Designs of the Year

Today's announcement came two months after the shortlist of projects in six categories (Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Graphics, Product, and Transport) was announced for the 12th annual Beazley Designs of the Year. At that time, sixteen projects were in the running for the Architecture category. With its selection of the Maya Somaiya Library in Kopargaon, India, the jury said: "We were impressed by this elegant design that was all about community. We felt the space beautifully articulated important purposes – leisure and education. Innovative and unusual, we think this design really breaks the mould for an educational building."

Last year Forensic Architecture, the research agency based at University of London that architect Eyal Weizman started in 2011, won the top prize with its Counter Investigations exhibition, but it was put into the Digital category for that project. Which means the last time the Architecture winner won the overall prize was the year before, when David Adjaye's National Museum of African American History and Culture won the Beazley Design of the Year 2017.