What The Smart Building Awards Recognise
The Smart Building Awards honour buildings using technology to deliver outstanding occupier experience, operational performance, energy efficiency and asset value. The category set spans Smart Building Of The Year, Smart Home Of The Year, Smart Residential Building Of The Year, Smart Commercial Building Of The Year, the Smart Hospitality Building Award and Proptech Platform Of The Year.
Each category is judged on evidence rather than on a list of installed devices. Juries look at why a technology was chosen, how the systems work together, and what has measurably changed for the people who live, work or stay in the building.
The programme is open to smart buildings across every region and asset class. Connected residential developments, intelligent commercial product, smart hospitality real estate and adjacent smart real estate operators all enter the programme.
Who Should Enter
- Smart Residential Buildings — Connected apartment and residential complexes
- Smart Commercial Buildings — Intelligent office, retail and adjacent commercial
- Smart Homes — Single-property smart-home design and integration
- Smart Hospitality — Connected hotel and serviced apartment
- Smart Mixed-Use — Integrated smart mixed-use developments
- Proptech Platforms — Technology platforms underlying smart real estate
Award Categories
Smart Building Of The Year
The headline smart-building category.
Smart Home Of The Year
For exceptional smart-home design and integration.
Smart Residential Building Of The Year
For connected residential developments.
Smart Commercial Building Of The Year
For intelligent commercial product.
Smart Hospitality Building Award
For connected hospitality real estate.
Proptech Platform Of The Year
For underlying smart-real-estate technology platforms.
Smart Home Award Categories For Architects And Designers
Architects, interior designers and lighting or acoustic specialists often ask which smart home award category fits their work, because the technology in a home is usually delivered by a wider team. The programme handles this simply: the entry is made for the project, and the nominating firm states its own role in it.
- Smart Home Of The Year — the natural fit for an architect or designer whose single residence integrates lighting, climate, security, shading and audio into the design rather than adding them afterwards.
- Smart Residential Building Of The Year — for practices that designed a connected apartment building or residential community, where shared systems and resident apps matter as much as individual units.
- Smart Building Of The Year — the headline category, suited to projects where the architecture and the building systems were planned together from concept stage.
- Design-led alternatives — where the design story is stronger than the technology story, the Residential Design Awards or Interior Design Awards may be the better first choice, with the smart category entered as a second track.
For a design practice, a strong submission explains the brief, shows how controls and devices were concealed or integrated into the architecture, and gives the client or occupier view of how the home performs day to day. Drawings, system diagrams and photography of the finished spaces carry more weight than product lists. The judging criteria and the submission guide explain how evidence is assessed.
Why Smart Buildings Compete For Recognition
For developers marketing smart residential product, independent recognition gives buyers a third-party reference point beyond the sales brochure. For commercial developers, it helps explain a building's technology to occupiers who are comparing options. For architects and designers, it documents integration work that is often invisible once a project is finished. For proptech platforms, it provides an independent reference for enterprise conversations.
How To Win A Smart Building Award
- Address the building's smart proposition — what technology, why, how it integrates.
- Quantify outcomes — occupier satisfaction, energy intensity, operational efficiency.
- Address verified performance — independent assessment of technology effectiveness.
- Submit high-quality photography, technology architecture diagrams and case studies.
- Address scalability — how the smart approach extends across multiple buildings.
- Submit verified technology partnerships and platform integrations.
Submit Your Smart Building Awards Nomination
Nominations are submitted online via the official entry portal. Entry options are listed on the nomination price page, and the full set of tracks is on the award categories page. The awards team can be contacted directly for smart-building category advice.
