Residential Architecture: New Houses and Design Awards — 2026-09-25
This week's big news is the winners of the 2026 AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards, revealed in London on 24 September, alongside Farshid Moussavi being named the 2026 Soane Medal laureate. Spain's Ministry of Housing has formally convened the Premio Nacional de Arquitectura 2025, and Japanese media are tracking a new national "extreme heat day" category shaping climate-responsive home design.
Residential Architecture: New Houses and Design Awards — 2026-09-25
Top developments
AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards winners revealed in London
The Architects' Journal announced the 18 category winners of the 2026 AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards at a ceremony at The Troxy in east London on Thursday 24 September. The awards celebrate reuse over demolition, which matters for a UK housing sector under pressure to cut embodied carbon by retrofitting existing homes rather than rebuilding.
Farshid Moussavi wins the 2026 Soane Medal
The Iranian-born architect received the honour in recognition of her "socially intelligent" designs that "reshape the world" — work spanning social housing, worship and retail (including Victoria Beckham's Mayfair boutique). The award underscores the growing prominence of housing-adjacent, socially driven practice among architecture's top honours.
Spain convenes the Premio Nacional de Arquitectura 2025
Spain's Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana) formally convoked the Premio Nacional de Arquitectura on 24 September, recognising an individual or legal entity whose body of work has extraordinarily enriched the social aspects of architecture. The call was published in BOE as Orden VAU/987/2026 of 21 September, dated 23 September 2026.
Herald Property Awards 2026 honour Scottish housing
Springfield Properties received special recognition at the 2026 Herald Property Awards for Scotland after delivering RAAC replacement homes, with the full winners list published this week. It is a notable example of housing delivery tied to a concrete building-safety problem — reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete remediation.
New house in Quebec reinterprets landscape tradition
Spanish-language design press this week featured Chalet Moraine by Montreal's APPAREIL Architecture, a Quebec chalet that reinterprets local tradition through a dialogue between architecture, landscape and heritage (photography by Félix Michaud).
Local view
- Japan's Niigata Nippo highlights Acuarohome's "environment-symbiotic housing," designed for comfort in both the new extreme-heat season and winter, after the Japan Meteorological Agency created the new "酷暑日" (extreme heat day) category for 40°C+ days — observed at 36 locations nationwide this summer, mainly in western Japan.
- Japanese housing trade press (Housing Tribune, Vol. 732) reports a reframing of urban flood resilience — pairing "urban rainstorm countermeasures" with "housing protection" — alongside news that Sekisui Chemical is entering the Australian market with industrialised housing technology and Daiwa House is consolidating domestic new-build detached-house operations into 22 prefectures.
- Shinjuku New Villa, developed by Shimada Asset Partners, has been selected for the Japan Institute of Architects' "Japan's Outstanding Architecture Best 100" in the JIA Excellent Architecture Selection 2026, following earlier recognitions including the 2025 Housing Architecture Prize.
Context & numbers
- The Balearic Social Housing Model won the 2026 OBEL Award for transforming public housing with local resources and climate-responsive design — a reference point now widely cited in Spanish-language coverage of housing and climate.
- Spain'shousing-rights momentum continues: ArchDaily en Español's weekly review highlights a new European initiative for the right to housing plus two competition shortlists.
On the radar
- Entries for the 2026 SHN Architecture & Design Awards (senior housing) close Wednesday, September 30 at 11:59pm CDT.
- SHARE Architecture Awards 2026: finalist projects have been invited to the London final, finalists revealed this week.
- Japan's Renovation of the Year 2026 has opened public voting, per the Renovation Council in Tokyo.
- Spain's XVIII Semana de la Arquitectura in Extremadura runs 7–29 October in Trujillo, Badajoz and Cáceres, focused on housing and public building.
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