On Friday, June 22, Azure revealed the winners of the 2018 AZ Awards—the 20 exceptional projects that represent the very best work being created in global architecture and design today. They include a silo-turned-high rise on the Copenhagen waterfront, a Mexico City taqueria inspired by the tortilla’s iconic form and a 12-square-kilometre landscape regeneration on the eastern coast of New Zealand. Arriving from as far away as Austria, Mexico and Japan, the winners took home a one-of-a-kind AZ Awards trophy designed by London-based lighting and furniture designer Michael Anastassiades and produced in Carrara marble by the Italian company Salvatori.

This year, the AZ Awards received 997 submissions from 46 countries. To narrow down this unprecedented number of entries to a shortlist of 64 finalists, the jury of international experts gathered in March at Toronto’s Drake Hotel. The jury members were: Claire Weisz, founding partner at New York architecture, urban design and planning firm WXY; Megan Torza, partner at Toronto architecture, landscape architecture and urban design firm DTAH; London-based lighting and furniture designer (and AZ Awards trophy creator) Michael Anastassiades; Michel Rojkind, founder of Mexico City architecture firm Rojkind Arquitectos; and Allen Chan, co-founder of Toronto-headquartered multidisciplinary studio DesignAgency. Through thoughtful consideration and conversation, they selected the best of the best—the 20 remarkable winners honoured at the 2018 AZ Awards Gala on June 22.

The 2018 AZ Awards are presented by Cosentino, Keilhauer, Laminam and Stone Tile, and sponsored by Flos, Landscape Forms, Urban Capital, and George Brown College School of Design. The 2018 AZ Awards Gala is sponsored by Alpi, DXV, Farrow&Ball, Scavolini and TAS. Hotel partner: The Drake Hotel.