‘Rethink and Repair’ – Archiprix 2025 Announces Winners

Archiprix proudly presents the newest generation of graduate designers from the Dutch Master’s programmes in architecture, urbanism, interior architecture and landscape architecture. The central themes of this edition, rethink and repair, express a shared ambition to restore balance to the world by critically re-evaluating existing systems and taking care of what already exists.

Each year, Archiprix provides a platform for the most promising graduation projects. For the 2025 edition, 26 projects were assessed. The submissions reflect a generation of engaged designers who consciously position themselves within a world facing scarcity, migration, inequality, climate change and the collapse of ecosystems. The jury — Claire Oude Aarninkhof, Daryl Mulvihill, Merten Nefs, Harm Rensink and Laura van Santen, chaired by Saskia van Stein with Lena de Rouw as secretary — expressed deep admiration for the designers’ empathy, investigative capacity and imaginative power.

Repair as a Powerful Design Tool

A defining feature of this year’s submissions is the absence of sweeping masterplans or radical utopias. Instead, the designers present thoughtful, inclusive approaches rooted in care for communities, solidarity with marginalised groups, and attention to residents whose homes may be threatened by demolition. The jury also highlights a heartfelt appreciation for the discipline of design itself — and the capacity to make intangible values visible, such as memories tied to a place and their role in fostering a sense of belonging.

The projects demonstrate genuine concern for the planet’s future and the risks that climate change poses to both human and non-human life. The perspectives offered serve as an invitation to the design field: to take a step back and consider how repair might serve not only as a goal but as a powerful design strategy.

Radical Empathy and the Role of Spatial Design

The jury selected six projects it considers significant, agenda-setting and pioneering. First prizes were awarded to Nasma Alshutfa, Renan Dijkinga, Daan de Jong and Ayla Stomp. Honourable mentions were given to Charlotte Delobbe and Vincent van Spaendonk. The jury recognises in these works the designers’ ability to interrogate and ‘repair’ failing systems, while making the role of spatial design within that transition convincingly clear. With great commitment, engagement and radical empathy, these projects demonstrate a profound sense of rootedness and focus on the human scale.

Read the jury report here
Read the Dutch jury report here

First Prize Winners:

Nasma Alshutfa (Royal Academy of Art The Hague), “I am grateful (?). A Journey to a Legal Refugee Status in the Netherlands”
A poignant installation based on personal experience within the Dutch asylum system. Through spatial reconstructions of accommodation in multiple asylum centres, Alshutfa makes visible the invisible, the emotional, spatial and bureaucratic experience of seeking refuge. The poetic quality of the project leaves room for imagination and emotion. The jury was deeply moved, describing the work as a powerful indictment of the current asylum reception system.

Renan Dijkinga (Academy of Architecture Amsterdam), “(Be)Coming Home”
A landscape design that reconnects ecology and local identity in southern Brazil. Dijkinga’s work focuses on the landscape as a shared habitat, strengthening bonds between humans and nature through regenerative strategies. His multi-scalar approach, grounded in fieldwork and richly illustrated, resonates far beyond its local context, addressing a globally urgent issue: the erosion of landscape through monoculture.

Daan de Jong (Academy of Architecture Rotterdam), “Everywhen”
A radical urban design experiment that challenges linear time thinking and proposes a speculative, non-linear approach. Set in The Hague, De Jong integrates historical and political narratives with visionary design, drawing on Indigenous concepts of time. The jury applauds the designer’s bold stance and rich multimedia presentation, describing the project as a boundary-pushing ode to imagination.

Ayla Stomp (Academy of Architecture Rotterdam), “Onvoltooid gebouwd”
A compelling argument against demolition through the revaluation of buildings in Rotterdam, using alternative value systems. Stomp’s visualisations offer tools to navigate adaptive reuse dynamically, with subjectivity embraced as a design value. The project also gestures toward the circular city, where material reuse is the norm, and challenges how heritage is defined and transformed.

Honourable Mentions:

Charlotte Delobbe (TU Delft), “Living with Drought Prone Landscapes”
A landscape design for Eastern Rwanda responding to drought using locally embedded, small-scale interventions and traditional techniques.

Vincent van Spaendonk (TU Eindhoven), “Remind Me of Remeţi”
A poetic and empathetic reflection on the housing realities of Romanian labour migrants: A House Away from Home, a Home Away from House.

A Discipline in Motion

The selected projects signal a profession that is reorienting itself. These designers consciously aim to restore relationships between people and their environments, and show how architecture and spatial design can contribute to a more just and sustainable society. Archiprix sees it as its responsibility to support this critical reflection and provide a public platform for young designers — contributing to a visible future for the field. One in which ‘less’ can mean more, and repair becomes an act of imagination.

About Archiprix
For over 40 years, Archiprix has been connecting education, designers, clients, and the public by placing spatial challenges and socially relevant themes at the center. Archiprix directly links academic output with the societal value of design disciplines. Since its first edition in 1979, the foundation has connected academic talent with the professional field and the broader public. Archiprix offers insights into the ideas shaping our collective future.

The independent jury for Archiprix 2025 consisted of Claire Oude Aarninkhof, Daryl Mulvihill, Merten Nefs, Harm Rensink, and Laura van Santen, chaired by Saskia van Stein with Lena de Rouw as secretary.

Collaboration with International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR)
For the next two years, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) will take on the organization and programming of two Archiprix editions. This partnership aims to further Archiprix’s mission of supporting and showcasing emerging design talent.

Archiprix is made possible by:
The Creative Industries Fund NL, the Abe Bonnema Foundation, the Cultural Fund, and the Dutch master’s design programs. The IABR is responsible for executing the event.