Winners to be selected by an international jury featuring renowned architect Norman Foster
Belgrade’s Ložionica, a creative industries center designed by AKVS Architecture, has been shortlisted for the Dezeen Awards 2026, one of the world’s most prestigious international awards for architecture and design.
Ložionica has been shortlisted in the Mixed-use Project category, from more than 4,300 entries submitted from 91 countries worldwide. Only 152 architecture projects from 36 countries made this year’s shortlist, including projects from India, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, France, China, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The significance of this achievement is further highlighted by the fact that Ložionica and AKVS Architecture now stand alongside projects by some of the world’s most prominent architecture studios, including Herzog & de Meuron, Dorte Mandrup and Farshid Moussavi Architects.
The shortlisted projects will be assessed by an international jury featuring some of the most influential names in contemporary architecture, including Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind, Amanda Levete, Ma Yansong and Annabelle Selldorf. The winners of the Dezeen Awards 2026 will be announced on 16 November.
Ložionica being shortlisted for the Dezeen Awards is an exceptional international recognition and confirmation that valuable industrial heritage can be preserved while being successfully transformed to meet the needs of a contemporary city. Ložionica is the result of several years of work by a large interdisciplinary team of experts, a process that began with a successfully organized architectural competition. This recognition belongs to the entire team and is particularly meaningful because, in a way, it validates the great trust that the Office for IT and Serbia Creates placed in us from the very beginning. It means a great deal to us that the project has been recognized by a professional jury comprising some of the most important architects of our time, said Anđela Karabašević Sudžum, founder of AKVS Architecture and co-author of the architectural and urban design concept for the Ložionica complex.
Located on the historic site of a former railway complex dating from 1925, Ložionica is an example of the successful transformation of industrial heritage into a contemporary multifunctional space, preserving the authenticity of the original structure while adapting it to the needs of the modern city.
Just a year ago, we opened the doors of Ložionica with the ambition of giving Belgrade a place that connects our industrial heritage with creativity and the ideas of the future. Today, with Ložionica recognized among some of the world’s best architectural projects and presented before a jury featuring names such as Norman Foster and Daniel Libeskind, we see this recognition as confirmation that something created here in Belgrade can be relevant on the global stage. Ložionica demonstrates that we can preserve our past while creating architecture and content that belong to the future, said Ana Ilić, Director of Ložionica.
The transformation of Ložionica has already attracted significant attention from both the Serbian and international architectural community and has received seven architectural awards and distinctions. Being shortlisted for the Dezeen Awards represents one of the project’s most significant international recognitions to date and further positions Belgrade and Serbia on the global map of contemporary architecture.
The Dezeen Awards are organized by one of the world’s most influential architecture and design publications. Each year, the awards bring together leading architects, designers and studios from around the world, recognizing outstanding achievements in contemporary architecture and design.
Dezeen Awards 2026 architecture shortlist announced