Currently open for entries until July 24, Architizer’s Vision Awards program was built on a simple conviction: that a design idea is often most alive not in the finished building, but in the sketch, the model, the rendering, the film. The moments before concrete is poured, before glass is glazed, before the scaffolding comes down — that is where imagination lives. And this fall, we’re celebrating that conviction in the best possible way: by bringing one of its greatest champions to Paris.
On October 20, renowned designer and visionary Thomas Heatherwick will take the stage at Release AEC for a keynote talk and live Q&A, as the centerpiece of Architizer’s inaugural Vision Awards celebration. At a moment when the profession is grappling seriously with what it means to design for human beings — especially the people who actually live and move through the spaces we make — the Humanise campaign has given that conversation a name and a sense of urgency.
The venue for Release [AEC] this year is the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris’ verdant Parc de la Villette
Equally relevant is how the studio enacts that philosophy in practice: model-making at the center of the process, tactile and material thinking as a form of inquiry, and a genuine openness to AI and new technologies not as replacements for human-centered design, but as tools to extend it. Coal Drops Yard, Little Island, the UK Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo, the cauldron for the London 2012 Olympics — the work speaks for itself. That combination of craft and curiosity, conviction and experimentation, is exactly the spirit the Vision Awards exists to celebrate.
The Vision Awards celebration presents a rare opportunity to hear the thinking behind that work, and to put your questions directly to one of the most distinctive designers practicing today. To be in with a chance of rubbing shoulders with Thomas Heatherwick and other visionary leaders throughout the AEC industry this fall, submit your best work for the program today:
A Full Day of Celebration
UK Pavilion by Heatherwick Studio, Shanghai, China
The evening keynote is just the headline. October 20 at Release AEC is shaping up to be one of the most exciting days on the architecture calendar — and Architizer will be at the center of it.
Throughout the day, we’ll be hosting an intimate salon within the venue, where select Vision Awards Winners will join our Managing Editor, Hannah Feniak, for candid conversations about their work, their process, and what it means to make architecture that moves people. Alongside the salon, a curated exhibition of Vision Awards Winners’ work will be on display, showcasing some of the most striking architectural imagery of the year.
After Thomas Heatherwick’s keynote and Q&A, we’ll cap the evening with a Vision Awards ceremony and cocktail reception. Champagne, architecture, great company — in Paris, during design week.
A Maker First — and Why That Matters Now
Azabudai Hills by Heatherwick Studio, Tokyo, Japan
At Heatherwick Studio’s Kings Cross workshop, physical prototypes sit at the heart of how ideas evolve — building and testing objects explores form, scale and possibility in ways that screens simply cannot replicate. The studio is so committed to hands-on making that it co-developed the UK’s first Model Maker Apprenticeship Standard alongside Foster + Partners — a degree-level program dedicated to nurturing the next generation of architectural makers.
That craft-centered foundation shapes everything the studio does, including how it approaches digital tools and AI. Rather than treating new technologies as a replacement for material thinking, Heatherwick Studio uses them to extend it, placing the visionary practice at the frontier of formal invention without ever losing its commitment to the felt, human experience of space.
This is the conviction that led Heatherwick to launch their radical Humanise movement in 2023: a ten-year global campaign calling for an end to boring, soulless buildings and making the case that the built environment has a measurable impact on public health and wellbeing. (Most readers will be familiar with the book, but the scale of the campaign extends well beyond the publication.)
Release AEC is built around digital innovation and AI in the AEC industry — and Heatherwick’s presence asks a provocative question: what is all this technology actually for?
How to Be Part of It
Maggie’s Leeds by Heatherwick Studio, Xi’An, China
October 20 in Paris is not just any day. It coincides with Paris+ par Art Basel and Design Miami/ Paris, making it one of the most concentrated moments for art, design, and architecture anywhere in the world. If you are planning to be in Paris for design week — or have been looking for an excuse to go — this is it.
Vision Awards Winners and Honorees will be at the heart of the celebration, exhibited on the day and celebrated on stage in the evening. If you are part of an architecture firm, rendering or photography studio, or design practice that envisions architecture in innovative ways, your work deserves to be in that room.
If you haven’t entered the Vision Awards yet, there’s no better moment. Entrants whose work is selected will have the chance to exhibit their work and join Hannah Feniak in the salon for a conversation in front of an audience of peers, on one of the biggest days in the design calendar.
Get started and complete your submissions before July 24, 2026 to be in the running for global recognition and your moment in Paris:
Featured image: Little Island by Heatherwick Studio, New York City, New York
