The jury and the public have had their say — discover the remarkable winners of Architizer's 14th Annual A+Awards. Subscribe to our Awards Newsletter to receive future program updates.
These days, many shopping trips feel more like something to get over with than something to enjoy. Between packed aisles, bright lights and the convenience of online shopping, the physical store has had to find a new reason to exist.
These eight A+Award-winning projects have done exactly that. Whether it’s a music gallery composed like a musical score, a salon designed around sound, a pavilion hidden within a public garden or a knife store where the craft is as captivating as the products, each offers something increasingly rare: a place you’d happily spend time in, even if you leave empty-handed.
By Department of ARCHITECTURE, San Juan City, Philippines
Jury Winner, 14th Annual A+Awards, Retail
While retail has long relied on climate-controlled interiors to shield shoppers from the outside world, The Corner House finds its character by inviting that world in. Designed for Manila’s tropical climate, the building breathes through an open-air atrium, operable louvers and a lightweight steel frame that shifts with changing weather.
Instead of the familiar procession of escalators and enclosed corridors, a 1,640-foot (500-meter) ramp winds through restaurants, exhibitions and gathering spaces, turning circulation into an activity of its own. Visitors are free to drift, pause and take different routes, making the journey through the building feel as rewarding as any destination waiting along the way.
Apple Miami Worldcenter
By Gensler, Miami, Florida
Popular Choice Winner, Retail, 14th Annual A+Awards
Apple Miami Worldcenter asks surprisingly little of the skyline. Instead, it lets the landscape do much of the talking. A low pavilion settles into a public garden where shaded paths and native planting soften the approach, making arrival feel gradual rather than prescribed. Expansive glass keeps the plaza visually connected to the interior, so there is little sense of crossing from one world into another.
Inside, mass timber, handcrafted plaster and biopolymer terrazzo replace the polished uniformity often associated with contemporary retail. Together, they create an atmosphere that feels calm, tactile and unmistakably rooted in Miami’s climate and character.
Tojiro Knife Gallery Tokyo
By L/O (KATATA YOSHISHITO DESIGN), Tokyo, Japan
A knife store probably isn’t the first place you’d expect to linger. Yet TOJIRO Knife Gallery Tokyo has a way of making time disappear. What begins as a search for the right blade gradually becomes an introduction to Japanese knife culture, where sharpening is treated as carefully as forging. Visitors pause to watch artisans at work, browse displays inspired by the relationship between knife and whetstone and discover a philosophy built around using, maintaining and passing tools from one generation to the next. Factory-inspired iron grids and wood wool cement boards lend the compact gallery the quiet honesty of a workshop, making the craft feel tangible at every turn.
Salt Salon
By Unknown Works, London, United Kingdom
Here’s a question you don’t hear every day: what should a haircut sound like? SALT Salon Borough builds an entire salon around that idea. Every floor has its own acoustic atmosphere, shaped by custom loudspeakers, sound-absorbing furniture and carefully tuned materials.
A listening room hosts performances and conversations after hours, giving the building a life that stretches well beyond hair appointments. Like the best projects in this collection, it finds a reason for visitors to stay long after the original purpose of their visit has been fulfilled.
Monos Georgetown
By Leckie Studio Architecture + Design, Washington, DC, United States
Occupying a narrow historic storefront, Monos Georgetown relies on rhythm rather than spectacle, using a procession of plaster arches to shape movement through the space. The pared-back palette of plaster, metal and mirror lets texture and light take the lead, while mirrored walls quietly stretch the compact interior beyond its physical limits.
Even the products are given room to breathe. Instead of competing for attention, the architecture encourages visitors to pause, look more carefully and settle into a pace that feels increasingly rare in contemporary shopping.
Mousavi – music instruments store
By Neda Mirani architecture studio, Tehran, Iran
Special Mention, 14th Annual A+Awards, Retail
Mousavi Music Gallery makes a convincing attempt to capture the feeling of music before a single note is played. Rhythm, flow and the parallel strings of the santur become the building blocks of a compact interior that unfolds like a musical score. A procession of slender partitions creates a series of semi-transparent galleries, revealing and concealing instruments in equal measure as visitors move through the space. Their arched forms draw on Baharestan’s architectural language, while subtle shifts in spacing, height and light establish a quiet sense of tempo.
Localy Store
By DA bureau, Moscow, Russia
Special Mention, 14th Annual A+Awards, Retail
In this uniquely charming store, shopping feels more like a treasure hunt. Inspired by the aesthetics of a Soviet lost-and-found, the architects filled the historic interior with freestanding shelving that creates one small discovery after another.
The layout gradually transitions from an eclectic collection of household objects to a quieter textile room, offering a welcome break from the visual density. Warm colors and furniture inspired by the 1970s complete an atmosphere that encourages wandering at your own pace.
Beymen Tersane
By Beymen Group, Beyoğlu, İstanbul, Türkiye
Special Mention, 14th Annual A+Awards, Retail
For six centuries, this building served as part of the Ottoman shipyards along Istanbul’s Golden Horn. Today, it welcomes visitors for an entirely different reason. Beymen Tersane preserves the historic sequence of galleries, using a flexible interior system that adapts to changing collections while leaving the original architecture in full view. Rather than filling every corner with merchandise, the design gives the building space to speak for itself, making the walk through the store feel as memorable as the products on display.
The jury and the public have had their say — discover the remarkable winners of Architizer's 14th Annual A+Awards. Subscribe to our Awards Newsletter to receive future program updates.
