Was your project completed between October 2022 and January 2025 and been in occupation for a year? You can now enter the 2026 RIAS Awards.
Early bird discount: 28 November 2025 (save 10% on your entry fee!) | Submission Deadline: 9 January 2026 (17.00)
Why enter the RIAS Awards
Each year, the RIAS Awards celebrate the very best of Scottish architecture, recognising architectural contributions across all regions, uses and scales. By winning a RIAS Award, your work is eligible to be entered into both the Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award, and the RIBA Stirling Prize.
The RIAS Awards are widely regarded as one of the most valuable ways of getting your work seen. Being an award-winning practice can help you to build your customer base, give you increased exposure, motivate your team, and attract new employees.
Categories
Categories for the RIAS Awards are based on project value, and are broken down into the 6 brackets listed below. When purchasing your entry, please ensure that you're selecting the category that is relevant to your project. In addition, there are 7 RIAS Special Category Awards that you can submit for.
Up to £500k
£500k - £1m
£1m - £5m
£5m - £10m
£10m - £20m
Over £20m
RIAS Special Category Awards
You can also enter your project into any of the seven RIAS Special Category Awards, if relevant. You may choose to provide additional information to support your entry.
RIAS & Laurence McIntosh Award for Architectural Interior
Sponsored by joiners and cabinet maker Laurence McIntosh, the Architectural Interior Award serves to identify and reward architectural interior design excellence, celebrating designs that shape the buildings we live, work and play in. The award recognises architectural projects that focus on the interior layout of a building and that demonstrate the value of design excellence in enhancing user experience. Entries are judged on the innovative use of interior space, movability through the space, use of materials, aesthetic and interior fit-out.
RIAS Sustainability Award
This award recognises new-build or retrofit projects that demonstrate design innovation, and how this impacts carbon consumption. The judges will consider the innovative use and application of materials, new methods of construction and building techniques, how the project exceeds sustainability standards and the post-occupancy evaluation - look specifically at energy use and comfort.
RIAS & Equitone Project Architect Award
For the annual Project Architect Award, nominated RIAS Chartered Members will be judged on their leadership and the strength of their contribution towards the award-winning project. Sponsored by fibre cement facade material manufacturers, Equitone, the award celebrates the design expertise that is vital in transforming the user experience of the building and the quality of the architect’s design interventions.
RIAS Client of the Year Award
Our Client of the Year Award, which highlights the important role of the client in allowing architects to deliver exceptional buildings. As well as articulating a sound brief, this award builds on the belief that a good client can inspire, inform and enlighten the design process and play a fundamental role in its evolution.
RIAS & TCM Capital Innovation Award
This award celebrates projects which push the boundaries of traditional architecture, through creativity, sustainability, and construction - sponsored by specialist funding consultancy firm, TCM Capital.
RIAS Timber Award
This award encourages the innovative and creative use of timber in new buildings in Scotland. It award seeks to stimulate greater appreciation of homegrown timber and its potential in construction, with added consideration given to thoughtful and appropriate use of different species. Technical competence is paramount and judges will look at the design and detail of the timber used, as well as the imagination behind the design and overall architectural excellence. The challenge is to show how suited the use of timber is to the development of new architecture in Scotland.
RIAS & VELUX Architectural Heritage Award
The Architectural Heritage Award is sponsored by VELUX - the world-leading manufacturer of roof windows and skylight. This award recognises projects that enhance and preserve the character of historic buildings. They will be judged on their approach to conservation, the quality of their design interventions and use of techniques that deliver sustainable solutions to preserve our built heritage. The RIAS Heritage Award will celebrate the transformational impact of historic building conservation, with a focus on design expertise and improving user experience, while cutting our carbon footprint.
RIAS & RIBA Awards
The RIAS Awards are running in tandem with the RIBA Awards. Submission to the RIAS Awards entitles entrants to be considered for the following awards:
RIAS Awards, including the RIAS Special Category Awards
RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award
RIBA Awards, including RIBA National Award, the RIBA Client of the Year Award, the RIBA House of the Year, the Stephen Lawrence Prize and the Neave Brown Award for Housing.
RIBA Stirling Prize.
Please note: to be eligible for a RIBA Award, the entrant must be a current RIBA or RIAS Chartered Member or RIBA International Fellow.
RIBA National Award: A RIBA National Award is given to a building for its national significance and its contribution to architecture in the UK. Awarded to the buildings that set national standards for good architecture, successful projects should demonstrate design excellence, be fit for purpose and be sustainable. Only projects that have won a RIAS Award (i.e. the Scottish equivalent to a RIBA Regional Award) will be eligible for a RIBA National Award. RIBA National Award winners will then be considered for the RIBA Stirling Prize.
RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award: Winners of the RIAS Awards will become the “longlist” for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award. Winners of a RIBA National Award will automatically form part of the shortlist for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award and may be visited by a separate jury (who will decide the final shortlisted projects) prior to the ceremony being held in the autumn. The Winner(s) of the Doolan Award will receive a RIAS Gold Medal together with a cash award.
