A’ Architecture, Building & Structure Design Award Winners

Golden Key Venue Industrial and Office Building by MADA s.p.a.m. LLC is envisioned as a catalyst for urban development. The project features three low-rise blocks connected to a high-rise volume, integrating courtyards, terraces, and rooftop gardens to promote creativity and interaction. Clad in 28,000 red ceramic tiles, its minimalist design combines academic rigor with urban vitality, harmonizing structure, nature, and community.

Fuma House, designed by Masakatsu Matsuyama, is situated in a once-vibrant but now challenging urban area. The project responds to noise, density, and environmental risks with a resilient and serene architectural solution. Its spatial composition connects multiple levels through courtyards, terraces, and double-height interiors, fostering an open and well-lit environment. The result is a tranquil home that redefines comfort amid adversity, embodying determination and thoughtful design.

Valencia House, designed by Lucas Padovani, is nestled in the countryside of São Paulo. This summer retreat harmonizes with its sloping terrain through a partially embedded main block and slender horizontal lines that emphasize balance and continuity. Designed to unite family life within nature, the house features open, permeable social spaces that seamlessly connect the interior with the surrounding landscape, creating a tranquil and cohesive living experience.

The Zhejiang Pinghu Sports Center, designed by Frederic Rolland, Jia Jiong, and Wang Hanlu, adopts an innovative approach through the integration of overhead bridges, fitness footpaths, and landscape pavements, creating a fluid, three-dimensional ribbon that connects its diverse functions. By reshaping the architectural and landscape scales, the design harmonizes built form with natural ecology, infusing the site with renewed vitality. The result is an open, adaptable, and vibrant civic sports park that offers a dynamic, all-weather environment for community engagement and recreation.

Anji Creative Design Center, located in both urban and rural areas, is inspired by Anji’s rich mountain and water resources. The project aligns with Chengdu’s “Park City” framework and the vision of a “three-dimensional landscape park city,” where the city coexists harmoniously with its natural surroundings. Through the design of “Wanyuntai,” the architects integrate Pengzhou’s core landscape elements to evoke the region’s natural beauty within a limited urban space, creating a poetic environment that bridges the urban and the rural through spatial depth and ecological sensitivity.

One Line Studio Architectural Office, designed by Tim Politis, aspires toward the surrounding mountain peaks, with its soaring elevation framing a serene landscape of wetlands, natural grasses, and woodlands. Inside, a refined spatial dialogue emerges between a warm timber wall and a delicate curtain of suspended glass, subtly defining the boundary between interior and exterior. The result is a poetic architectural composition that celebrates transparency, material honesty, and the seamless integration of nature and design.

Anji Creative Design Center Urban and Rural Area by Atelier Deshaus and Anjihood is inspired by the rhythm of Anji’s tea fields; the design blends urban structure with the natural contours of the landscape. Its layered, undulating form allows visitors to move freely through interconnected public spaces that merge architecture, agriculture, and community, fostering a sustainable dialogue between city and countryside.

Timeless Elegance Club House by Kris Lin is a Gold Winner of the 2023–2024 A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award. Conceived as a premium community hub, the clubhouse integrates social, leisure, and wellness functions within a cohesive architectural and interior environment. A central courtyard serves as a “fifth façade,” channeling natural light into the underground spaces to create an open and vibrant atmosphere. Through its thoughtful use of materials, light, and spatial flow, the design harmonizes functionality and emotion, fostering connection and well-being.

Tension Instrument Concert Hall by Lihan Jin draws inspiration from Dvořák’s New World Symphony, exploring the shared essence of tension in both music and architecture. Evolving from a simple prototype, a piece of wood bent by a taut string, the concert hall transforms this concept into a dynamic orchestration of walls, balconies, and acoustic panels, harmonizing structural precision with poetic expression.

The Coexisting With Nature Clinic, designed by Yoshiaki Tanaka, is intended to create a calming environment that encourages patients to look forward to their visits. The clinic embraces the site’s natural topography and existing vegetation. Instead of leveling the terrain, the design integrates the bamboo groves, loquat trees, and varied landscape into the architectural experience, creating a healing space that harmonizes medical care with the serenity of nature.

