUIREMENTS

Submissions must be paid for before making a submission.
Registration and entry can be completed via the submission portal linked to this page.

WRITTEN MATERIAL

Written material includes:

  • A written description (up to 150 words). Please remember that submissions will be judged anonymously for a fair jury process. As such, do not reveal the company, brand, studio name, or other identifying marks in the project name, written material, and visual components 
  • A list of applicable collaborators and manufacturers. (This will not be viewed by the jury so it can include company names)

IMAGES

Up to six images are per submission. Image requirements include:

  • File format: 150 DPI, high-resolution JPG.
  • Image size: Landscape is preferred 
  • Color format: RGB
  • File size: 5 MB maximum for each image.
  • Label image file names in sequence with the photographer’s name in the file name.
  • Do not add captions on or within images. 
  • Do not include your firm, company, school name on the images.

All submissions must be entered online and received by AN no later than midnight ET (11:59 p.m.) on the submission deadline. AN reserves publication rights for all materials submitted as part of the Best Of Design Awards program, extending to all forms of media or content delivery, whether print, online, digital, mobile, or otherwise, now or hereafter created.

Registration fees are nonrefundable.

Submission is no guarantee of publication or an award.

ABOUT AN MEDIA GROUP

The Architect’s Newspaper provides timely news and cultural reporting on the built environment through a nationally distributed monthly newspaper as well as a design magazine, AN Interior, online at archpaper.com, and through a series of email newsletters. Every issue delivers our trademark blend of topical essays, opinionated columns, project analyses, firm profiles, interviews, new products, reviews of exhibitions and books, and calendars of events in a handy and handsome full-color tabloid and a quarterly magazine. AN reaches a highly engaged online community of hundreds of thousands through our web and social media platforms. AN is the must-read publication for architects, planners, landscape architects, designers, and allied professionals. Learn more about AN Media Group and our other brands at: https://anmediagroup.com/

CONTACT US

For all inquiries about AN’s Best of awards programs, fill in the form, or email us directly competitions@archpaper.com