2026 International Chapter Architecture Awards

The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the recipients of the 2026 International Chapter Architecture Awards at a ceremony in Tasmania. Now in their eighteenth year, the awards celebrate Australia’s contributions to the global built environment. The program is, according to the Institute, the only one in the country that honours exceptional buildings situated overseas, designed by Australian architects (and Australian-trained international students).

Jury chair Justin Hill of MSIA commented, “2026 saw a resurgence in both the variety and number of entries.”

“Overseas members seem to have finally come through the dark period we saw during and after COVID-19, or at least their projects have, where many had been delayed, cancelled, or re-cast,” said Hill.

“But the architect’s journey in each presented project this year always involved a celebrated and beguiling story, always rich in creative experience and imagination. Each dealt adroitly with the unique demands that come with the greater complexities involved in overseas work.”

Hill was accompanied on the jury by Anuradha Chatterjee of RV University, Cecilia Bischeri of Griffith University, Nick Roberts of Roberts Gray Architects, and Noam Maitless of Maitless and Associates.

This year’s jurors awarded the International Chapter Architecture Medal – the first time since the medal was created in 2022 – to the Santa Monica Vermont Apartments in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, by Koning Eizenberg Architecture.

An Institute communique noted, “The project is bold, responsive and restorative in a city that has become polarised in recent decades of urban decline, and is a model for affordable housing in the political context of Trump’s America.”

The winners are: