CTBUH Awards Process
The overall category winners of the Best Tall Building categories are also judged against one another to compete for the title of “Best Tall Building Worldwide” which is announced at the close of the conference, and promoted internationally.
All projects participating in the awards program are featured in the CTBUH annual Tall Buildings + Urban Habitat publication, a global overview of tall building construction. The book is published by CTBUH and distributed internationally each year thus providing excellent promotion for the submitted projects and companies involved. The content of the book is driven by the awards submissions and launched during the Conference.
Key Dates
Stage 1 | |
Call for Submissions | 2 August 2021 |
Submission Deadline | 30 September 2021 |
First Round Judging Period | October 2021 |
Award of Excellence Winners Notified | February 2022 |
Stage 2 | |
2022 International Conference (Award of Excellence winners present and compete for overall winner status within each category) | 9-12 November 2022 |
Production of Tall Buildings + Urban Habitat Book | March 2022–November 2022 |
Judging
There are multiple juries made up of experts in their respective fields who judge the various award categories. See further details on the Juries page. Each jury reviews the submissions for their category against the listed criteria and determines a number of Award of Excellence winners (there is no fixed number, and will vary by the strength of the submissions in each category). An “Award of Excellence” designation from the jury is a recognition of the strength and achievement of the project at the highest level.
At the 2022 International Conference, the juries will consider live presentations by the Award of Excellence winners, and further deliberate to determine one overall winner for each category. In addition, registrants at the conference have the opportunity to vote for an Audience Award winner in each category.
Award of Excellence Winners: CTBUH Expectations
Award of Excellence winners are expected to comply with the following responsibilities:
- In order to be considered for winning the category overall and audience awards, a representative from the project must present at the CTBUH International Conference. For the Best Tall Building, Urban Habitat, 10 Year, Interior Design, and Renovation categories, both the owner/developer and design architect/urban planner/interior architect must present. All speakers who represent the project need to be CTBUH organizational members. These presentations will form the basis for the jury’s selection of overall category winners and audience awards.
- Attend the annual awards ceremony and dinner at the close of the Conference to collect the award(s).
- Support the Council, which does not charge any fees to administer the awards program, by way of all speakers paying the subsidized speaker registration rate at the conference.

Dakis Joannou (left), Nice Day Developments, and Jean Nouvel, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, present on Best Tall Building 2016 Europe winner The White Walls.
Ole Scheeren and Tiang Wah Eng accept the 2014 Urban Habitat Award for The Interlace, Singapore, from 2014 Awards Jury Chair Jeanne Gang.
Lynn Beedle receives the inaugural CTBUH Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
Rem Koolhaas presents at the 2013 Awards Symposium, after CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, won Best Tall Building Asia & Australasia.