Drumroll, Please—Announcing the Winners of the Dwell Design Awards

We asked an expert jury and our audience to choose the best projects of the year.

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To honor the most outstanding projects we published last year, we enlisted our readers and an expert panel of judges to select the most creative, context-driven designs across eight categories for the Dwell Design Awards. The winners, runner-ups, and community picks display imagination in their form, consideration in their materiality, connection to their environments, and innovation in how they frame a way of living.

Dwellings

Winner: Casa Cosmos by S-AR

On a rustic strip of coastline near Puerto Escondido, Mexico, S-AR designed a beach getaway with an open concrete grid that frames its natural surroundings.

Photo: Benjamin Rasmussen

"It’s rational and poetic all at once, a paradox in paradise."

—Suchi Reddy, architect

Runner-Up: Cockpit in Wild Plants by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP

Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP created a sunken retreat in Karuizawa, Japan. Its glass lookout allows the residents to study wildflowers blanketing the forest floor.

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Community Pick: House of the Tall Chimneys by Frankie Pappas

Inspired by ancient ruins, Frankie Pappas crafts a green-roofed, brick guesthouse that connects deeply with nature in the South African Bushveld.

Renovations

Winner and Community Pick: The Parchment Works by Will Gamble Architects

Rather than demolishing the neighboring remains of a 17th-century factory, Will Gamble Architects incorporated the ruins into a Northamptonshire, England, home that blends old and new.

Runner-Up: Nossenhaus by Jonathan Tuckey Design

In the Swiss village of Andermatt, Jonathan Tuckey Design reimagined a 1620 structure as a residence, rental space, and bar.

Photo: James Brittain

Prefabs

Winner and Community Pick: Saugerties Residence by BriggsKnowles A+D

Assembled in just two weeks, this cedar-wrapped passive house near Woodstock, New York, designed by BriggsKnowles A+D, realized a couple's dream of rural living.

Photo: Pippa Drummond

Runner-Up: Prefab Saunas and Cabins by Iglucraft

Handcrafted according to centuries-old technique, the shingled huts by Estonian company Iglucraft have a spellbinding, storybook appeal.

Small Spaces

Winner: Woodnest Treehouses by Helen & Hard Architects

Helen & Hard built a pair of pine cone–shaped cabins that wrap around tree trunks in the forests of Odda, Norway.

Runner-Up: Urban Cabin by Francesca Perani Enterprise

In Albino, Italy, Francesca Perani Enterprise converted a porch into a hideaway using low-cost materials like OSB and printed floor tile.

Community Pick: Far Cabin by Winkelman Architecture

Winkelman Architecture delivers grown-up summer-camp vibes with this unassuming retreat on the coast of Maine.

Gardens

Winner and Community Pick: Casa Sierra Fría by Esrawe Studio

The monolithic brick home in Mexico City by Esrawe Studio looks imposing from the street, but its enormous pivoting door opens to a courtyard that feels like a lush oasis.

Runner-Up: AmHouse by Creative Architects and AmDesign Studio

A koi moat surround this thatched-roof home—a collaboration between AmDesign Studio and Creative Architects—near Ho Chi Minh City.

Kitchens

Winner: Bismarck House by Andrew Burges Architects

A curving skylight illuminates the minimalist kitchen of a dwelling in Bondi Beach, Australia, that was renovated by Andrew Burges Architects.

Photo: Peter Bennetts

"A great balance of functionality, space, and use of light. The opening plays to the communal notion of the kitchen in a brilliantly effective way."

—Ryan Chetiyawardana, bartender and gastronomist

Runner-Up: Hilton House by Osmose Design

Taking cues from nautical casework, Osmose Design crafted an undulating, white oak kitchen in an irresistibly quirky Tudor home in Portland, Oregon.

Community Pick: Project Felix by Leÿer Design Studio

Along Victoria’s Surf Coast, a minimalist timber dwellingcombines Scandinavian charm with the laid-back vibes of a New Zealand bach.

Bathrooms

Winner: Translucence House by Fougeron Architecture

A double-sided, free-standing vanity and a shower wrapped in a glass lozenge create an indoor/outdoor experience at a San Francisco residence designed by Fougeron Architecture.

Photo: Joe Fletcher

Runner-Up and Community Pick: Square House by Levenbetts

For a concrete guesthouse in Stone Ridge, New York, LevenBetts designed an onsen-inspired bathroom with a steam room and a hinoki tub.

Objects

Winner:

Noori V01

Brazilian design team Noori—a designer, an environmental engineer, and an architect—devised this Swiss Army–style combination grill, pizza oven, rocket stove, and fire pit, elevating what we know about outdoor living. At the V01’s core is the modular-pipe Rocket System proportioned to create more heat from less fuel. The space-age exterior only hints at the intelligence within.

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"A multipurpose heating and cooking utility for the outdoors somehow feels like the perfect tool for our current time—in combination with a well-crafted and beautiful exterior."

—Jerome Byron, architect

Runner-Up and Community Pick:

Lolly Lolly Ceramics 100 Day Project

Last December, Columbus-based ceramicist Lalese Stamps of Lolly Lolly put the final glaze on her 100 Day Project, wherein she designed and fired a mug a day for 100 straight days, each with a wildly different handle (think chains and untouchable spikes). With a matte-charcoal exterior paired with a glossy interior, each of Lalese’s pieces is a stunning riff on the daily object we all know a bit too well. You can check out all 100 at her Instagram, @lollylollyceramics.