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The non-profit organization HouseEurope! has been awarded the OBEL Award 2025 for its pioneering role in raising awareness and mobilizing public support in favor of a paradigm shift in Europe’s building and housing culture.
Awarded annually by the Henrik F. Obel Foundation, the OBEL Award recognizes the potential of architecture as a tangible agent of change. The theme of this seventh edition is Ready Made, an invitation to go beyond current norms and embrace new standards—favoring bio-based materials and resources known for their abundance in nature, renewability, and carbon efficiency.
The award ceremony will take place on October 21 in Brussels, the heart of the European Union, with events and public actions scheduled across Europe.
Prioritizing profit over people and the planet has been linked to a range of issues, including rising housing costs, increased CO₂ emissions, resource depletion caused by new construction, loss of local labor, and the erosion of cultural heritage. In particularthe construction sector is responsible for 38% of CO₂ emissions in Europe, as well as being the leading producer of waste (36%). These figures highlight the enormous environmental impact of the building industry and, consequently, its key role in shaping a sustainable, community-centered future.
It is within this context that the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) of HouseEurope! was born. HouseEurope! is a registered non-profit organization, conceived as a cutting-edge policy lab and collectively led civic initiative for the social and ecological transformation of Europe’s built environment. The goal of HouseEurope! is to promote new EU legislation to make the renovation and transformation of buildings simpler, more accessible, and socially just. To achieve this, one million signatures must be collected across all EU member states by January 31, 2026—bringing the issue to the heart of European political debate.
HouseEurope! was initiated by the architecture studio bplus.xyz and the research platform station.plus at the Institute for Design, Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich. In addition to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), it develops projects and incentives to make renovation the new standard, boosting the renovation market and adding value to existing buildings.
The OBEL Award becomes OBEL. This name change is more than symbolic: it reflects an expanded mission for the prize, shifting from a specific focus on architecture to a broader vision that embraces multiple disciplines aimed at driving social change—thus reflecting the Foundation’s commitment to a global community redefining the built environment.
OBEL thus becomes a recognition of projects and initiatives that promote positive change across various fields, even beyond architecture. In fact, the winner of the 2025 edition is not an architectural project, but a call to collective action.
With the recognition of HouseEurope!, the OBEL Jury sends a clear message to the architects of today and tomorrow: the discipline holds the collective power to challenge and transform the systems that define the way we live.
“HouseEurope! demonstrates the scale, agency, and responsibility inherent in architecture. As architects, we are not merely practitioners who receive and execute instructions—we can and should act as civic agents within the political and social frameworks to work towards the common good”. – Nathalie de Vries, MVRDV, Chair of the OBEL Jury
>>> Discover the 2024 OBEL Award Winner
