Prix Versailles announces stadium finalists

The Prix Versailles, an annual awards program recognizing exceptional contemporary architecture and design, has announced the final candidates for one of the three global prizes in the sports stadiums category. Among the candidates is the Armand-Cesari Stadium in Bastia, renovated by the Montpellier-based architecture firm Ateliers A +.

Eight categories for architectural recognition

The Prix Versailles awards are given in eight categories: hotels, restaurants, museums, airports, emporiums (shops), campuses, and train stations and metro stations. Each category will have three projects awarded one of the three global titles—Prix Versailles, Mention Intérieur, or Mention Extérieur—on December 10.

Jury composition remains confidential

The global jury, composed of eight judges, awards these titles every year, a total of twenty-four. The composition of the jury is only revealed after the competition. In 2025, it was chaired by Irina Bokova, the former director general of Unesco, alongside two actresses, two architects, a conceptual artist, a stylist, and a pianist.

Focus on sustainable and cultural development

The Prix Versailles award, known as "The Most Beautiful in the World," emphasizes the role of winning projects in improving the living environment. It promotes sustainable development that integrates cultural and environmental values, aiming to create spaces that serve and transcend traditional notions of design.

Cultural hub in Uzbekistan

One of the projects mentioned is a palace with monumental portals inspired by the traditions of the Timurid era, located in Uzbekistan. Opened on March 28, the museum is a 29,000 m² cultural hub integrated into the Takanawa Gateway City urban project. It aims to be an immersive cultural crossroads that connects art, tradition, technology, and education.

Museum designed for subtropical climate

Another project is a vast spaceship-like museum created by Zaha Hadid Architects. Designed to adapt to the variable conditions of the subtropical climate, it was inaugurated on December 3, 2025. The museum displays artifacts from the Paleolithic to modern history across six permanent galleries.

Futuristic hotel in Saudi Arabia

The Desert Rock hotel in the Hijaz massif in Saudi Arabia is an ode to imagination. Spread across a seven-hectare landscaped and mountainous park, the hotel features 54 villas and 10 suites designed in futuristic lines, built into crevices and caves to take advantage of cooler microclimates.

Heritage-focused hotel in Malaysia

Soo K. Chan, the architect of the Soori Penang project, transformed fifteen historic shop-houses adjacent to the Khoo Kongsi, an important Chinese ancestral sanctuary. The hotel, built in the early 2000s using traditional earthen techniques, spans over 6,000 m² in the heart of an 80,000 m² estate.

Restored fortress as luxury hotel

At the gates of the Panna National Park, an ancient fortress now serves as a luxury hotel with 65 rooms and suites. Restored by architect Ravi Kumar Gupta, the structure emerges from the sand like a porous organism. Over 20,000 lights and polished cylinders with mirrored chrome give it a unique dimension.

Airport inspired by Assam landscapes

The organic vaults of an airport evoke the sacred landscapes of Assam. The architect Christian de Portzamparc drew inspiration from Christian Dior's fabric designs for the facade of the Dior boutique in Beijing, creating a structure supported by petal-shaped shells.

Campus building fosters interdisciplinary exchange

The new social and cultural heart of the Homewood campus was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group with Rockwell Group. The Robert Day Sciences Center on 13,500 m² brings together computer science, data science, and life sciences, promoting interdisciplinary exchange among universities.

Stadium integrated into a larger sports complex

The stadium, imagined by the Institute of Architectural Design of the South Centre, features a 30,000-seat arena with a white cover that unfolds like a continuous ribbon around the stands. It is part of a larger sports complex spanning 138,000 m².

Underground station inspired by Mount Vesuvius

Designed by Anish Kapoor, the Monte Sant'Angelo station transforms entering the depths into an experience. Two monumental openings in corten steel or aluminum lead to an underground space evoking Mount Vesuvius and the legend of the Sibyl of Cumae.

Renovation of a historic stadium

Renovating the Armand-Cesari Stadium involves composing with powerful emotions. A popular facility in Corsica since 1932, it was renovated in 2025 by Ateliers A + to fully integrate its environment of sea and mountains, preserving its place in collective memory.