With an All-New Urban Design Category, the AZ Awards Kicks Off a New Decade. Now’s the Time to Submit Your Best Work

The AZ Awards has been recognizing excellence in design and architecture across the world for over a decade now. Since AZURE debuted the AZ Awards in 2011, the program has grown in size, scope, and momentum to be internationally recognized for its influence in the global design and architecture spheres. The 2021 edition of the AZ Awards adds the completely new category of Urban Design, encouraging developers to submit their projects.

The awards program welcomes submissions until February 25 and promises to attract entries from some of the most forward-thinking firms from all corners of the globe.

In 2020 – the AZ Awards’ 10th anniversary – the program received projects from over 1,200 architects, landscape architects, product designers, interior designers, students, and manufacturers from 47 countries. Out of that unprecedented number, the international jury of experts selected 68 extraordinary finalists.

This year, our jury of internationally renowned practitioners in the areas of product design, architecture, landscape architecture, and interiors will convene remotely from their homes and offices all over the world to evaluate the entries. Past jurors have included Thom Mayne, Nader Tehrani, Nina-Marie

Lister, Philippe Malouin, Marion Weiss, Omar Gandhi, Craig Dykers, Michel Rojkind, and Brigitte Shim. Stay tuned to find out who the members of the 2021 AZ Awards Jury will be!

Winners will be revealed at the AZ Awards Gala in Toronto in June. The gala has become the event of the season, an exciting evening with fellow members of the industry’s elite. Every year – with the exception of 2020, when we hosted our gala online – close to 500 top architects, designers and industry-related professionals come together to meet and mingle and to celebrate the finalists and winners. Past finalists have traveled from as far away as South Korea,

Austria, Brazil, Peru, and Japan to join the festivities. The gala also welcomes an annual international guest of honor; previous years’ guests have included legendary landscape architect Martha Schwartz, architect Winy Maas (cofounder of the Dutch architecture firm MVRDV), and designer Gaetano Pesce.

Winners take home the AZ Awards trophy, recreated annually by a prominent designer – in past years such luminaries as Luca Nichetto, Michael Anastassiades, Matt Carr, Philippe Malouin, Karim Rashid, and Omer Arbel have designed trophies for the AZ Awards. Look for announcements later this year about our special gala guest and the 2021 AZ Awards trophy designer.

Azure and its partners encourage design and architecture professionals, developers, students, and manufacturers to submit their work to the AZ Awards for an opportunity to step into the global spotlight, elevate their profile, and raise public awareness for their firm and their clients.

Submissions close Tuesday, February 25, 2021 (early-bird submissions end January 31, 2021).

Online entry portal and more information at awards.azuremagazine.com