As the 13th Architizer A+Awards celebration continues its global journey<\/a>, the spotlight now turns to Shenzhen \u2014 a city synonymous with experimentation and architectural ambition. Following regional gatherings in New York<\/a> and Paris<\/a>, this final celebration of the season will bring together architects, designers and creative leaders from across Asia and beyond to recognize the Project of the Year honorees at the Shenzhen ceremony.<\/p>\n Hosted at the newly completed Shenzhen Bay Culture Plaza<\/a> by MAD Architects<\/a>, the event situates the A+Awards within one of the world\u2019s most dynamic urban laboratories. Long known as a testing ground for new models of urbanization, Shenzhen offers a fitting backdrop for a program dedicated to celebrating local innovation with global recognition. Here, architecture is not only built quickly, but questioned rigorously \u2014 making the city an ideal setting to reflect on where the profession is headed next.<\/p>\n The projects honored in Shenzhen exemplify architecture\u2019s new era of craft: one defined not by spectacle or novelty, but by spatial intelligence, cultural grounding and care for context. Each demonstrates how deeply local conditions \u2014 social, environmental and material \u2014 can generate work with relevance far beyond its immediate site. Together, they underscore a shared belief that architectural craft today lies in shaping meaningful relationships between people, place and built form.<\/p>\n Without further ado, here are the Project of the Year winners to be celebrated at the Shenzhen regional ceremony \u2014 projects that embody the A+Awards\u2019 commitment to elevating architecture that is as thoughtful as it is impactful.<\/p>\n Rather than freezing history behind glass, the museum invites dust, footsteps and conversation, allowing memory to remain active and shared. As the designers explain, \u201cArchitectural craft should move beyond a fascination with objects or tools, and instead engage with local culture, emotion, and the connections \u2014 remaining grounded in social reality and real people.\u201d That attentiveness is evident in the project\u2019s material language: lime, timber and grey tile are reworked through contemporary craft, with hand-aged walls and charred wood surfaces that register time through touch as much as sight.<\/p>\n Inside, modestly scaled rooms frame ordinary objects and personal stories as cultural anchors, transforming lived experience into collective identity. Paradoxically, by memorializing rural life, the museum helps sustain it \u2014 hosting weddings, communal meals and rituals even before its official opening. In doing so, the Rural Memory Museum exemplifies architecture\u2019s new era of craft: one that globalizes the local not by exporting form, but by making architecture indispensable to the life it serves.<\/p>\n Landscape operates as the project\u2019s primary organizing system. Oriented north\u2013south to preserve mature trees, the building establishes a natural wind corridor that cools interiors and blurs boundaries between inside and out. Structural elements are calibrated to do more with less: roofs, walls, furniture and circulation are conceived as a single integrated system that mediates light, air and movement with restraint. As the architects note, \u201cBy placing emotional intelligence at its core, architecture can be crafted as an \u2018ecology of care\u2019 \u2014 one that is both creative and adaptive.\u201d<\/p>\n In the context of Indonesia\u2019s rapid urbanization, Aruma Split Garden demonstrates how architectural craft can remain generous even within the realities of everyday commerce. By foregrounding section, sequence and spatial relationships, the project reasserts architecture\u2019s most enduring tools \u2014 offering a precedent for how density, ecology and pleasure can meaningfully coexist.<\/p>\n Beyond its water strategy, the project reimagines education as an open, collective experience. Classrooms dissolve into shaded outdoor spaces, allowing learning, play and gathering to unfold fluidly across thresholds. Flexible construction techniques and modest materials reinforce an ethic of architectural craft grounded in restraint, participation and care. As the architects note, what must be preserved is \u201cthe wisdom of contextual empathy \u2014 the subtle attunement to a site\u2019s unspoken histories and the rhythms of nature and human life.\u201d<\/p>\n As a student-led endeavor guided by professional expertise, the Duling Educational and Cultural Centre shows how global academic knowledge can meaningfully engage local realities. In doing so, it exemplifies architecture\u2019s new era of craft \u2014 one that globalizes the local not by exporting form, but by cultivating belonging through attentiveness, empathy and shared resources.<\/p>\n As Joan J. Fortuny explains, \u201cThe architect\u2019s craft should be an honest process, supported by technology but grounded in the thinking, politics and culture of place. In the same sense, globalized practice, which today reaches an unprecedented intensity through digital diffusion and remote work, runs the risk of being reduced to image, forgetting the process and the thought that sustain it.”