2026 CAA Award Winners

The winner of the 2026 CAA Lifetime Achievement Award (also known as the ‘Robert Mathew Award’) is Professor Peter Clegg OBE, United Kingdom.

The judges citation reads:

“Founding partner of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, established with Richard Feilden in 1978, Peter Clegg has spent more than four decades pioneering low-energy architecture, from the National Trust’s headquarters in Swindon and Greenpeace’s London offices to the low-carbon retrofit of the Southbank Centre. His belief in architecture’s social purpose is evident across the Commonwealth, from a community school in Uganda and a training clinic in Malawi to new academies in Dhaka and Toronto. Through the Feilden Foundation, created in his late partner’s memory, he has built inspirational schools across East Africa and mentored a generation of emerging African practices. Author of ‘The Environmental Handbook’ and the ‘Manifesto for Climate Responsive Design’, Professor at the University of Bath, Royal Designer for Industry and appointed OBE in 2025, he has given a lifetime of generous, transformative service to architecture throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.”

The winner of the 2026 CAA Environmental Impact Award is the ‘Umodzi Epicentre’ in Zambia, by Kamuna Design Studio

The judges citation reads:

“On a fourteen-hectare site in rural Vubwi, Zambia, Umodzi Epicentre unites health, education, agriculture, water and renewable energy in a single off-grid civic campus. Some 120,000 bricks were moulded from site soil by the local community, and more than 300 people gained skills and employment through its construction. Passive design, solar power and rainwater irrigation sustain a complete rural ecosystem, a replicable model of environmental stewardship, cultural continuity and community resilience.”

The winner of the 2026 CAA Social Impact Award is the ‘Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre’ in Uganda, a collaboration between Hassel and Localworks.

The judges citation reads:

“At the heart of Africa’s largest refugee settlement, home to more than 270,000 South Sudanese refugees, the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre is a sanctuary where music, art and performance rebuild community amid displacement. Built from compressed earth blocks excavated on site by refugee and host-community labour, its amphitheatre, recording studio and rainwater-harvesting oculus embody extraordinary resourcefulness, an architecture of hope, creativity and resilience raised in the most challenging of circumstances.”

The overall winner of the 2026 CAA President’s Award is ‘Grainform’ by James Corles, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

The jury’s citation reads:

‘Grainform reimagines New Zealand’s timber economy through a tree-to-dwelling mass-timber housing chain rooted in Kaingaroa, the country’s largest plantation forest. The adaptive reuse of the town’s declining mill, the line, feeds a ring of communal housing, the circle, while an integrated forestry school upskills the community. Grounded in engagement with Ngāti Manawa and an indigenous circular worldview, it is a masterful proposition uniting forestry, industry and housing in one regenerative vision.’

The overall winner of the 2026 CAA Student’s Award is Maha Fatima Ghauri, from the NFC Institute of Engineering & Technology in Pakistan.

The jury’s citation reads:

‘Uraan, the Wings of Self-Reliance, answers the economic marginalisation of Pakistan’s women artisans with a pavilion of empowerment in Multan’s craft heartland. Reinterpreting Ajrak, blue pottery, mashrabiya and ralli quilt traditions in a contemporary architectural language, it provides safe, adaptable workspaces, a communal courtyard and an entrepreneurial hub linking artisans to markets. Passive cooling, rainwater harvesting and solar power complete a self-sustaining, scalable model of architecture as an instrument of social equity.’

Use the following link to access our Award Force Gallery in which you will find all the winning entries in the 2026 CAA Awards programme.