Chicago, IL, May 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced today its 2023 Award of Excellence winners, with over 100 of the year’s most exemplary projects in sustainable vertical urbanism. Projects from across the globe were recognized in more than 20 categories and subcategories, including Best Tall Building, Best Tall Non-building, Innovation, Urban Habitat, Repositioning and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, a new category in 2023. (Click here to view the complete list of categories and winners.)
“Our annual international awards program showcases and celebrates projects that adopt the most innovative approaches and solutions to some of the most pressing challenges we confront in the urban environment today, including mitigating the impact of climate change, reducing carbon emissions, achieving sustainability through an environmental—as well as cultural—lens and equity and affordability in housing, among many others,” explained CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Uña.
With the United Nations projecting nearly 70 percent urbanization by 2050, the demand is growing for healthier, more sustainable, and socially just urban environments—tall buildings and other smart, resilient approaches to population density are an integral part of the solution.
CTBUH received a record-setting number of submissions for its highly anticipated awards program this year: 346, which represents a nearly 35% increase over the 258 submissions received in 2019, when the next-highest number of project submissions was received. In addition to recording the highest number of overall submissions, CTBUH received the most submissions ever from several key areas, including Europe (26), Oceania (22), South America (5) and Africa (3)—plus a record-tying 65 submissions from Asia.
“Tall buildings play a critical role in realizing a more adaptive, resilient, and regenerative urban future,” said Julie Hiromoto, Director of Integration and Principal at HKS and a member of the Future Project category jury. “The most successful cities in the future will intrinsically weave the natural world into the urban fabric to not only address climate change but also support ecological biodiversity. I’m inspired by the projects I reviewed as a juror and look forward to continuing this important exploration.”
Submissions for CTBUH’s annual Award of Excellence competition were solicited widely earlier this year, and representatives for each project presented to multidisciplinary juries, which consisted of CTBUH members from across the globe with expertise in architecture, engineering, construction and other diverse disciplines.
Award of Excellence winners will now move on to the next stage of the process, in which the owners and developers and design and engineering teams from each project will present at the CTBUH 2023 International Conference, October 16-21, in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, where they will compete for “best in category” distinctions. Overall category winners will be conferred at an award ceremony and dinner at the conference.
“It is no longer enough to simply build tall—we must approach innovations in the built environment and density in ways that are meaningful, creative, carbon-neutral and affordable. Only then can we support balanced and healthy living, working and civic and social engagement,” continued Quintana de Uña. “All of this year’s Award of Excellence winners demonstrate that it is possible to consider state-of-the-art technical solutions, transportation, public and cultural institutions, green spaces, commercial enterprises and other crucial infrastructure holistically and adapt them broadly and equitably for positive, sustainable outcomes.”
For more information on the CTBUH Award of Excellence, including the full slate of competitors and jury members by category, please visit www.awards.ctbuh.org.
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is the world’s leading resource for professionals focused on the inception, design, construction, and operation of tall buildings and future cities. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago’s historic Monroe Building, CTBUH is a not-for-profit organization that facilitates the exchange of the latest knowledge available on tall buildings through publications, research, events, working groups, a database of over 45,000 tall buildings globally and its extensive network of international members. With offices at Tongji University, in Shanghai, Iuav University of Venice, in Italy and the Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago, CTBUH also developed the international standards for measuring tall building height and is recognized as the arbiter of the “World’s Tallest Building” designation. For more information, please visit www.ctbuh.org.
