CONGRATULATIONS to the 2025 BTES Book Award Winners !!
WINNER
Dana Gulling
Custom Components in Architecture: Strategies for Customizing Repetitive Manufacturing
Jury Comments: A richly detailed and visually compelling exploration of how custom, repetitively manufactured components are shaping contemporary architecture. Organized by material and manufacturing process, the book offers a structured and accessible format that highlights technical innovation across glass, metal, wood, clay, and more. With 36 case studies from global firms, the book thoroughly addresses both the what and how of fabrication. Exceptional diagrams, behind-the-scenes images, and explanations of tooling and post-production techniques provide clarity and inspiration for both students and practitioners. The high-quality visuals and original process drawings make complex manufacturing workflows highly legible. This is an exemplary work that advances architectural discourse around materiality, design, and production. Its clarity, structure, and depth make it a standout candidate for recognition and a lasting resource for the field.
This text helps bridge the gap between design and construction in education, by showing how different repetitive manufacturing processes can be used to realize different architectural ambitions. Through the use of excellent diagrams, drawings and construction photos, this text helps de-mystify important manufacturing methods and encourages students to consider process as well as product.
The book is very clearly organized and detailed in a way that will help professionals and students alike learn about these custom components and how to integrate them into their architectural designs.
HONORABLE MENTION
Michelle Laboy, David Fannon, Peter Wiederspahn
The Architecture of Persistence: Designing for Future Use
Jury Comments: Offers a timely and thought-provoking contribution to the discourse on sustainability by redefining longevity as a core design principle. Rather than focusing solely on adaptability through change, this book introduces continuity as a complementary and often overlooked measure of architectural resilience. The book explores how material durability, cultural relevance, and spatial adaptability contribute to buildings that endure—functionally and meaningfully—across generations. The richly documented case studies and first-hand narratives ground theoretical ideas in lived experience, making it both accessible and impactful. The book provides a framework for rethinking design in temporal terms—connecting past knowledge, present use, and future uncertainty.
This text admirably takes on the grand theoretical project of how to design well for an uncertain future. It presents many fascinating prompts and resources for leading studio exercises, and encouraging students to consider buildings on a much longer timescale.
A very unique concept in considering the future use of buildings in a perilous time for the planet. The background information and the recommendations are informative and inspiring.