<\/p>\n He adds, “We are at risk of losing the identity of place, and therefore it is essential to preserve the culture of place. The aim is to create an architecture that is deeply rooted in its context, reducing environmental impact while strengthening local culture and economy.\u201d That philosophy runs through every layer of the project: from lime-cyclopean fa\u00e7ades to trombe roofs that balance solar gain and ventilation. The result is an architecture both ancient and advanced \u2014 one that embodies a Mediterranean ethic of material honesty, climatic intelligence and care for community.<\/p>\n In its balance of technology and tradition, Ses Veles Puigpunyent exemplifies the next era of architectural craft \u2014 one defined not by spectacle, but by a quiet commitment to place and ecology.<\/p>\n Durability defines the architecture. Brick and concrete are used not as inert matter, but as materials that age with grace, grounding the facility in the landscape and ensuring durability against wind and salt air. \u201cAs architecture drifts further into the virtual, our craft and responsibility is to return it to the senses,\u201d explains SALT Architects. \u201cTo design buildings that will grow old well \u2014 to create places to be touched and to weather with grace, growing more human with time, rather than becoming redundant and replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n Through its tactile honesty and environmental intelligence, the Cape Flats MAR Plant reasserts the dignity of infrastructure; it is a project where technical mastery is given a physical presence worthy of its import. In this sense, the craft of making involves imagining a future where vital infrastructure is treated with the same \u2014 if not more \u2014 care and consequence as more recreational typologies. In doing so, it exemplifies how architecture can transform essential infrastructure into something greater; it also demonstrates how smaller, thoughtful measures can amount to meaningful shifts in efficiency and longevity.<\/p>\n The project\u2019s innovation lies in its radical material circularity. Policronica worked directly with small forest owners to source eucalyptus wood, an invasive species and a massive fire hazard, transforming an undervalued raw material into refined joinery through a self-developed solar vacuum drying process that accelerates curing from an 18-month process down to just six days, while preventing warping or splitting, and thereby additional waste.<\/p>\n \u201cArchitectural craft is defined by integrated productive design,\u201d says founder Julien Labrousse. \u201cIn the age of globalization and supply chain fragmentation, craft\u2026 makes it easier to incubate all stages, from the raw material source to the finished object, in one place.\u201d<\/p>\n In an era when interior architecture often depends on fragmented supply chains and mass production, Policronica\u2019s holistic process stands apart. Hotel Elys\u00e9e Montmartre revives the spirit of Parisian craftsmanship for the 21st century; it is a quiet manifesto for design autonomy, material honesty and the enduring value of making.<\/p>\n \u201cDigital tools are here to stay and continue evolving. We should harness them to create the innovative landscapes of tomorrow\u2014not only in terms of form and spatial experience, but also ecological performance and resilience,\u201d says Karen Tamir, Associate Partner at Field Operations<\/a>. \u201cAt Gansevoort Peninsula, wave oscillation and storm surge modeling informed the siting of the salt marsh \u2014 identifying an area with calmer wave action that would provide a more stable environment for marsh establishment and long-term ecological resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n Importantly, this park neatly exemplifies the thread of excellence that runs through Field Operations\u2019 broader oeuvre \u2014 one that has boldly reimagined the face of public green space in cities from here in New York to London and Shenzhen. In so doing, they have not only positively improved the lives of those living in the various locales but have also powerfully reshaped the global narrative around landscape architecture more broadly, paving the way for other designers to follow in their footsteps.<\/p>\n \u201cArchitectural craft today is about knowing when to step away from the screen,\u201d reflects Jos\u00e9 Luis Irizzont, Principal Architect of Veinte Diezz Arquitectos. \u201cDigital tools accelerate design, but true craft lies in understanding how things are built by hand, on-site, under the sun. It\u2019s the moment where lines become matter.\u201d<\/p>\n This <\/span><\/span>is one of many homes <\/span><\/span>that the Merida-based firm has rescued from ruination.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Through this ethos, Vistalcielo bridges past and present: \u201cWe risk losing the wisdom of ancestral techniques in our obsession with speed and novelty,\u201d Irizzontadds. \u201cHonoring the past doesn\u2019t mean resisting change, it means building bridges between material memory and contemporary intention.\u201d By leaving its traces visible, their designs incorporate the story of dereliction into a hopeful symbol that simultaneously imbues neglected local heritage with a brighter future while promoting an architecture of regeneration as opposed to replacement.