No such thing as a free dinner on Park Lane

A pragmatic guide to architecture awards

When I started working for an architecture practice almost fifteen years’ ago, I was in put charge of awards. They won a lot of them. At first it was fine. Satisfying even, seeing the design teams recognised for the months they had lost to the intricacies of a roof joint. It was only part of the job. But by the third, fourth, fifth cycle, I couldn’t take anymore, it was relentless. The calls trying to upsell me a premium table near the stage, the deadline reminders. I was fed up with people asking me, “what is ‘party’?”, “what is business casual?”, “dress to impress?”...

It’s fair to say I developed a certain amount of cynicism, particularly as these awards seemed so lucrative for organisers: easy to set up, minimal outlay or risk. Take one popular programme, where entries cost between £100 and £350, depending on the size of your studio and ‘early bird’ rates. Compared to other awards, that’s relatively cheap, and could be worth it for the chance to increase your project’s visibility on an influential platform. This year, I read they had almost 5,000 entries. That’s a lot of warm prosecco. As well as a substantial profit, the programme increases their traffic and advertising revenue and supplies more free content than they could ever publish.

Entering awards can be frustrating, as however beautiful and well considered the entry, you have little control over the outcome. That isn’t to say that the quality of the submission doesn’t matter, but winning is ultimately down to the quality of the project (unless it’s a particularly nefarious awards programme), and don’t buy any consultant guff that tells you otherwise. The skill is in the planning and coordination; understanding the field, being judicious and knowing which to enter, juggling deadlines and budgets, sourcing the right materials and putting together a strong submission.

As a freelancer in architecture and design, I can’t ignore awards, they certainly have a role in a wider communications plan. But now I’m ruthless about the cost/benefit, particularly for studios without such deep pockets. These are a few of my tips — get in touch if you are a small studio and would like the full free guide.

• When it comes to initial budgeting, be flexible. Some years, you might not finish a building, other years, you might have a few contenders, so set the budget per project, rather than per year, and factor it into your annual communications spend. Don’t just account for the entry fee either; if you are shortlisted, you could be obliged to buy a seat at the ceremony, or even fly to it, which could dwarf that figure. (And flying to a conference or dinner in 2021, really?) Finally, don’t underestimate the value of your time — awards can eat into that precious resource that could be better spent elsewhere.
• Awards tend to be run either by an industry body, a magazine or a bunch of chancers. Some you enter, some contact you to say you already won. A useful way to keep on top of monthly submission deadlines is to sign up to the awards list produced by a marketing firm called Boost (www.awards-list.co.uk). It’s free, they cover a wide range of sectors, not just architecture, and they do a very helpful roundup. Once you have entered a programme, the organisers will also prompt you endlessly.
• Ask yourself, objectively, if you think the project is worth investing time and money in the awards process. What do you want to get out of it? Publicity? Recognition for the team? There are other ways to do these things without an award, like investing in a campaign or teambuilding/both: “We decided to spend the budget we would have spent sending one delegate to * on a field trip for the whole office” could tell a much better story.
• Are the wider consultant team entering awards? Agree a strategy between you, be clear on who is entering which awards programmes, particularly if you are collaborating with another design firm.
• When you’re capturing your press photos, get shots of particular materials, structural details, environmental systems at the same time so you can use them for specific awards. Never skimp on photography, get a professional with a strong, proven press portfolio that knows what works.
• You need more than your client’s consent for the submission — you might need a great testimonial, particularly for the RIBA or BCI Awards. You also need the client to allow the jury access if the project is shortlisted and show them around. Their passion can be persuasive. With some high-profile schemes, the jury schedule is so tightly planned that there is no flexibility to change the date or time, however inconvenient, so having your client on board from the start is valuable.
• There’s a whole article in composing awards submissions, but there’s no great mystery to writing a good one. Answer the criteria directly, be clear, correct, tell a good story and spell-check.
• If you get to the jury visit stage, remember that it’s not easy coordinating travel and diaries to get a group of eminent architects and critics in the same place to look at a series of projects over two days. Be kind to the organiser. Check whether they need refreshments at the venue. Re-confirm arrangements closer to the date, make sure they have your mobile number and a contact at the building. Be precise on the meeting point using #what3words.
• Fail to prepare, prepare to blush. Refresh your memory on the details of the scheme and the information you put in the entry. Expect tough questions on the building’s performance in use, think of examples of a challenge successfully resolved, snippets of feedback from users, and have in mind the route you will take so you don’t finish in a cupboard.
• If you’re shortlisted, you will be invited to the ceremony, and there’s no such thing as a free dinner at the Grosvenor. “Just two tickets? You don’t want a premium table?” Make sure the projects, team, news and experience pages of your website are up to date before the event, as well as your social channels. Have something pithy prepared to say in case you go blank, be sure to thank client and team. Have your expression ready in case you don’t win. Be gracious and congratulate the competition. Have a press release, social posts and images ready to go on the night, in case you win — don’t try and cobble something together after a few glasses of wine and handful of canapes.
• If you win, record everything. Make a note of the date, awarding body, award title and project in a spreadsheet. Update this every time you are longlisted, shortlisted or receive anything. It’s useful to have this information to hand if you ever want to pull together an annual review or cut-and-paste it into a box for an RFP/PQQ. Add it to your website. If it’s a big one, add it to your biography . Keep a record of any positive jury citations or press clippings on file for use in future marketing efforts.
• What? You didn’t win? Neither did the majority of the shortlist, you’re in good company. Who cares about awards — an arbitrary, subjective and unsatisfactory measure of a project’s value anyway. Your project can compete in a difficult year, you can be up against lots of worthy contenders. It’s all a bit of a dance and one that you can just as easily choose to sit out. You don’t need to win an award to thank and congratulate your team. When you run press around completion/opening, make a point of doing so in a meaningful way at the time. You will create a more positive profile for that than with any list of gongs on your website.

There’s a lot I haven’t touched on, not least the politics of awards in a large firm with multiple projects completing at the same time. Or what to do if you have fallen out with the client, but still want to go in for one that requires their input. There are awards programmes that I wouldn’t recommend, then there’s the merits of league tables and pricey events like the World Architecture Festival and MIPIM, my least favourite series of Below Deck. But I hope you find these tips useful, and please get in touch if you would like the full guide — or if you would like to discuss working together on your studio’s writing and communications. But not your awards. Anything but them.

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