The World’s Best Architecture, Interiors, and Design

I use Microsoft Edge as the web browser on my laptop. I could just as easily have set up Google Chrome as my web browser, but Edge was the default offering with Windows 10 so that’s what I roll with. Upon launching, Edge presents me with Microsoft’s live news feed. I typically enjoy my morning cup of coffee scanning what Microsoft thinks is of daily curiosity to me. I do find it more than mildly unsettling content-based algorithms so effectively interpret my digital footprints and assess my interests, but that’s a topic for another blog post. The upshot is the Internet knows me well enough to have brought the 2020 Dezeen Awards results to my attention.

First launched in 2006, Dezeen is now one of the leading online architecture, interiors, and design magazines. Its annual awards program, now in its third year, attracts thousands of entries from around the world. A huge jury—the 2020 panel included 75 leading architecture and design luminaries—picked the winners across a broad assortment of categories. I must admit I haven’t been the greatest fan of other media platforms who have made their mark as self-proclaimed arbiters of cutting-edge design—I’m looking at you Dwell—but I found the judging criteria Dezeen asked its jurors to consider and the projects the members of the jury selected truly encouraging.

I’m encouraged because for too long awards juries and Dezeen’s architecture and design media peers have prioritized aesthetics above other concerns, and seemingly mandated conformance with a strictly modernist orthodoxy.(1) In my opinion, style should not be a prerequisite for consideration of a project’s full complement of virtues. Additionally, too many of the privileged projects appear affordable only to the very well-heeled or have ignored architecture’s duty to minimize and mitigate humankind’s harmful impacts upon our planet. Dezeen rightly prioritized benefitting users and the environment in addition to beauty for its awards program, directing its jurors to consider social impact and sustainability and look for projects incorporating positive thinking in these areas. Specifically, the judging criteria included whether a design fulfils the following:

Beauty: Does it look amazing? Beauty is subjective but the jurors favor aesthetic rigor, good detailing, and a good use of materials.

Innovation: Does it incorporate original thinking or address a problem in a new way? Every entry does not have to reinvent the wheel but should provide evidence of fresh approaches and new ideas.

Benefits: Is it useful and considerate to both people and planet? A project doesn't have to set out to save the world, but it should show respect and consideration for users and the environment.

Many of the winning projects are stunning. Granted, passing judgment on them solely on written narratives and two-dimensional images is fraught with pitfalls. All the jurors cannot have visited and experienced each of the submitted projects in person. Certainly, most could not have walked through the buildings, observed how they are used, or spoken with the users. They could not have truly engaged them as works of architecture, and that’s a problem. Nevertheless, I like to believe the best projects do jump off the page (or screen), with their thoughtfulness and tectonic, three-dimensional brilliance shining through.  

Which of the 2020 award winners did I find most worthy? Here is my list; click on the links to open a new window for Dezeen’s complete set of project photos and accompanying description (I'm using images from the Dezeen Awards site; I do hope this is okay):

Capsule Hotel and Library, Zhejiang Province, China – Atelier Tao+C 

The Capsule Hotel and Library melds monastic cells devoted to retreat & respite with a triple-height atrium cum temple for reading inside the repurposed shell of an old rammed-earth structure nestled deep in the mountains. The project’s asceticism and serenity are palpable.

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/12/27/capsule-hotel-atelier-taoc-bamboo-bookshelves-china/

MuseumLab, Pittsburgh, PA – Koning Eizenberg Architecture

Originally commissioned in 1886 as the very first Carnegie Free Library in the country, the impressive neo-Romanesque edifice is now the home to MuseumLab, a makerspace on steroids dedicated to experimental art and technology programs for children. The extensive renovation preserves the original building’s architecture in the wake of a 2006 lightning strike and subsequent disrepair in the form of a “beautiful ruin.”

https://www.dezeen.com/2020/05/06/museumlab-carnegie-free-library-childrens-museum-of-pittsburgh-koning-eizenberg-architecture/  The museum’s own website boasts an even more impressive set of photos of the project.

Lasvit Headquarters, Novy Bor, Czech Republic – Ov-a Architeckti
Lasvit is a designer and manufacturer of glass for architecture, part of a long glassmaking history in the Northern Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. The company’s headquarters is comprised of two 19th century houses of a traditional style, now paired with two new structures of similar form and scale: one a translucent white “house” accommodating an employees’ café and meeting room, and the other a black counterpart containing studio spaces for the presentation of bespoke glass samples. The interventions preserve the historical character of what appears to be an established residential neighborhood. Simply brilliant.
https://www.dezeen.com/awards/2020/winners/lasvit-headquarters/

Smart Zendo, Hong Kong – Sim-Plex Studio
Smart Zendo does more with less, elegantly providing flexible, smart accommodations for four in what previously was a two-bedroom flat. The project is a model for minimizing one’s carbon footprint while living in a future world beset with resource scarcity.
https://www.dezeen.com/awards/2020/winners/smart-zendo/

Party and Public Service Center, Yuanheguan, China – LUO Studio

Another project from China, the design for this new community center transformed the concrete foundations of an abandoned residential project into a warm, light-filled series of spaces given form by salvaged timbers and other recycled materials. 
https://www.dezeen.com/2020/03/17/party-and-public-service-centre-luo-studio-architecture-china/

The Red Roof, Quang Ngai, Vietnam – TAA Design
The Red Roof heralds a project typology that empowers people at the local level to change their environments and become self-sufficient. Perhaps the gesture is more rhetorical than practical, though its modest scale and humble bearing suggest otherwise. The is precisely the kind of development we need more of now, whether it be in Vietnam, Oregon, or elsewhere. 
https://www.dezeen.com/awards/2020/winners/the-red-roof/

The various threads running through the projects I found most impressive are a repurposing or reimagining of existing structures (as opposed to unnecessarily razing them and starting from scratch), a respect for the physical and cultural context (vernacular and traditional, time-tested construction techniques), and their relative modesty. Also notable is the geographic diversity of the award-winners. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that each of the projects do look amazing too. Design excellence is a universal constant.

Kudos to Dezeen for raising the bar for design awards programs. Rather than merely stoking the vanity of designers in the thrall of appearance, style, and ego, Dezeen has earned its accolades by orchestrating a thoughtful means to honor projects presenting the design profession in its best light.

What will my Internet newsfeed bring me tomorrow? I don’t know but if there is more like what Dezeen brought me today, I’m looking forward to it.

(1) Read Duo Dickinson’s intelligent essay on this topic.