Eligibility criteria
All types of architectural projects are eligible, including conservation work, conversions, extensions, interiors, new-build, public realm, regeneration, and restoration. Entries to the 2026 RIAS Awards may be submitted by architects, clients, or users. However, all projects require client approval and must meet the entry criteria outlined below. To be eligible, submitted projects must:
be located in Scotland
be completed between October 2022 and January 2025
have been occupied since January 2025, or before
have a chartered architect as principal of the practice, lead designer or project manager,
have a minimum of 20% of qualifying staff within the submitting practice as RIAS members (Scottish-based entrants) or a minimum of 20% of qualifying staff as RIBA members or overseas equivalent (entrants outwith Scotland),
Please note: partially-occupied commercial and housing projects are subject to approval, please email awards@rias.org.uk to find out more.
What do I need to submit?
Please ensure that you have all the required information ready to complete the entry form before starting. You can access the form as often as you wish before submitting your information, however you cannot save your progress and return to the form. To avoid losing your submission, we suggest preparing your submission in a Word document, before transferring this into the form. If you are having any trouble with your entry form, please contact awards@rias.org.uk
In order to complete your submission form you will need the following information:
Project & practice information
Project name
Practice name and address
Project address (including directions / Google map link)
Gross internal area (sqm)
Net internal area (sqm)
Contract value and cost per square metre
Date of planning approval
Date of completion
Date of occupation
Contact details for the project director/architect and client, including the date of qualification for architects involved (this is particularly relevant for RIBA Special Awards).
If you worked in collaboration with another practice or architect, then you must all agree on the entry and how the building should be credited.
Key consultants
Please include the company name, contact name and email address for each key consultant (i.e. main contractor, QS, M&E engineer, project manager). Details of further consultants can be included in the ‘Additional Consultants’ section. These consultants may be credited in press and online content. You can also include a list of your colleagues who were part of the architectural team working on the project.
Project Summary
150 words providing an overview of your project, written in the third person.
Should you win a RIAS or RIBA Award, this will feature on the RIAS/RIBA website and RIBA Journal. This should help people understand the project immediately, giving necessary context. Please ensure that this summary does not include any information that any party wishes to be kept confidential. RIAS/RIBA reserves the right to edit the project summary before publishing.
Project description
350 words describing the project. The description should set out:
how it has matched the client’s brief
an understanding of the physical and social environment of the project, and its relationship to "place" (as defined by the Place Standard tool)
an outline of the planning constraints
details of materials and the method of construction
a summary of the timetable, programme, and budget constraints, and where applicable
Practices may find it useful to refer to our RIAS "Creating space for inspiring conversations" strategy, when putting together their responses.
Inclusive accessibility statement
100 words explaining how the project meets the principles of inclusive design, how it contributes to its society and its access strategy. This is a chance to showcase how the needs of the users have been met and how future adaptability has been considered.
Sustainability Criteria
You can download a full list of the sustainability questions as a Word document here. Please refer to the ‘Sustainability’ tab in the main menu above, for detailed information on this year’s requirements.
RIAS Special Category Awards
You can provide an additional 150 word description if you are entering any of the RIAS Special Category Awards. Guidance on this year’s Special Category Awards and their criteria can be found above, or on the entry form.
Images
Entrants are required to submit ten high-res digital JPEG photos (max. 10MB per image)
Please submit individual images – not montages – and include exterior and interior photographs as appropriate
Do not brand, caption, frame or otherwise alter photographs
You must supply photographer credits with all submitted images. Each image file should indicate practice name, project name and photographer, i.e. “architect - project (c) photographer”. Please note, if your images are not uploaded with the correct credits, you may be asked to re-submit.
By submitting photography, you are agreeing to its use by the RIAS and RIBA for these awards (and any related) processes. Please note that images of shortlisted projects will be shared with external press, so copyright consent is required and is entirely the responsibility of submitting practices.
As the initial shortlisting process is based on the judges’ assessment of the photos, drawings and text provided, we strongly recommend commissioning a professional architectural photographer. If this is not possible, we have provided some guidance notes here.
Drawings/Models
Each entry must include six plans or other drawings in editable PDF or JPEG format (max 2MB each). Please feel free to submit any model pictures as well.
Awards Timeline (subject to change)
Launch: 17 October 2025
Early Bird Discount: 28 November 2025
Submission Deadline: 9 January 2026 (17.00)
Jury Visits and Announcements - TBC
Publicity / Filming
Projects that are shortlisted for the RIAS Awards and the RIAS Doolan Award will be included in relevant social media campaigns and press releases, as well as in the RIAS Quarterly. It is the intention to make short films about each of the Doolan shortlisted projects before the announcement in the autumn.
FAQs
Re-submission
Entries that have been unsuccessful at RIAS shortlisting stage (no award given) in the preceding year can be re-submitted and will be considered for both RIAS and RIBA (National) Awards, providing they meet the criteria above and the relevant entry fee is paid to the RIAS.
Financial Help
We provide financial support via discounted or free entry for architects and practices without the financial resources to enter our RIAS Awards programme. Please note that applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please fill out this contact form here and a member of the team will be in touch.