Housing Award
Recognizes the best in home design—showcasing how beauty, safety, sustainability, and comfort can come together.
For more information on opening and deadline dates, please see the AIA Awards FAQ.
Recognizing the best in home design
It’s a life necessity, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and many people’s first and most personal encounter with architecture: The house. By recognizing the best in home design, AIA Housing Awards show the world how beauty, safety, sustainability, and comfort can come together.
Questions? Email AIA Awards
Architects licensed in the U.S.
On team projects, the architect submitting the entry does not have to be head of the team.
All team, group, or firm projects must credit all who substantially contributed in any capacity (for example, landscape architects and construction firms).
New construction, renovations, and restorations are eligible.
Unbuilt projects are accepted for the Community-Engaged Design category.
Projects must have been completed after January 1, 2019.
The AIA Housing Awards offer opportunities in eight (8) categories:
One- and Two-Family Custom Residences: Recognizes outstanding designs for custom and remodeled homes for specific client(s).
One- and Two-Family Production Homes: Recognizes excellent design of homes built for the speculative market.
Multifamily Housing: Recognizes outstanding multifamily housing design, both high- and low-density projects for public and private clients and mixed-use projects.
Specialized Housing: Recognizes outstanding design of housing that meets the unique needs of other specialized housing types such as single-room occupancy residences (SROs), independent living for the disabled, residential rehabilitation programs, domestic violence shelters, residential halls/student housing, and other special housing.
Excellence in Affordable Housing: Recognizes architecture that demonstrates excellent design responses to the needs and constraints of affordable housing at a variety of scales.
Mixed-Use Community Connection: Recognizes projects that integrate housing with other community amenities for the purposes of neighborhood transformation, meeting resident needs and/or supporting community objectives such as transit-oriented development.
Community-Engaged Design: Recognizes projects (built and unbuilt) that focus on excellence in a community-engaged design process as much as the resulting design of physical structures. Submissions in this category do not need to include housing.
Universal Dwelling Design: This award recognizes projects that demonstrate excellence in universal design principles, affordability, innovative technology, and human-centered integrative approaches to community inclusion.
All projects must demonstrate design excellence. The jury evaluates entries based on how successfully projects perform in each category. The jury will evaluate all projects with the following considerations:
Equity: How does the project support social impact goals and contribute to community context and history? See focus areas included under Design for Equitable Communities in the AIA Framework for Design Excellence.
Resilience: To what extent does the project plan for climate and community change? How do environmental performance measures contribute to long-term sustainability? See focus areas included under Design for Change in the AIA Framework for Design Excellence.
Innovation + Delight: To what extent does the project model leadership in the field and enhance our understanding of residential architecture and/or community development? See focus areas included under Design for Integration and Design for Discovery in the AIA Framework for Design Excellence.
The jury will review and consider the visual PDF submitted, AIA Framework for Design Excellence narratives and metrics, and additional housing and community development-specific questions in full.
The jury evaluates entries relative to the AIA Framework for Design Excellence. Submitted projects do not have to adhere to all measures but need to address several of them. Submitters are strongly encouraged to consider their submission materials in this context.
Entries are judged individually—not in competition with each other.
Fee: Single project submissions are $450 each. Submitting the same project to additional award categories costs an extra $100 per category.
Please view the 2024 Housing Sample Application.
Please note: Some components of the sample application are subject to change from the final version and are merely here to allow a submitter to view the major criteria prior to logging on to the awards platform. Please rely on the online awards platform for the final criteria.
All applications must be completed through the submission site. Visit the submission site for full submission details prior to the deadline. After logging in, you may view the entire submission site, and save your submission as you work to complete it. You will not be asked to pay until your submission is complete.
If you are interested is reviewing previously successful submissions, please contact our archivist.
2024
Patricia Gruits, AIA, Chair, MASS Design Group, Boston
Lance Collins, AIA, Partner Energy, Los Angeles
Fiona Mathew, AIA, PRIME Design, Dallas
Nigel Maynard, Custom Builder and Products Magazine, Hyattsville, Md.
Nicole Vlado Torres, AIA, Shakespeare Gordon Vlado Architects, New York
2024 winners
Berkeley Way Apartments & the Hope Center, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, Berkeley, Calif.
Chapman Stables, Studio Twenty Seven Architecture, Washington, D.C.
Cooperwood Senior Living, Duvall Decker, Flowood, Miss.
El Borinquen Residence, Alexander Gorlin Architects, New York
Madrone Ridge, Field Architecture, Healdsburg, Calif.
MIT Site 4, NADAAA, Cambridge, Mass.
Princeton University Residential Colleges, TenBerke, Princeton, N.J.
Theresa Passive House, Forge Craft Architecture and Design, Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects, Austin, Texas
Thurston Hall Renovation, VMDO Architects, Washington, D.C.
University of Washington North Campus Housing, KieranTimberlake, Seattle
Past winners
Contact us for information on prior years' winners.
The award-winning design for Thurston Hall Renovation in Washington, D.C. exemplifies the use of existing building foundations to accommodate modern-day student needs, supporting mental health
