Dezeen Awards 2020
Enter to get your designs in front of a global audience.
Submit your projects to Dezeen Awards 2020 - the deadline for entry is June 2nd.
The Dezeen awards are designed to attract smaller studios and avoid categories being dominated by large companies that can afford to enter multiple categories. The judging criteria have been carefully considered to ensure that winning projects are not only beautiful and innovative but also strive to benefit users and the environment. They don't believe that good design today can ignore issues such as social impact or sustainability, and they will be looking for projects that incorporate positive thinking in this area. In addition, the awards include categories for architecture, interiors and design – the three key areas that Dezeen writes about. This means that Dezeen Awards is a comprehensive annual survey of the best work across the major fields of 3D design.
There are 36 project categories that you can enter: 12 in each of the sectors of architecture, interiors and design. New categories this year include landscape project, infrastructure project, bar interior, restaurant interior, small retail interior, large retail interior, architectural lighting design and exhibition design. There are also six studio categories that you can enter, which will name the best established and emerging architecture, interiors and design studios of the moment.
You can now save 50% on studio categories by using code 50STUDIO at the payment stage.
Entries will be judged by an influential panel made up of 75 international architects, designers, academics and journalists.
Architecture judges include Norman Foster, Farshid Moussavi and Daniel Libeskind as well as Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects and Alexandra Hagen of White Arkitekter. Paola Navone, Valentina Ciuffi, Jaime Hayon and George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg are among the interiors judges, whilst Paola Antonelli, Konstantin Grcic and Michael Anastassiades are part of the design jury.
Check out our favorite Dezeen Award winners from 2019!
From art-inspired interiors to architecture for art to shocking product design, these recent Dezeen Award winners have the Source team cooing.
Dream and Maze by Studio 10
Highly commended: Hotel and short stay interior of the year 2019. Optical illusions and maze-like staircases are designed to trick the eyes of lodgers at this MC Escher-inspired guesthouse in the city of Guilin, China.
Located by the Li River in Guilin, a prefecture city in the northeast of China's Guangxi region best known for its Karst scenery, the guest rooms called Dream and Maze are part of ‘The Other Place - Guilin Litopia', a creative guesthouse that offers short-term accommodation in 10 uniquely themed guest rooms.
The two interiors feature anti-gravitational staircases and puzzling arched doorways, based on Escher's well-known labyrinth-like Relativity lithograph.
A colour palette of pink and white creates a serene and fresh environment in the dream rooms with the aim to distance spaces from busy, everyday life.
Judges comments: "This interior inspired by MC Escher has pushed limits, risked taking design to the extreme and creates a real experience".
Designer: Studio 10
Project: Dream and Maze
Highly commended for: Hotel and short stay interior
UCCA Dune Art Museum by Open Architecture
Highly commended: Cultural building of the year 2019. UCCA Dune Art Museum in Qinhuangdao, China is a network of subterranean concrete galleries designed by Open Architecture.
The building, which took three years to complete, is carved into a dune on a beach in the coastal city in northeast China. The museum, which gently disappears beneath the sand, is an organic, cave-like concrete form. Through the project, the Beijing-based studio attempted to blur the boundaries between architecture, landscape, and art. Building the museum into the dune is also an attempt by the architecture to protect the fragile structure from encroaching real estate development.
Architect: Open Architecture
Project: UCCA Dune Art Museum
Highly commended for: Cultural building
Read more: Open Architecture
Tense by Panter & Tourron
Winner of furniture design of the year 2019, Tense is a collection of lightweight flat-pack furniture by Lausanne-based design studio Panter & Tourron.
The Tense collection, which holds it shape using tensile strength, includes a table, chair, screen dividers, pendant light and wall light. The research project explores the evolution of living in a time of global mobility and fluid identity.
The furniture collection, which was presented at Milan design week, weighs less than 20 kilograms altogether and can be easily assembled anywhere.
Judges comments: "We appreciate the consciousness of the lightness and logistics of Tense. The intelligent design produces less waste and considers the fact that as a species we now live lighter with increasingly nomadic lifestyles. This research project has great potential to evolve."
Designer: Panter & Tourron
Product: Tense
Winner of: Furniture design
Read more: Panter & Tourron
Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Winner of architect of the year at Dezeen Awards 2019, Vo Trong Nghia Architects is a Vietnamese studio that was founded in 2006.
The practice, which has offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, works internationally on cultural, commercial, and residential projects.
Vo Trong Nghia Architects' work pursues new methods in sustainable architecture whilst maintaining Asian architectural traditions. Its work responds to Vietnam as a rapidly developing nation and recognises the needs that this growth demands in conscious and sustainable manner. The studio aims to use natural energy and local materials in all of their projects.
Recent projects include a series of six triangular concrete pavilions connected by a low block of office spaces for Vietnamese telecommunications group Viettel, which has also been shortlisted in the civic building category.
Judges comments: "The studio has an acute awareness of the context that it is working in. Vietnam's past is very much present in the work but it also recognises the modernity of the country. Vo Trong Nghia's projects signify a transition from old to new. The studio has developed its own school of thought and its own techniques."
Studio: Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Winner of: Architect of the year. This award is sponsored by Delta Light.
Read more: Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Takt Project
Winner of emerging designer of the year at Dezeen Awards 2019, Takt Project is a Tokyo-based design studio led by Satoshi Yoshiizumi. Products include electrical appliances as composition material and plastic furniture that can be dyed with natural dyes.
Established in 2013, the Japanese studio's work has been shown in museums as well as design events including Milan Design Week, Design Miami, Museum of Decorative Arts Paris and the M+ museum in Hong Kong.
The studio seeks to to create borderless design from architecture to graphic and aims to incorporate social issues into its work. It believes that design should be a solution for innovation breakthrough. Its work aims to improve everyday life and questions what design can do for society.
Judges comments: "The work is both aesthetically and conceptually driven. Takt Project turns the counter intuitive upside down and make it feel intuitive. It deconstructs typologies and makes us rethink them in ways that almost seem magical whilst remaining legible and honest. The studio is producing work that excites us. It is inspiring and makes us feel curious about what design can do."
Studio: Takt Project
Winner of: Emerging designer of the year. This award is sponsored by Herman Miller.
Piazza Dell’Ufficio by Branch Studio Architects
Winner: Small workspace interior of the year 2019 and Winner: Interior Project of the Year 2019. The Piazza Dell’Ufficio is a re-imagining of the former Caroline Chisholm College’s executive administration offices.
The spaces are primarily used by staff, the accounts department and student welfare, and cater for various size staff and student meetings. Before the renovation, the offices used to be comprised of small, disproportionate spaces and a meeting room with no natural light. Branch Studio Architects created an environment with more favourable working conditions, which reduced the visual barriers between staff and student interactions.
Judges comments: "This aesthetically pleasing space creates a break-out space for busy school life. There is a great balance between contemporary, recyclable and affordable materials and colours, creating a warm and calming environment that is suitable for student welfare," said the judges.
Designer: Branch Studio Architects
Project: Piazza Dell'Ufficio
Winner of: Small workspace interior. This award is sponsored by Clippings.
Read more: Branch Studio Architects