Prix de Rome Architecture 2026
Architects and other spatial designers play a key role in shaping the world. But are they able to keep up with its current pace of change? If they can no longer translate their imagination into real-world projects, how can they continue to fulfil architecture’s promise of improving lives through good design? Nominees for the 2026 Prix de Rome Architecture respond to this year’s theme: Terminal Velocity.
The nominees
The exhibition features work by the nominees Dérive (Hedwig van der Linden and Kevin Westerveld), Maarten Plomp and Iris van der Wal, Namelok (Wiegert Ambagts and Kaj van Boheemen), and Słodka x Zatta (Izabela Słodka and Federica Zatta).
Terminal Velocity
The theme of the 2026 Prix de Rome Architecture is inspired by the concept of ‘terminal velocity’ in physics: the maximum speed an object reaches during free fall. When this concept is applied to the societal role of architecture, it raises the question of whether architects and other spatial designers have reached their own ‘terminal velocity’. In a world where societal, political, technological, material and ecological systems are changing at an ever-increasing pace, resulting in growing social inequality, polarisation, depletion and ecological decline, the Prix de Rome considers whether architectural practice can adequately respond to these changes.
The open call therefore sought a new interpretation of ‘architectural intelligence’, connecting ideas to ecological, technological, social and material realities. An international jury selected four nominees from 60 anonymous submissions.
Exhibition
During a four-month working period, the nominees developed a spatial intervention for a location of their choice. They investigated how accelerating developments are shaping these sites and transforming the world faster than we can control. The locations chosen were the ASML chip manufacturing campus in Veldhoven, where the spatial consequences of digitisation-driven industrial growth are deliberately obscured; the former Ministry of Social Affairs building in The Hague, which is earmarked for demolition to make way for new construction, risking the loss of usable building components; the Krimpenerwaard peat grassland area, where preservation efforts are paradoxically causing the landscape to slowly disappear; and the former CSM sugar factory site in Breda, where designation as a ‘growth site’ by central government is compelling the rapid construction of new housing.
Design
The exhibition’s spatial designer is Nasim Razavian, an architect, researcher and lecturer at the Rotterdam-based firm Studio Ilinx. Studio Remco van Bladel is responsible for the graphic design.
About the Prix de Rome Architecture
The Prix de Rome Architecture is the oldest award in the Netherlands for architects, urban planners, landscape architects and other spatial designers under the age of 40. Organised by the Creative Industries Fund NL every four years, it is commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The winner of the 2026 award will be announced on 17 December 2026. An accompanying publication will be released by Jap Sam Books.