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DETAIL

Detail Architecture Award 2027

Great Architecture on a Small Budget 

 - Jakob Schoof

2027 brings a new edition of the Detail Architecture Award - and, for the first time, a prize for affordable housing. Entries close end of October.

Great Architecture on a Small Budget 
At the last Detail Award in 2025, Esch Sintzel Architekten won one of the three main prizes for their conversion of a wine warehouse in Basel into flats. This year, Detail is introducing a separate category for affordable housing as part of the award. © Paola Corsini

Kengo Kuma and Toyo Ito have both received it, as have Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA and an ­exhibition pavilion by Australian architect Sean Godsell: for 21 years, the Detail Award has recognised groundbreaking architecture from around the world every two years. In 2027, the ­storied award enters its 12th ­edition – with a new name and an additional category. 

Five distinguished experts will decide on the winning projects in early January 2027: Inge Vinck of AJDVIV in Ghent, Hiroko Kusunoki of Moreau Kusunoki in Paris, Kasper Pilemand of Dorte Mandrup in Copenhagen, Ludwig Wappner of allmannwappner in Munich, and Jakob Schoof of Detail. 

Alongside the main prize, the five-member jury will present the Detail Architecture Award for Students & Schools, recognising both completed buildings and experimental prototypes developed through research and teaching. New for 2027 is the Special Prize for Affordable Housing, reflecting Detail’s conviction that outstanding architecture should not be limited to big names with multimillion-euro budgets. 

Entries for the Detail Architecture Award are open until 31 October 2026, for buildings of any typology or use completed after 1 January 2023. On 11 January 2027, the international jury will select the winning projects, and in February readers can vote for their favourites online at ­detail.de. All award-winning buildings will be featured in ­Detail throughout 2027. 

Find out more.

Gallery

  • "A White Box is the Most Aggressive Form Anyone Can Design"

    Known for its bold use of colour and material contrasts, the Porto-based practice fala is now bringing that same approach to social housing, says co-founder Filipe Magalhães.

  • The new seven-storey building on Hohlstrasse in Zurich will comprise a ground floor with retail space and public service areas, and five upper floors with commercial space.

    Railway Tracks as a Supporting Structure - How Does That Work? 

    Around 180 kilometres of track are replaced every year on the Swiss rail network. Until now, all this scrap metal has been melted down. However, the first building with a steel framework made from recycled rails will soon be constructed in western Zurich.

  • Landscape architect Line Ramstad is the new chief curator of the Oslo Triennale.

    „One Size Does Not Fit All" 

    Facades made from waste wool, recycled steel from decommissioned ships, housing rather than investment property: Line Ramstad, chief curator of the Oslo Triennale, shows what happens when nature takes precedence.

  • Paul Van Ostaijen Culture Campus in Leuven

    Lava architecten transformed an old mission building in Leuven into a place where circus arts, music, theatre, and dance coexist under one shared roof. Effective soundproofing is the precondition for the shared use of the facility.

  • Even though the main exhibition pavilion in the Giardini was closed, the 2025 Architecture Biennale featured more exhibits than ever before.

    Self-Exploitation in the Celebrity Circus

    At every Architecture Biennale, the curators face the same obstacles: a lack of funding, a great deal of red tape, and an organisation that ignores collective achievements. Why do they put themselves through this? We speak to Albena Yaneva, who spent a year observing the development process of the 2025 Biennale.

  • A vision for the future of Barcelona: Boltshauser Architekten have designed demountable street furniture made from concrete blocks for the Catalan metropolis. The blocks are made from recycled lean-mix concrete layers under roads.

    An End to Downcycling  

    In its current form, concrete recycling does little to help climate protection. The CO₂-intensive cement is lost irretrievably in the process. Boltshauser Architekten are working with a consortium from the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain on the Respira research project to investigate how this can be avoided.