We celebrate hope and optimism in architecture at the 2026 Wallpaper* Design Awards

Architecture is an inherently optimistic profession – a quality instilled in me through training and flagged to me in many an interview over the years. Architects set out to change the world, often consciously and purposefully, quite literally shaping the environment around us. It helps to remember this essential positivity at a time when it is easy to get caught up in global events that weigh heavily on our minds.

We celebrate hope and optimism in architecture

At Wallpaper*, we are always keen to champion innovations, ideas and designs that bring hope and optimism, including architectural wonders that put a smile on our faces. There have been quite a few of those over the past year. The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale had its critics, but it also showcased the architecture world’s hunger for change. Meanwhile, Sarah Housley’s new book Designing Hope discussed specific scenarios that nod to a better outlook for us all.

Also in 2025, Finland was named the world’s happiest country for the eighth year in a row; its ambitious sustainability strategies surely play a role here (policy makers, take note). Elsewhere, ingenious initiatives, such as Retrofit House – a live showcase of sustainable homebuilding techniques, by Civic Square, Dark Matter Labs and Material Cultures – landed to give power to ordinary people.

Above all, it’s the plurality of architectural voices and radical solutions by the world’s creative minds that brings the most hopeful message for a sunnier future. And what better way mark what we look forward to seeing more of than our annual Wallpaper* Design Awards?

In that spirit, a series of our 2026 awards – newly announced in the February issue of Wallpaper* and featured over the coming weeks on Wallpaper.com – celebrates one of the many ways in which we can sustainably diversify building design and construction: working with earth. Once dismissed as ‘backwards’ and unfashionable, building with earth is making a strong comeback. Readily accessible, endlessly adaptable, and honed through generational wisdom, this construction method has many iterations across the world. Polished or textured, geometric or organic, today’s earth buildings look as aspirational as the finest, conventionally built 21st-century villas.

Our Best Use of Material awards category spotlights three standout residential examples that use local soil – in the UK, the US and Saudi Arabia – with decidedly contemporary outcomes that show off the age-old technique’s potential.

Also for the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2026, we named three Architects of the Year, chosen for having commanded significant attention in 2025. Our winners are Je Ahn, who last year completed a modest yet infinitely glorious home on a British island; Lina Ghotmeh, whose studio is booming with new projects; and Marina Tabassum, who wowed us with her 2025 Serpentine Pavilion.

When we interviewed each of them, continuing in our pursuit of optimism, we asked them to name a building that made them smile. We were looking for spatial expressions of serenity – architecture that brings hope and a visceral twinkle. We also ended up talking about everything from height-specific kitchen counters and spilling wine on light-coloured floors to the revelation that architecture need not take centre stage, and we left feeling inspired. Here’s to a great year in architecture – join us as we raise our always-half-full glass.

The Wallpaper* Design Awards 2026 winners are featured in full in the February issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 8 January 2025. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today