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The bespoke furnishings throughout the space were designed and fabricated by the firm: the proportions of tables, chairs, and other furniture were inspired by the structure\u2019s slender mullions. Likewise, this honed green stone, rosewood paneling, and custom carpets echo Lever House\u2019s pioneering fa\u00e7ade. With a close attention to detail, the project celebrates the beauty of its midcentury precedent while also reimagining the space for more contemporary uses.<\/p>\n More broadly, as a design-build firm, Marmol Razinger\u2019s attention to detail reasserts the vital connection between design and construction\u2014the substance of architectural craft. \u201cThe separation of design from construction is one of the risks to architectural craft,\u201d notes Ron Radziner, Design Partner. \u201cAs an architect-led design-build firm, we provide clients with comprehensive and realistic information about every aspect of their project, from start to finish. Our precise construction capabilities allow us to be innovative within our design, ensuring each project is built.<\/p>\n Architizer's <\/i>diverse jury of global experts<\/i><\/span><\/a> is currently reviewing submissions to<\/em> the <\/i>14th A+Awards<\/i><\/span><\/a>! Sign up to <\/i>receive updates<\/i><\/span><\/a> on Public Voting and spring winner announcements.<\/i><\/i><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As global attention turns to Shenzhen, three projects reveal how honesty of making \u2014 not spectacle \u2014 defines the future of design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":210205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"architizer_featured_type":"insert","architizer_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9448,10],"tags":[29185,34],"architizer_project":[],"architizer_brand":[],"architizer_firm":[],"architizer_product":[],"class_list":["post-206092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inside-architizer","category-updates","tag-aspotlight","tag-awards"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nProjects of the Year: Shenzhen<\/h2>\n
\nFW JI\u00b7 The Rural Memory Museum<\/a><\/h3>\n
By IARA<\/a>, Fengwu Village, China<\/h4>\n
Jury Winner, Architecture +For Good | Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Localism, 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/RuralMemoryHero-scaled.jpg\")
Museums are most often imagined as urban institutions \u2014 pristine, inward-looking \u201cwhite cubes\u201d designed to preserve memory at a distance. The Rural Memory Museum in Fengwu Village proposes a fundamentally different model. Designed by IARA as part of the Fengwu JI rural revitalization initiative, the project questions the museum typology by aligning subject and architecture: a museum about rural life that is itself rural in form, material and use. Built on the footprint of a vanished village structure, the building elevates exhibition spaces above an open, shaded ground floor that functions as a public veranda for gatherings, festivals and daily encounters.<\/p>\n
\nAruma Split Garden<\/a><\/h3>\n
By RAD+ar ( Research Artistic Design + architecture )<\/a>, Jakarta, Indonesia<\/h4>\n
Jury Winner, Restaurants (L>1000 sq ft), 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Aruma-scaled.jpg\")
In Aruma Split Garden, Indonesian studio RAD+ar reframes the commercial restaurant typology as a spatial experiment rooted in tropical specificity. Rather than maximizing buildable area, the project prioritizes experience \u2014 using split levels, diagonal circulation and landscape to transform a compact site into a layered environment that feels open, porous and social. Restaurants, a mezzanine bar and a rooftop beer garden are woven into a continuous spatial sequence, replacing the blunt logic of stacked floors with movement, overlap and encounter.<\/p>\n
\nDuling Educational and Cultural Centre<\/a><\/h3>\n
By Project Mingde (The University of Hong Kong) – Elisabeth Lee<\/a>, Duling, China<\/h4>\n
Jury Winner, Architecture +Community, 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Duling-scaled.jpg\")
Rooted in the traditions of the Hakka people \u2014 a community long defined by resilience, education and collective life \u2014 the Duling Educational and Cultural Centre demonstrates how architecture can operate as both infrastructure and cultural stewardship. Designed by Project Mingde, a nonprofit initiative led by students and faculty from the University of Hong Kong, the project responds to a paradox familiar to many rural communities: abundant rainfall paired with chronic freshwater scarcity. Rather than importing a purely technical solution, the design embeds water collection, storage and reuse directly into the building\u2019s form. A cascading roofscape channels monsoon rain into a lotus pond \u2014 a culturally resonant symbol \u2014 before feeding an underground recycling system that supports daily use. Environmental intelligence here is inseparable from cultural meaning.<\/p>\n
\nProjects of the Year: Paris<\/h2>\n
\n6 HPP Ses Veles Puigpunyent<\/a><\/h3>\n
By Fortuny-Alventosa Morell Arquitectes<\/a>, Puigpunyent, Spain<\/h4>\n
Jury Winner, Sustainable Multi-Unit Residential Building, 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1srn-scaled.jpg\")
