From a concrete and weathered-steel temple in Toronto that features the longest cantilever in North America to a landscape that offers floodwater relief and green space to a city in Spain, the 18 winners of the 2016 AZ Awards exemplify innovation and forward-thinking. Tonight at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works, many of the winners were present — some visiting from as far away as India and Shanghai — to take the stage and receive their trophies, which were designed by Vancouver designer Omer Arbel, who was also a member of this year’s jury. The standing-room-only crowd of design and architecture insiders fêted all 66 of this year’s finalists during the celebration.

Together, the outstanding 826 submissions — from designers, architects and manufacturers, as well as students — are a worldwide representation of the best and brightest from the architecture and design community. Our international jury was also made up of some of the industry’s heavy-hitters: architect Chris Wilkinson of WilkinsonEyre (London, U.K.), interior designer Anna Simone of Cecconi Simone (Toronto, Canada), landscape architect Thomas L. Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (Charlottesville, U.S.), architect John Tong of +tongtong (Toronto, Canada), and Omer Arbel of Bocci (Vancouver, Canada).

In March, this distinguished panel gathered in Toronto to narrow down the 826 entries from 52 countries to a shortlist of 66 finalists. From there, they selected the 18 extraordinary winners that were honoured tonight, and who are featured below.

The 2016 AZ AWARDS is presented by Audi, Keilhauer and Rado, and sponsored by Cosentino, Urban Capital, TD Bank Group, George Brown School of Design, Alpi and CRH Canada Group.

All winners and finalists are featured in the Annual Awards Issue, on newsstands June 20 in Canada and June 29 in the U.S.

ARCHITECTURE WINNERS

Best Architecture Over 1,000 Square Metres
Pancorbo + De Villar + Chacón + Martin Robles: Vegas Altas Congress Centre and Auditorium, Villanueva de la Serena, Spain

 

Best Architecture Under 1,000 Square Metres
Shim-Sutcliffe Architects: Wong Dai Sin Temple, Toronto, Canada

 

Best Residential Architecture
Tropical Space: Termitary House, Da Nang, Vietnam

 

Best Temporary Architecture
Lateral Office and CS Design: Impulse, Montreal, Canada

 

Best Landscape Architecture
Aldayjover Architecture and Landscape: Aranzadi Park, Pamplona, Spain

 

INTERIOR WINNERS

Best Residential Interior
Studio MK27: SP-Penthouse, São Paulo, Brazil

 

Best Commercial Interior
Neri&Hu Design and Research Office: Comme Moi, Shanghai, China

 

DESIGN WINNERS

Best Architectural Product
Anyway Doors: Pivoting Room Divider, by Koen Dries and Rudi Dries, with Marieke Cools

 

Best Furniture Design
Moss & Lam: W1 Tables

 

Best Furniture System
Rimadesio: Cover Freestanding, by Giuseppe Bavuso

 

Best Lighting Fixture
Davide Groppi: Fosbury

 

Best Lighting Installation
Partisans: Gweilo Light

 

Best Interior Product
Agape: Ell sink, by Benedini Associati, Diego Cisi and Andrés Jost

 

CONCEPT WINNERS

Best Unbuilt Concept
Sanjay Puri Architects: Reservoir

 

Best Concept Prototype
MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects: Enough House

 

STUDENT A+ AWARD

Jurgis Gecys (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria): Curonian Spit

 

SOCIAL GOOD AWARD

Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects: Walumba Elders Centre, Warmun, Australia

 

ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP AWARD

ZGF Architects: Stanford University Central Energy Facility, Palo Alto, U.S.