The 2020 edition of the Wienerberger Brick Award architecture competition has been launched

The Wienerberger Brick Award, a biennial architecture competition, has recognized outstanding, modern and innovative clay-based projects since 2004. This international award aims to support innovation and creativity in projects across 5 distinct categories, namely Feeling at home, Living together, Working together, Sharing public spaces and Building outside the box.

Building on the strong participation in 2018 (50 projects, from 600 entries from 44 countries), Wienerberger announces the opening of applications for the 2020 edition, starting on 7 January 2019, on the dedicated online platform: https://brickaward.submit.to/register/. Participants have until 9 April to submit their entries. After review by the expert jury members, 50 nominated projects will be unveiled, starting in November 2019, on websites and social networks. The winners, for their part, will be announced in spring 2020.

5 categories combining concept and technology
Projects will fall into one of the 5 categories defined by the competition to showcase the many applications of clay, from a conceptual and/or technological standpoint, whether in walls, roofs, facades or paving:

- Feeling at home: single-family houses, semi-detached houses and small residential developments offering comfortable, healthy and sustainable living spaces.
- Living together: multi-family houses and innovative residential solutions addressing the challenges of urbanization - scarcity of space, social challenges, new concepts of "communal living".
- Working together: comfortable, attractive and functional commercial buildings, offices and industrial buildings.
- Sharing public spaces: places for educational, social, medical or other public purposes that are practical, harmonious and pleasant to live in.
- Building outside the box: innovative concepts and new ways of using brick through construction technologies, different bricklaying methods, custom-made bricks and/or GET INSPIRED novel decorations.

A stimulus for innovation and architectural creativity
Architecture plays an important mediating role between people and the built environment. It must constantly reinvent itself by exploring new forms, materials and concepts of use. The Wienerberger Brick Award highlights modern and innovative architecture from around the world using clay materials. Its aim is to showcase free rein for inspiration, to share new design concepts and to explore new ways of implementation. A significant part of the projects must be devoted to clay building materials, although it is not necessary to use Wienerberger products.

After a selection of around fifty projects by a panel of journalists and architecture critics, published on the Wienerberger Group websites and on social networks from November 2019, an international jury of architects will name the 2020 winners. They will be unveiled during the traditional official ceremony to be held in Vienna in spring 2020.