June 16, 2026 June 16, 2026 Home » Competitions » Rome Design Awards 2026 – Season 2 Overview of the competition The Rome Design Awards is an international design award organized and sponsored by International Awards Associate Inc. (IAA), a private company specializing in awards management. The award itself provides a platform for recognizing contemporary design across the fields of architecture, interior design, furniture, lighting, product design, packaging, and student design. The award draws its spirit from Italian design culture while lacking any institutional affiliation with Italian organizations, cities, or design bodies. The second season of the 2026 edition is currently open for submissions, with results to be announced on December 11, 2026.
IAA manages a broad portfolio of over 20 awards programs under the same umbrella, including the MUSE Design Awards, NY Architectural and Interior Design Awards, London Design Awards, French Design Awards, Tokyo Design Awards, TITAN Property Awards, among others. The Rome Design Awards falls under the Arte Collection group of IAA.
The award accepts completed projects, work in progress, and concept designs completed after January 1, 2022. Entries are evaluated based on five criteria: creativity and design concept, aesthetic excellence and visual communication, innovation and functionality, execution and craftsmanship, and overall impact and design significance. Works are awarded scores on a scale of 1 to 100 through a blind judging process. Recognition is distributed across four levels: Design of the Year, Platinum, Gold, and Silver.
The award functions fundamentally as a marketing and recognition tool for professionals and design offices. Winners receive certificates, digital badges, press release templates, and varying levels of media visibility based on their level of recognition. Winners of the Design of the Year award receive a physical trophy and coverage on the Muse.World platform, the media partner of IAA. There are no cash prizes or commissions, nor are there built results. For architects and designers interested in design competitions offering credentials for their portfolios and international recognition, this award serves as a low-barrier accreditation platform based on fees.
The award is open to designers, architects, studios, brands, agencies, students, and emerging creative talents from around the world. There are no geographical or qualification restrictions. Requirements for submission for each project:
The same project can be submitted in multiple relevant categories. The first category is charged at the regular price, while additional categories are offered at a discounted rate.
The Rome Design Awards is organized by the International Awards Associate Inc. (IAA), a private company managing over 20 concurrent awards programs under various geographical and thematic brand names. The award has no institutional affiliation with Rome or Italy or any Italian design agency, and the name essentially serves as a commercial positioning choice. This is an important contextual fact for participants who may assume the award carries Italian institutional endorsement. The jury for 2026 comprises 36 appointed members from diverse countries and backgrounds, though its composition clearly leans towards branding, packaging, user experience, fashion, and marketing specialists, with limited representation from architects and spatial design experts. The blind scoring system from 1 to 100 with graduated recognition from silver to Design of the Year is an organized evaluation model, yet the breadth of the jury in relation to architectural evaluation specialization remains a fundamental structural consideration. No cash prizes exist at any level. Professional entry fees start at $209 plus a mandatory administrative fee of $30, making the minimum cost for the first professional submission $239, which is relatively high for a purely recognition award without built results or a jury with direct architectural weight or media visibility compared to established awards in the field. For students, the starting fee of $60 remains more affordable. The award is best understood as a commercial accreditation platform within the IAA portfolio rather than an architectural or design competition subject to peer professional review. More substantive international competitions can be found on ArchUp for…