Global Architects Chart the Path to Resilient, Inclusive Cities at BRICK AWARD 26 Symposium

Architecture & Sustainable Design · Vienna, June 12, 2026

Global Architects Chart the Path to Resilient, Inclusive Cities at BRICK AWARD 26 Symposium

Leading voices from Brazil, Vietnam, West Africa and the United States converged in Vienna to debate how architecture can respond to the climate crisis while remaining rooted in place, culture and community.

Vienna, 15 June 2026  |  For immediate release

The 12th edition of the BRICK AWARD Architecture Symposium took place on Friday, June 12, 2026, at the MAK Museum in Vienna, gathering some of the world’s most distinguished architects to address one of the most pressing questions facing the built environment: how can cities transform themselves into resilient, sustainable and inclusive places to live?

Organised by wienerberger, the symposium ran alongside the biennial BRICK AWARD ceremony, which since 2004 has celebrated outstanding brick and ceramic architecture across the globe. This year’s Grand Prize was awarded to the Đạo Mẫu Temple and Museum in Vietnam, designed by ARB Architects — a project built from reclaimed brick and ceramic fragments in which material reuse is inseparable from the design concept itself.

“In Brasília, we inherited a modern architecture deeply connected to structure, light and landscape. Today, our challenge is to carry this legacy forward while responding to environmental fragility and contemporary social inequalities.”

Daniel Mangabeira — Co-founder, BLOCO Arquitetos

Architecture in Dialogue with Place

Daniel Mangabeira of BLOCO Arquitetos opened discussions by framing the Brazilian Cerrado — one of the world’s most ecologically rich and threatened biomes — as a lens through which architecture must engage with territory, memory and social inequality. His call to “build with place” set a tone of critical contextuality that ran throughout the day.

ARB Architects’ founder Nguyen Há then introduced the concept of Situated Serenity — an approach that treats buildings not as static objects but as ongoing processes of knowledge-making through matter. Drawing on site-sourced materials and tacit knowledge, her MM Labs initiative positions architecture as a living archive where cultural memory and belief systems are embedded in construction itself.

“A resilient city is one that transforms and adapts what already exists. The knowledge held in the hands of craftspeople and generations of builders risks being lost — these multiple legacies, studied and applied with care, can ground an architecture fit for a future of communal urban life.”

Jeanne Autran-Edorh — Co-founder, Studio NEiDA

Preserving the Past, Shaping the Future

Jeanne Autran-Edorh of Studio NEiDA brought the symposium’s attention to West Africa, where post-independence modernist buildings are being documented and reimagined in ways that honour the communities living in them. Resisting universalist approaches, Autran-Edorh argued that resilience emerges from acknowledging disrupted histories and restoring the agency of local craft knowledge.

Closing the programme, Matthew Urbanski of MVVA presented Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York — a 20-year endeavour that transformed abandoned waterfront infrastructure into a public landscape visited by five million people annually. Funded through a self-sustaining economic model and born from civic advocacy, the project has become a global benchmark for accessible waterfront regeneration and climate adaptation.

“Cities are big drivers of climate change, but they are also hubs for creativity, innovation and education. The architects attending this symposium have the capacity to affect significant systemic change.”

Heimo Scheuch — CEO, wienerberger

About the BRICK AWARD

Established in 2004 and hosted by wienerberger, the BRICK AWARD is an independent international prize celebrating innovation, craftsmanship and sustainable design in brick and ceramic architecture. Use of wienerberger products is not a condition of entry. Winners are featured in the official BRICK book alongside nominated projects from across the world.