The BLT Built Design Awards-winning projects of 2023

The third edition of the BLT Built Design Awards has announced its category winners and Emerging Voices for this year’s competition. 

Each winner was selected via a comprehensive process overseen by a panel of architects, academics, media representatives, and other industry stakeholders. They join a list of past names to have received the honor that includes Zaha Hadid Architects, Perkins&Will, and Ateliers Jean Nouvel. A winner in the newly introduced Landscape Architecture category was also selected for the first time. 

Here are this year's winning projects:

Architectural Design of the Year: Haus Balma in Vals, Switzerland by Kengo Kuma Architects

Jury verdict: "Haus Balma, awarded Architectural Design of the Year, is a remarkable creation by Kengo Kuma & Associates. Located in Vals, Switzerland, this commercial and residential building, completed in June 2022, beautifully balances tradition and innovation. More than a decade ago, the project began with a vision to harmoniously integrate modernity with the scenic mountain village of Vals. Kengo Kuma and his team, including Yuki Ikeguchi, brought this dream to life by blending unconventional forms and materials, particularly stone, wood, metal, and glass, into a seamless union with nature."

Emerging Architect of the Year: Takatoku Nishi

Interior Design of the Year: Flat #6 in São Paulo, Brazil by Studio Mk27

Jury verdict: "Composed of a series of cozy ambiences that enhance Brazilian vintage design and woods, the living spaces enable an integrated family experience. TV room and bedrooms open themselves to a terrace that mediates the dialogue between intimacy and São Paulo’s skyline. Sober finishings such as the basaltine stone flooring and ipê wood panels are lightened by tactile fabrics and delineated pieces. Designed with extreme attention to detail, the combination of textures with sharp forms configure wide and soulful spaces, that embrace a joyful living."

Emerging Interior Designer of the Year: Hsiang-Ting Huang

Landscape Architecture of the Year: Phase Shifts Park in Taichung, Taiwan by Mosbach Paysagistes

Jury verdict: "Phase Shifts Park proposes a dialogue between soil and air, culture and nature, across 230 hectares. It forges interactions between environments and populations. The design invests in lithosphere design, encompassing water, topography, and soil, combined with atmosphere design, addressing factors like heat, humidity, and pollution. The result is a diverse landscape that distributes comfortable ‘niches,’ featuring 11 resorts. The atmosphere’s performance is emphasized by the lithosphere resources, which provide leisure lands, sports areas, and play areas. Urban traffic is partially incorporated into the park’s subsoil, ensuring continuous flow over a 2.7km stretch from South to North. The hills establish a framework that offers vast continuities, intimacy, and protection."

Emerging Landscape Architect of the Year: Gabriel Velasco

Construction Product Design of the Year RENCO in Palm Beach County, FL, United States by RENCO USA

Jury verdict: "RENCO MCFR is a state-of-the-art structural building system comprised of interlocking composite building units of various types and sizes of blocks, columns, beams, joists, headers, decking, connectors, etc. These products are all adhesively joined (chemically bonded) to form monolithic structures. The RENCO Structural Building System has been tested, analyzed and evaluated in ANSI-certified laboratories to ASTM standards for material and physical characteristics, structural performance, fire resistance and environmental resistance. The RENCO Structural Building System can currently be used in the design and construction of construction types VA and VB (structures up to 5 stories) in Seismic Design Categories A and B. Through continued research and development, expanded approvals are in process, to include the use of the system in Seismic Design Categories C, D and E."