The Dezeen Awards, now in its ninth year, has announced the first wave of judges for its 2026 cycle, adding Moroccan architect Aziza Chaouni and Milan-based designer Britt Moran to its panel. The appointments reinforce a trajectory the program has traced over several recent editions: a deliberate pivot toward adaptive reuse, heritage preservation, and the architectural value of what already exists. In a discipline still grappling with its carbon footprint, the jury composition reads as a statement of institutional priorities.

Chaouni, who leads Aziza Chaouni Projects and the research-oriented SoNo Lab, has built a practice centered on the life cycles of existing structures. Her portfolio includes the restoration of La Maison du Peuple, a brutalist landmark in Burkina Faso developed in collaboration with the World Monuments Fund. Moran, co-founder of Dimore Studio, brings a different lens to the same broad question — how historical layers can inform contemporary space — through interiors that draw heavily on period references without lapsing into pastiche. They are joined by designer Benni Allan and Felicia Hung on a jury tasked with evaluating a global field of entries. Submissions remain open through May 27.

Adaptive reuse as architectural mainstream

The emphasis on heritage and reuse in the 2026 jury is not incidental. Over the past decade, adaptive reuse has migrated from a niche concern — often associated with preservation societies and municipal planning departments — to a central preoccupation of mainstream architectural discourse. The reasons are partly environmental: demolition and new construction account for a substantial share of global carbon emissions tied to the built environment. Retaining and repurposing existing structures avoids much of that embodied carbon cost.

But the shift is also cultural. As cities across the Global South confront rapid urbanization, the question of what to preserve and how to preserve it carries political and social weight that extends well beyond materials science. Chaouni's work sits at that intersection. Her projects treat buildings not merely as physical assets to be maintained but as repositories of collective memory whose continued use requires negotiation between historical significance and contemporary function. The decision to place that perspective on an awards jury — rather than confining it to academic symposia — suggests the design establishment is absorbing the argument at an institutional level.

Dimore Studio's presence on the interiors panel operates on a parallel frequency. Moran and his co-founder Emiliano Salci have long resisted the stripped-back minimalism that dominated international design competitions for much of the 2010s, opting instead for spaces dense with historical reference. That approach, once considered eccentric within the competition circuit, now aligns with a broader reassessment of what constitutes forward-looking design. The question is no longer simply what is new, but what endures — and why.

What the jury signals about the field

Awards programs function as mirrors. The projects they celebrate reflect prevailing taste, but the judges they appoint reveal where the conversation is heading. Dezeen Awards, held in partnership with Trimble, has positioned itself as one of the primary benchmarks for global architecture, interiors, and product design. Its jury selections carry weight not because they dictate outcomes, but because they frame the criteria by which outcomes are measured.

The 2026 panel suggests that entries will be evaluated against a set of concerns that includes urban density, environmental impact, and the cultural intelligence of working within inherited contexts. For firms submitting projects, the implication is clear: novelty alone is unlikely to suffice. The jury appears oriented toward work that demonstrates an understanding of place, material history, and the long-term consequences of design decisions.

Whether this emphasis produces a cohort of winners meaningfully different from previous cycles remains to be seen. Awards juries set the frame; the entries determine what fills it. The tension between the program's stated values and the realities of what gets built — and where, and for whom — is the space worth watching as the 2026 cycle unfolds.

With reporting from Dezeen.

Source · Dezeen