Dezeen Awards 2022 highlights flexibility, reuse, and sustainability in design

In a triumphant return to form with an in-person ceremony for the first time since 2019, the Dezeen Awards 2022 winners were revealed over the course of an illuminating evening at the One Hundred Shoreditch hotel in London, on November 29. Now in its fifth edition, the Dezeen Awards honours exemplary achievements in architecture, interiors, and design, selected by an esteemed panel of 93 industry-leading professionals. The names in question included the likes of—Alberto Alessi, Marjan van Aubel, Slava Balbek, Stefano Boeri, Maria Porro, Sou Fujimoto, Rosanna Hu, Dara Huang, Tom Kundig, India Mahdavi, Serhii Makhno, Kabage Karanja and Stella Mutegi of Cave Bureau, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Fabio Novembre, Dominique Petit-Frère, Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara di Pinto, Andrés Reisinger, Paula Scher, Marcel Wanders, and Li Xiang, among many others.

Spread out over six main categories of—Architecture, Interiors, Design, Sustainability, Media, and Studio, as well as their associated public vote brackets, the 2022 winners included those from various subcategories, as well as the overall category winners for this year’s edition. Chosen from among 5,400 total entries received from 90 countries, which were then narrowed down to a final shortlist of 240 projects, the winners encompassed a broad range of endeavours that lay out impressive models and paradigms for the future of the global creative community.

Often hailed as one of the highest accolades bestowed upon architects and designers from all over the world, this year's Dezeen Awards continued the trend of casting the spotlight on emerging studios and practitioners, while also firmly emphasising the need for sustainable design practices in all disciplines. As is evident in their selection of category winners, many of whom were centred on reuse, modularity, functional flexibility, and progressive design approaches, the design and architecture awards drew attention to pertinent issues related to prevalent models of consumption and production, stressing on the need to rethink current outlooks on both.

WINNERS: ARCHITECTURE

From the 11 subcategories of the Architecture bracket, the Argo Contemporary Art Museum and Cultural Centre by Ahmadreza Schricker Architecture – North (ASA North) in Tehran, Iran, was awarded both the Dezeen Awards 2022 Architecture project of the year and winner of the Cultural building category. An astute adaptive reuse intervention that transformed a former industrial brewery into an incubation space for art and culture, the project retained much of its former charm, emphasised in its beautiful exposed brick façade design capped by new floating roofs. In crafting a new sustainable hybrid that has revived a century-old structure, ASA North’s efforts also produced what is said to be the first private contemporary art museum in Tehran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Besides this, other notable winners include the likes of Marfa Ranch House by Lake Flato Architects as the Rural house of the year alongside the Richard Rogers Drawing Gallery by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for Small building of the year, which was late British architect Richard Rogers' last completed project, prior to his retirement and eventual passing last year. Additionally, Heatherwick Studio’s Little Island in Manhattan, New York, took home the Landscape project of the year award while Valle San Nicolás Clubhouse by Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos in Mexico was declared the Hospitality building of the year.

WINNERS: INTERIORS

Also featuring 11 subcategories, the Interiors bracket featured Ecole Camondo Méditerranée by Émilieu Studio as the overall Interior project of the year and the Civic and cultural interior of the year. Located in Toulon, France, the venture envisions a flexible future for design education, where modularity and adaptability are not only depicted in the course material, but also in the very environments where students learn their trade. Mobile furniture designs, made from locally-sourced materials and construction offcuts enhance the ideals perpetuated by this outlook towards institutional design, ensuring that sustainability is holistically reflected in every detail of the interior design.

Downtown LA Proper Hotel by Kelly Wearstler Studio in Los Angeles, USA, was announced as the Hotel and short-stay interior project of the year, as Twentieth by Woods + Dangaran (also in Los Angeles) won the House interior of the year. Additionally, the Dyson Global HQ, St James Power Station by M Moser Associates in Singapore was honoured with the Large workspace interior of the year while the winner of the Apartment interior category was the Shoji Apartment by Proctor and Shaw.

WINNERS: DESIGN

Easily the most diverse and extensive among the six main awards brackets, the Design category encompasses the fields of product design, furniture design, lighting design, exhibition design, graphic design, and wearable design, alongside allied disciplines in 11 unique subcategories. Wheeliy 2.0 by Quantum, a foldable lightweight wheelchair that aims to optimise user experiences and comfort was the 2022 Dezeen Awards Design project and Product design of the year winner, for its innovative approach to tackling a sensitive problem for wheelchair users.

MVRDV, based in the Netherlands bagged the Lighting design of the year for their work on 'High Profile' range of lights, which make use of discarded aluminium offcuts. Furthermore, Illuminated River by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and Leo Villareal, an LED light installation spanning nine bridges over the River Thames in London, won the Architectural lighting design of the year. As one of the most talked-about exhibitions this year at the Design Museum in London, Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR by Ēter won Exhibition design of the year.

WINNERS: SUSTAINABILITY

Divided into three sub-brackets, the Sustainability category featured the likes of K-Briq by Kenoteq, which won the Sustainable design of the year for its disruptive potential in the construction industry as an alternative material made primarily from construction waste itself. Additionally, Mustardseed by Localworks, a junior school in Uganda featuring walls built from earth bags filled with soil, took home Sustainable building of the year, along with Learning and Sports Center by General Architecture Collaborative, which was highly commended by the jury for its astute channelling of social sustainability into a community hall project in Rwanda. Finally, The Circus Canteen by Multitude of Sins, in Bangalore, India was named the Sustainable interior of the year as a restaurant design venture realised almost entirely with recycled materials. Each of these projects, encompassing the domains of sustainable architecture, interior design, and material innovations, presents viable solutions to address the looming threat of climate change the world faces today.

WINNERS: MEDIA

The newest of the six, now only in its second year, the Media bracket spanned five categories, covering the disciplines of—architectural photography, web design, filmmaking, and visualisation. Providing unique insights into how design is documented and presented to the world across different mediums and standpoints, the winners in this category included Unknown Brutalist Architecture in Hong Kong by Brutalism Hong Kong Research Group, which took home the Architecture photograph of the year award for its immaculate representation of the long-term degradation of urban built forms, depicted in a dramatic image of the Eastern Sea Industrial Building, a work of brutalist architecture by architect Peter YS Pun in Hong Kong. Next, We Are Not Bad Kids by Miranda MacLaren, Polina Pencheva, and Heather Macey, was declared the Architecture video of the year for its poignant depiction of the plight of youth residing in homeless shelters, drawing attention to the necessity for all architecture to cater to universal needs rather than exclusive interests. House for a Fly Fisherman by Kin Creatives and Matt Architecture was awarded the Visualisation of the year, portraying a fisherman’s house suspended over its ethereal context. In the arena of web design, Minutes by Samuel Gadea, Florian Casarin, and Julien Bidore for Kaan Architecten won the Website of the year (architecture, interiors, design) while Dimensions by Fantastic Offense received the award for Website of the year (brand).

WINNERS: STUDIO

To round off the honours, the most prestigious accolades at the Dezeen Awards 2022 were given to the Studio winners, with Melbourne-based Austin Maynard Architects being named Architecture studio of the year. Nomos, based in both Madrid and Geneva, was revealed as the Emerging architecture studio of the year. The Interior design studio of the year award went to i29 interior architects, while Raul Sanchez Architects, headquartered in Barcelona won the Emerging interior design studio of the year.

STIR is a Media Partner for Dezeen Awards 2022. Read more about the awards here.