The jury and the public have had their say — feast your eyes on the winners of Architizer's 14th Annual A+Awards. Subscribe to our Awards Newsletter to receive future program updates.
For many years, “sustainability” has been the defining buzzword of the architectural profession. As environmental performance became increasingly measurable, through metrics such as energy consumption or embodied carbon, architects could finally support their environmental ambitions with data. Numbers replaced assumptions, and sustainability became a value that could be calculated rather than simply claimed.
Yet something still feels unresolved. Many highly sustainable buildings arrive on a site as complete objects. They perform exceptionally well but seem oddly detached from the landscapes they occupy. Increasingly, architects are beginning to recognize that environmental responsibility cannot be measured by performance alone. It also depends on how a building responds to the place that existed before it, and the following six projects are here to prove it.
Stöng – (Re)interpretation
By SP(R)INT STUDIO, Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur, Iceland
Jury Winner, Sustainable Adaptive Reuse or Renovation Project, 14th Architizer A+Awards
Environmental Sensitivity Principle: Reuse Before Replacement
Located in Iceland’s Þjórsárdalur Valley, this project reimagines the protective shelter over the archaeological site of Stöng, home to eleventh-century Viking ruins. The intervention adapts and extends the aging structure, adding new pathways and viewing platforms that improve access to the historic site. The design treats the landscape as part of the visitor experience by carefully weaving bridges and paths through the terrain and creating elevated walkways that adapt to the volcanic landscape.
In parallel, the structure relies on passive environmental strategies such as natural ventilation and permeable surfaces and employs reversible construction methods, where it can be disassembled or adapted for future changes in its design.
Zhengzhou Dahecun National Archaeological Site Park
By China Architecture Design & Research Group (CADG), Zhengzhou, China
Popular Choice Winner, Sustainable Cultural Building, 14th Architizer A+Awards
Environmental Sensitivity Principle: Restore More Than You Build
The Dahecun Site Museum is the centerpiece of China’s Dahecun National Archaeological Park and the country’s first museum dedicated to presenting the Yangshao Culture in its entirety. Built directly above fragile prehistoric remains, the 20,000-square-meter museum is also China’s largest fully sunken-site museum that combines archaeological preservation with exhibition spaces.
The project approaches excavation with immense sensitivity. It utilizes a former landfill and excavates only to the depth already required for soil remediation, saving approximately 40,000 cubic meters of unnecessary earthwork. This, in addition to the creation of a green roof that extends the surrounding terrain across the museum, rehabilitates the native habitat, creating conditions for wildlife to return. Finally, a significant design priority was the building’s resilience, where flood protection and waterproofing were integrated into the landscape, allowing the archaeological site to withstand increasingly extreme weather
Nachan the Antique Courtyard Hotel
By PAVA architects, Thailand
Jury Winner, Sustainable Hospital Building, 14th Architizer A+Awards
Environmental Sensitivity Principle: Design Around What Already Exists
Located along Thailand’s Mekong River, Nachan Antique Courtyard Hotel is a boutique hospitality project designed as a cluster of small buildings inspired by the character of traditional riverside villages. The layout was designed around the site’s existing trees and landform, preserving an array of mature tamarind and mango trees, while courtyards and pathways were carefully woven between them. Materially, the project is fully integrated into the local context, using reclaimed timber for the primary structure as well as earthen plaster and handmade brick.
Tiger Track Ecolodge
By Building Bureau, Nepal
Popular Choice Winner, Sustainable Hospital Building, 14th Architizer A+Awards
Environmental Sensitivity Principle: Build With the Local Ecosystem (Human and Natural)
The project is set within the buffer zone of Nepal’s Bardiya National Park. Tiger Track Nepal is a community lodge that combines eco-tourism with wildlife conservation and local development. The design recognizes that environmental sensitivity extends beyond ecology to include the communities that inhabit it, creating an economic model that directly supports families affected by human-wildlife conflict. Specifically, architecture revives indigenous Tharu building traditions, using rammed earth walls to construct the shell of the building as well as reclaimed terracotta roof tiles salvaged from demolished farmhouses.
Pooling Xolox
By Taller Capital, San Lucas Xolox, Mexico
Jury Winner, Sustainable Infrastructural Building, 14th Architizer A+Awards
Environmental Sensitivity Principle: Work With Natural Systems, Not Against Them
The Xolox Water Garden is a landscape infrastructure project located in San Lucas Xolox, Mexico, designed to address recurring flooding while creating a new public space for the community. A key design approach was to treat water as a resource and not as a problem, capturing up to 3,500 cubic square meters of rainwater per storm, replenishing groundwater and providing irrigation for nearby agricultural land. Rather than depending on conventional drainage systems, the project relies on soft infrastructure such as retention reservoirs, infiltration ponds, and gently modeled earthwork, which also double as public space and walking routes for visitors.
Song of the Cricket
By Urban Ecology and Design Lab, Venice, Italy
Jury Winner, Sustainable Landscape / Planning Project, 14th Architizer A+Awards
Environmental Sensitivity Principle: Design for Ecosystems, Not Just Sites
Developed for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Song of the Cricket is an experimental landscape project presented as a public exhibition. Its research focuses on the reintroduction of the endangered Adriatic Marbled Bush-Crick, designing a cultural installation as a living laboratory that extends beyond the Biennale into the wetlands of the Venice Lagoon. The project shifts architecture’s focus from buildings to ecosystems, aiming to restore broader ecological relationships instead of isolated sites. Through a series of experimentations, landscape architecture becomes an adaptive process in which scientific monitoring and ecological management continuously inform one another.
The jury and the public have had their say — feast your eyes on the winners of Architizer's 14th Annual A+Awards. Subscribe to our Awards Newsletter to receive future program updates.
Featured Image: Stöng – (Re)interpretation by SP(R)INT STUDIO, Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur, Iceland, Jury Winner, Built – Sustainable Adaptive Reuse or Renovation Project, 14th Architizer A+Awards
