2025 Vitruvian Honors & Awards

Project Assessment Criteria

The FTI Awards Program is intended to recognize those project teams and their projects that have made extraordinary contributions in the advancement of façade design, engineering, fabrication, installation, and lifecycle performance. The projects recognized should exhibit the goals of the Institute in advancing the art, science, and technology of designing, planning, and constructing building facades for the benefit of people and planet.

The following is general assessment criteria established by FTI's Honors & Awards committee. Specific evaluation criteria varies by award category and can be found in the individual project category here.

Vitruvius Set the Bar

The Roman architect Vitruvius in his treatise on architecture, De Architectura, asserted that there were three principles of good architecture:

  • Firmatis (Durability) – It should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.

  • Utilitas (Usefulness) – It should be useful and function well for the people using it.

  • Venustatis (Beauty) – It should delight people and raise their spirits.

With these principles in mind; each submission should address the following areas of consideration:

Durability

  • Lifecycle planning

  • Resilience: passive/active/adaptive

  • Resistance to obsolescence (in its many forms)

  • Materiality: appropriateness and embodied carbon efficiency

  • Quality of design and construction

Usefulness

  • Functionality: fitness of purpose

  • Health, wellness and productivity

  • Carbon efficiency (operational)

  • Integration: holistic attributes

  • Cost effectiveness

Beauty

  • Tectonics, material and formal

Ready to submit a project for consideration? Please complete the online submission form in accordance with the deadline.