Bishan Bookstore, by Yunhai Zhao, is housed within the historic Wang family shrine, Qitai Hall, which was built over 230 years ago. The project revives a rural cultural landmark as a living space for reading and community. Rooted in the mission of Librairie Avant-Garde to bring literature to remote areas, the design blends heritage preservation with contemporary needs. Inspired by the composition of traditional Chinese screens, the reimagined bookcase walls create a serene, layered environment that invites reflection and celebrates the enduring power of books.

Qinglong Ting Landscape Pavilion, designed by Xiaomao Cao, is inspired by the village’s social tradition of lingering; the pavilion reinterprets the local architectural language, featuring extended porches and continuous eaves. These overlapping canopies create a welcoming communal space where residents can gather, converse, or pause in solitude. The design celebrates everyday life and collective belonging through subtle architectural gestures that connect people, place, and tradition.

Urban Symbiosis Mix-Use Towers by Xiyao Wang redefine the mixed-use high-rise by creating two horizontally split towers that balance residential and office functions. This configuration optimizes energy use by aligning daytime and nighttime demand, while fostering community interaction through shared amenities, public access points, and a sunken garden that seamlessly connects to the urban fabric. The result is a forward-looking model of sustainable urban living that harmonizes work, life, and the city.

Urban Clouds Congregate Housing, designed by Ya-Yuan Design and Shanghefa Development, is situated in the heart of a cultural district, where the project seamlessly fuses modern architectural expression with contextual sensitivity. Its parametric roof design evokes the movement of drifting clouds, playing with light and shadow to animate the building throughout the day. A refined façade and an artful lobby installation depicting wind and cloud flows create a serene yet dynamic environment, offering residents an elegant and harmonious urban living experience.

Timeless Residence, designed by Satoshi Kurosaki, is situated in a quiet Tokyo neighborhood. The house was designed for a couple rebuilding their longtime home for a new stage in life. Two stacked concrete volumes form a minimalist composition, with cedar-imprinted surfaces adding warmth and texture. Discreet horizontal windows maintain privacy and security, while the restrained design reflects a refined balance between urban living and timeless architectural elegance.

Huanghesong Theatre Cultural Venues, designed by Xuelin Wu, Hai Lin, and Gao Li, is inspired by the swirling form of the Yellow River; the architecture embodies the fusion of ecology and culture. Its fluid design continues into the interior, where the ritual and musical heritage of the Central Plains is reinterpreted through contemporary spatial expression, creating a poetic environment that harmonizes ancient tradition with modern artistry.

The Monopitched Roof Residence, designed by Masato Sekiya and Shizuko Kuroda, with structural design by Shigeyuki Nakata, is situated in rural Nara Prefecture. The house reinterprets traditional Japanese design principles through a contemporary lens, emphasizing harmony with nature and spatial continuity. Organized around a central garden, the residence seamlessly connects each room through fluid transitions between interior and exterior spaces, achieving an elegant balance of tradition, modernity, and environmental sensitivity.

Muh Shoou Xixi Hotel by Shawn Cheung (GOA), with design by Zhang Xiaoxiao and landscape by Z+T Studio, is named after the farmers’ tradition of leaving the last fruit on the tree as an offering to nature. The hotel embodies a deep respect for the land and its rhythms. Set within the Xixi Wetland, the design captures its raw beauty, characterized by coldness, quietness, and seclusion, creating a tranquil retreat where architecture, landscape, and the natural world exist in poetic harmony.

Cloud of Luster Wedding Chapel, designed by Tetsuya Matsumoto, is inspired by the elegance and optimism of modern Japanese wedding ceremonies. The chapel embodies lightness, fluidity, and radiance. Its naturally curved lines and open, luminous interior symbolize a smooth transition toward a joyful future. At the same time, the refined columns and graceful structure create an atmosphere that feels both ceremonial and uplifting.

The Samaranch Memorial Museum, designed by Archiland in collaboration with HAO Design (New York), COWI, Kragh & Berglund, and TADI, is dedicated to honoring Juan Antonio Samaranch and the Olympic spirit. The museum’s form draws inspiration from the five Olympic rings. Two intersecting circles shape the main structure, while three others become sunken courtyards. The overall “8” form references the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the “S” stands for Samaranch; together, they evoke the concepts of infinity and timeless legacy.