Top players in the international architectural and design community, from Canada, the U.S., Brazil, Japan and beyond, gathered at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works on Friday night as Azure announced the winners of its fourth annual AZ Awards.

From a house that pulls apart and transforms into concert seating, to a home interior clad in striking pine plywood and a carpet tile collection that makes recycling a beautiful thing, the 13 winners of the AZ Awards demonstrate an expansive spirit of innovation. At Friday’s event, many of the winners took to the stage – some coming from as far away as Halifax and São Paulo – to receive their trophies, which were designed by Matteo Ragni, and crafted in Alpi’s reconstituted wood product. All 49 of the finalists, which were also up for People’s Choice awards, were applauded by a standing-room-only audience.

Taken together, all of the submissions – from designers, architects, firms and manufacturers, as well as students of design and architecture – represent a global snapshot of the world of architecture and design. Our international jury was also made up of some of the very best in their fields: designer Ron Arad of Ron Arad Associates (London), interior designer Diego Burdi of Burdifilek (Toronto), retailer Jamie Gray of Matter boutique (New York), Patricia Patkau of Patkau Architecture (Vancouver), and landscape architecture chair Charles Waldheim of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, US).

In March, the panel conferred at Toronto’s Hôtel Le Germain (Maple Leaf Square) to narrow down an impressive 652 entries from 36 countries to a shortlist of 49 finalists. From there, they selected the 13 outstanding winners listed below.

Architecture Winners

Best Residential Architecture: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects: Cliff House, Nova Scotia, Canada

Best Commercial/Institutional Architecture over 1,000 square metres: Marlon Blackwell Architect: Vol Walker Hall and the Steven L. Anderson Design Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas, U.S.

Best Commercial/Institutional Architecture under 1,000 square metres: Kikuma Watanabe: School Floating in the Sky, Sangkhlaburi, Thailand

Best Landscape Architecture: Stoss Landscape Urbanism: The CityDeck, Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.

Best Temporary/Demonstration Architecture: Matthew Mazzotta: Open House, York, Alabama, U.S.

Interior Winners

Best Residential Interiors:  i29 Interior Architects: Home 09, Bloemendaal, The Netherlands

Best Commercial/Institutional Interiors: Studio MK27: Cultura bookstore, São Paulo, Brazil

Design Winners

Best Furniture Design: Bensen: U Turn Chair, by Niels Bendtsen

Best Lighting: Castor Design: Coil Lamp, by Brian Richer and Kei Ng

Best Interior Product: Interface: Net Effect carpet tile, by David Oakey

Concept Winners

Best Concept/Prototype: Line to Line Design: Tangent Clock, by Scott Sullivan

Best Unbuilt Competition Entry: REX Architecture: Media Headquarters Buildings, Middle East

A+ Award Winner

Student Award: Design/BuildLAB (Virginia Tech): Smith Creek Park, Virginia, U.S.

All winners and Awards of Merit are featured in the Annual Awards Issue, on newsstands today in Canada and July 7 in the U.S.

> via azuremagazine.com