Dezeen Awards 2026 trophies are made from cork

The winners of this year's Dezeen Awards will take home trophies made from cork, the light, spongy bark of the cork oak tree. The architecture and design website Dezeen reported the change on 9 November 2026.

The trophies were produced in partnership with Corticeira Amorim, which Dezeen describes as the world's largest cork processing group. The company is based in Portugal and has operated for more than 150 years.

The awards already had a trophy. The original, a D-shaped piece, was designed by the Dutch studio Atelier NL and first made in 2018 from clay. The 2026 version keeps that shape but switches the material, using cork throughout.

Cork comes from the outer bark of the cork oak. The tree is not cut down to get it. The bark grows back, and it can be stripped again at intervals of at least nine years, according to Dezeen.

Winners in the project categories, along with the Project of the Year and Designers of the Year awards, will each receive a bespoke cork trophy. The makers chose different cork grains and colour tones to tell the winner tiers apart. All of the trophies still share the same look, so they read as one set.

The design shortlist for the awards, announced in September, included projects by Bocci, Kvadrat and Fuseproject. Winners will be presented with their trophies at the Dezeen Awards party on 16 November at the Royal Opera House in London, the grand theatre in Covent Garden.

For anyone planning to watch the night online or read the winners list, the trophies are the new detail to look for. Cork is also a material that most people meet every day, usually in a wine bottle stopper, and it is now sitting on a stage in a London opera house.