2022 Design Awards Categories
The Boston Society for Architecture Design Awards program celebrates innovation in the built environment, and the unique power of architecture not only to design buildings and spaces, but to improve the quality of life for the community.
The BSA Design Awards recognize the incredible work of our community and invested clients who are not only designing buildings and spaces but are also transforming communities and shaping the way we live through excellence in design.
We believe that innovation in the built environment is key to tackling our greatest challenges, including the rising threat of climate change. In recognition of the new ways architects and designers are designing sustainable spaces, the BSA Design Awards have incorporated the AIA Framework for Design Excellence, which includes metrics for evaluating buildings that promote sustainability, reduce carbon emissions, and promote healthy communities.
Submit your work for consideration for one or multiple Design Award categories, which span architectural design, technical ability, environmental response, and social impact. Join us as we build a just and sustainable future, together.
View previous submissions and winners on the Design Awards website.
2022 Design Awards Timeline
Submissions for 2022 are Closed
- May 23, 2022: Design Awards program & submission platform opens
- CLOSED September 9, 2022: Campus and Urban Planning, Healthcare Facilities Design, Interior Architecture and Spatial Design
- CLOSED September 16, 2022: K-12 Education Facilities Design, Residential Design, Unbuilt Architecture and Design
- CLOSED September 23, 2022: Submissions close for Honor Awards for Design Excellence
- September-October 2022: Jury Deliberations
- November 2022: Design Awards winners and recipients notified
Campus and Urban Planning
Description: The Campus and Urban Planning category encompasses architecture’s true value and promise to communities. Campus planning and urban design share increasingly similar goals.They strive to be more inclusive, center economic development, and include community voices in the planning process. The best planning methods consider the entire built environment, local culture, and available resources.
Eligibility: Projects may be submitted in one of two categories: Urban Design, for projects that focus on a proposed arrangement of buildings, landscapes, and infrastructural components, and Campus Planning, for projects sponsored by an institution that shape their physical environment to reflect its priorities.
Project submissions criteria include a robust approach to sustainability and equity, as well as addressing environmental, social, and economic factors. Projects that contain attributes which successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the architecture, construction, or usage, should make every attempt to highlight those aspects within their entry submission.
Submissions for this award are CLOSED
Healthcare Facilities Design
Description: From advancing equipment technologies to patient population base services, healthcare facility needs are evolving rapidly. The entire healthcare system is under great pressure to reduce costs, increase responsiveness, and adapt to the unexpected.
Eligibility: Small and large healthcare projects such as hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, medical office buildings, and in-school clinics are eligible for this award. Assisted-living, retirement, childcare, and similar facilities are not eligible in their own right, but healthcare facilities within such facilities may be submitted.
Project submissions criteria include a robust approach to sustainability and equity, as well as addressing environmental, social, and economic factors. Projects that contain attributes which successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the architecture, construction, or usage, should make every attempt to highlight those aspects within their entry submission.
Interior Architecture and Spatial Design
Description: Working from the inside out, spatial design considers how spaces feel, how they are organized, and how they enrich the lives of those who experience them. By understanding the user experience, impactful building interiors contribute to our health and well being as well as our communities. They offer healing, reflection, and a place for commerce, while also exploring reuse and carbon neutral design.
Eligibility: Projects submitted for this award may be interior architecture or spatial design work of any type or scale that accounts for the functionality, safety, and deep understanding of places, people, stories, and activities.
Project submissions criteria include a robust approach to sustainability and equity, as well as addressing environmental, social, and economic factors. Projects that contain attributes which successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the architecture, construction, or usage, should make every attempt to highlight those aspects within their entry submission.
K-12 Education Facilities Design
Description: Well-designed education facilities motivate students to think creatively, inspiring them to help build a better world.
Eligibility: Projects of all sizes may be new construction or rehabilitation; private or public; pre-K, elementary, and secondary education facilities.
Project submissions criteria include a robust approach to sustainability and equity, as well as addressing environmental, social, and economic factors. Projects that contain attributes which successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the architecture, construction, or usage, should make every attempt to highlight those aspects within their entry submission.
Residential Design
Description: Housing isn’t just about façades; it also fosters a sense of comfort, security, and livability. While the Northeast is a leader in zero carbon standards and codes, opportunities remain for residential design to illustrate progress toward a zero carbon, equitable, and resilient built housing environment.
Eligibility: Single-family (one- to four-unit dwellings) detached residential construction projects are eligible for this award.
Projects by design professionals with practices based in New England and New York’s Hudson Valley, Long Island, and the Boroughs of New York City may be located anywhere.
Projects by others must be located in New England or New York’s Hudson Valley, Long Island, and the Boroughs of New York City.
Project submissions criteria include a robust approach to sustainability and equity, as well as addressing environmental, social, and economic factors. Projects that contain attributes which successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the architecture, construction, or usage, should make every attempt to highlight those aspects within their entry submission.
Submissions for this award are CLOSED
This award is offered in partnership with AIA NY Custom Residential Architects Network (CRAN)
Unbuilt Architecture and Design Awards
Description: Conviction and sincere passion are necessary values for architects who want to tell stories with their emerging ideas and creative projects, allowing for innovative, strategic solutions to clients’ needs. Envisioning the unbuilt allows designers to imagine the innovative projects they would like to see– from creating community to coastal development.
This award invites unbuilt projects of all types and welcomes the speculative, the unbuildable, the theoretical, and the critical.
Eligibility: Unbuilt architectural designs of any project type are eligible including purely theoretical projects and unbuilt client-sponsored projects. Projects under construction or otherwise apparently assured of construction are ineligible.
Project submissions criteria: Projects are encouraged to take a robust approach to sustainability and equity, as well as addressing environmental, social, and economic factors.
Honor Awards for Design Excellence
Background: Architects and the built environment strive to exemplify design excellence through engaging, listening, and questioning. As architects and designers, we leverage the power of design to create innovative and new design ideas that address issues of sustainability and social equity.
Eligibility: This award recognizes projects of new construction or rehabilitation of any type or scale that set the bar for future innovation.
Project submissions criteria include a robust approach to sustainability and equity, as well as addressing environmental, social, and economic factors. Projects that contain attributes which successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the architecture, construction, or usage, should make every attempt to highlight those aspects within their entry submission.