Set against the sun-baked landscape of Mallorca, Ses Veles Puigpunyent presents a new image for public housing, one that is radically local in material form and expression. Designed by Fortuny-Alventosa Morell Arquitectes for the Balearic Housing Institute (IBAVI), the six-unit complex revives traditional construction methods while achieving near-zero energy use. Local lime, stone, ceramics and timber \u2014 all sourced from within the island \u2014 form a building that reverberates with its surroundings. Each detail not only reflects the place and culture in which it is embedded, but actively contributes to regenerating that very context.<\/p>\n
\nAquifer Recharge Plant – Cape Flats (MAR)<\/a><\/h3>\n
By SALT Architects<\/a>, Cape Town, South Africa<\/h4>\n
Jury Winner, Factories and Warehouses, 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-314-scaled.jpg\")
Set within the vast expanse of the False Bay Nature Reserve, SALT Architects\u2019 Cape Flats Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) Plant transforms critical infrastructure into an architectural expression of resilience and care. Designed to combat Cape Town\u2019s growing water scarcity, the project purifies treated effluent to potable standards before re-injecting it into the city\u2019s aquifer. The design presents a dignified and fitting setting for this critical process, which takes the form of a series of filtration buildings, arranged along a man-made slope and unfolding as a procession of form and function: each structure filters both water and light through angled brick fins that shimmer in the coastal sun.<\/p>\n
\nHotel Elys\u00e9e Montmartre<\/a><\/h3>\n
By Policronica<\/a>, Paris, France<\/h4>\n
Jury Winner, Sustainable Interior Project, 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/3-226-scaled.jpg\")
Adjacent to the legendary Elys\u00e9e Montmartre concert hall, Policronica\u2019s revitalization of the long-abandoned building redefines sustainable luxury through a singular material vision. The design not only revitalizes a long-abandoned building, but it also showcases the beauty of technical ingenuity and the value of challenging material processes \u2014 even if they may seem entrenched. The 16-room hotel unfolds as an immersive study in woodcraft \u2014 every surface, fixture and furnishing was conceived, fabricated and installed by the studio\u2019s own design and production teams. The result is a monochromatic interior that merges architectural precision with artisanal intimacy, enveloping guests in a tactile landscape of eucalyptus, brass and natural fibers.<\/p>\n
\nProjects of the Year: New York City<\/h2>\n
\nHudson River Park\u2019s Gansevoort Peninsula<\/a><\/h3>\n
By Field Operations<\/a>, New York City, New York<\/h4>\n
Jury Winner, Public Parks and Green Spaces, 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gans-scaled.jpg\")
This remarkable feat of design and engineering reclaims a former sanitation pier as Manhattan\u2019s first public beach and salt marsh, setting a new benchmark for resilient urban landscapes. The New York City-based firm shaped the site through an intensive community-driven process, balancing active amenities \u2014 ballfields, lawns, and gardens \u2014 with layered ecological edges that expand biodiversity and reconnect New Yorkers with the river. From oyster-seeded reef balls to tidal pools and shaded dunes, the project merges computational precision with natural systems to anticipate climate challenges while enriching daily civic life.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nVistalcielo<\/a><\/h3>\n
Veinte Diezz Arquitectos<\/a>, Merida, Mexico<\/h4>\n
Popular Choice Winner, Architecture +Renovation, 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2-258.jpg\")
In M\u00e9rida\u2019s historic center, this design transforms an abandoned house into a serene refuge that not only revitalizes an old structure but also uses contemporary architectural language as a frame to celebrate a design culture that revitalizes existing structures, rather than simply replacing them. This is done through a rich material palette of grey cement, striated <\/span>concrete<\/span> and regional stones, which root the home in its local material language. Meanwhile, sky-blue grilles punctuate the textured walls, recalling the vibrancy of Yucat\u00e1n\u2019s built heritage. Inside, a sequence of patios and open modules encourages fluid movement between interior and exterior spaces, reconnecting domestic space with the city\u2019s tropical climate.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLever Club<\/a><\/h3>\n
Marmol Radziner<\/a>, New York City, New York<\/h4>\n
Popular Choice Winner, Commercial Interiors (>25,000 sq ft), 13th Architizer A+Awards<\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.architizer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/3-12.png\")
When Lever House first rose on Park Avenue in 1952, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill\u2019s glass-and-steel tower redefined the Manhattan skyline and set a global precedent for modernist design and architectural techniques. Marmol Radziner\u2019s recent transformation of this third-floor space restores this spirit of innovation, recasting the long-neglected cafeteria level as a private lounge that simultaneously honors SOM\u2019s legacy and asserts a contemporary vision of architectural craft.<\/p>\n