How to win construction industry and architecture industry awards, 2025
My awards experience has been amassed over a 24-year+ career. And it comes from many different perspectives and pieces of inspiration, so, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how to enter awards and to gain more impact.
I’ve done many awards in my career, from entering ones for me and my business to compiling entries for projects and companies, including winning 18 for a single project.
As a business, I use awards as part of my overall marketing strategy, mainly because:
it’s a good way to see how far I’ve come as a business,
it raises my business visibility and
it’s a good conversation starter
it’s a way to build connections with peers and also potential clients.
And in the past year, my awards insights have come from advising and creating content for an association running an awards programme (the RTPI Planning Excellence Awards) and having the honour of being a judge on the RIBA London Awards 2025 and the Architizer A+Awards Jury in 2024 and 2025, so seeing entries, attending tours and the resulting discussions to agree on those all-important shortlists and winners.
If you’re looking to enter construction industry and architecture awards, here are some of the key things I have learnt:
The strategy to win construction awards
Make sure you know your why
When clients come to me saying that they want to win awards, I first ask why? Not to sound like a broken record, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that entering well takes a lot of time and money to make each entry. And if you make a lot of shortlists, have to do presentations or tours to judges and subsequent celebration dinners, that’s not just more time but also more financial cost. So, knowing why and how that ties into your wider marketing goals and wider business strategy is paramount.
Be selective - not all awards are created equal
And let’s be honest; it takes time to put entries together and do the work surrounding getting it ready for submission. I still have nightmares about finding corporate credit cards to make an entry when I worked in-house.
Make sure you do your due diligence:
see previous winners
look at the sponsors
look at who is organising the awards
who the judges are – ask yourself “are they legitimate and credible in my field?”
Oh, and my killer awards question is always to ask yourself if you’ve heard of the awards before – some awards aren’t worth the so-called paper they’re written on and are a money-making scam.
The construction industry award entry
Treat your construction entry like a bid
I tend to treat my award entries like a bid and use the assessment criteria as a scoring matrix. I then ask myself if I have done enough to get the points for each question. It’s something that we used to do in bids a lot and it’s just as applicable to awards. After all, hitting the assessment criteria is how you make the shortlist.
Answer the question
You'd be amazed how many people don't answer the question. They don't have the information, so choose to ignore the question entirely. Or they ramble on about anything and everything but not the question at hand. My biggest tip is to use some of the words and language used in the question in your actual response. So, if you’ve got a bank of stock answers, make sure you take the time to tailor it to your specific question.
Make sure you focus on showcasing the project or person
Birmingham New Street Station which won 18 awards.
If you’re entering a specific project, person or company for an award category, focus on that specific thing in your submission. It’s all too easy to talk about the overall scheme, and give facts and figures, but if they’re not relevant to the category you’re entering, you’re wasting valuable word count. Make sure you provide information on the precise elements you are applying for. Focus on that building or project in question and put it at the heart of your response. Dig deep.
Use language real people can understand
Look at the makeup of the judging panel; how will the shortlisting be done? Who will do the shortlisting? For the RIBA London awards, for example, there is a layperson judge – someone who isn’t an architect - who brings a different perspective. And for South West London, that was me. I am not an architect. And when I judged some entries initially, I couldn't understand the language used in some of the entries. And, even some of the architects couldn't understand the language in some entries so it wasn’t just me.
And herein lies the problem; you may think that using complex analogies and language will win people over, but if they don’t understand what it is you want to say, you won’t make the shortlist. It’s important to use clear and understandable language. And no, that’s not dumbing down, your entry will be stronger and more likely to be shortlisted.
Have a clear story to tell
Think about your entry as a story. What are the key messages/ narrative that you want to tell? How does this narrative tie into the overall judging criteria? Does it hit their buttons? You really want to have a story that takes you around the project or building and helps draw the judges into the overall narrative of your scheme.
Clients are your secret weapon
For project-related entries, clients are the key driver, so it is great to include testimonials, feedback and if there’s a tour element - get them involved. They can provide so much colour to an entry. Also, third-party endorsement is so much more compelling than someone self-professing their own greatness.
Judging day for the RIBA London Architecture Awards
Make time for an independent review
If you’re not a last-minute merchant like me, I recommend getting a fresh pair of eyes to review your entry, and again the bid scoring assessment in the point above is a good way to run an independent review. Be specific in what you want the reviewer to review – proofing, structure, scoring, phrasing, etc. It all helps to get you the strongest entry possible.
Remember a picture tells a thousand words
Photography is important in strengthening an award entry, particularly in design-led industries. But sometimes, the images submitted really don't do your entry justice. And yes, professional photographers can be expensive, particularly for smaller practices, but even if you haven't got the budget for top photographers, what you can do is have a look online and just get some tips, even from TikTok, on how to shoot an interior well etc. And make sure what’s in view is free of clutter etc are simple ways to make your photography a bit better.
Construction and Architecture awards shortlisting and beyond
Make sure what you put in your entry stands up in person
On a judges visit for the RIBA Regional Awards
This applies particularly to awards where judges do site visits. If judges are visiting your project – think about the key messages and story you’re conveying in your entry and how you can use the tour to build on the original narrative from your entry. Whatever you write down on your application must be something you can demonstrate really, really well in person.
On a tour make sure you show don’t just tell
If a judge’s tour is part of the awards, make sure you show the judges the key areas they need to judge. And if there’s a reason you can’t, do say why. For example, if it's a residential project, show us inside an actual home in the development and bonus points if we can meet a resident or client too. It really does bring your project to life.
Don’t forget to share your awards journey with your audience
On socials, in emails, as banners and on your website, there are so many ways to share that you’ve made the shortlist, you’re doing a presentation, etc. More hooks than I can think of, and if you win, there’s even more. Awards do make brilliant content in themselves, and the actual content you created can also be reused in bids etc.
Key architecture awards and construction industry awards dates 2025
The RIBA Awards 2025 - Closing date 12 December 2025
World Architecture Awards 2025 - Closing date 25 April 2025
AJ Awards 2025 - Closing date April 2025
NLA Awards 2025 - Closing date May 2025
Now you know what to do and what not to do.
Go off and create your next winner!!!
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Thanks for reading
Feel free to share this with others and do reach out to me if you want to talk through me helping to create your next series of award-winning entries ayo@abbasmarketing.com
