Does Your Project Have What It Takes to Win Andersen’s Bright Ideas Awards?

Incorporating natural light into a home is one of the most straightforward ways to connect the built environment to the landscape, fresh air, and natural world around you. When your home glows, you do too.

That’s why Andersen Windows & Doors—in collaboration with Dwell—launched its Bright Ideas Awards in 2021: To celebrate homes that utilize natural light and the positive benefits it brings to our daily lives.

And we’re thrilled to kick off the design competition for a third year with a new student category that will honor the next generation of design professionals who are exploring the inexhaustible potential of daylight.

"Dwell has always championed emerging designers and helped our readers discover new talent. We're excited to add a student category to this year's Bright Ideas Awards and continue to highlight what's next in design," says William Hanley, Dwell’s editor-in-chief.

The 2023 awards will recognize new, completed residential work submitted in two categories: single family and multifamily, as well as an unbuilt category for architecture students. There will be one winner and one runner-up in each category alongside an honorable mention for the student category.

Selection of Winners

We’ll announce the winning projects online on October 2, 2023. Winners will also be featured in the print version of Dwell this winter.

Award Criteria

The competition is open to licensed individual architects and firms and actively enrolled architecture students in the U.S. The winning residential projects do not need to include Andersen products and will be:

1. Creative in their approach to fenestration and daylighting.

2. Environmentally responsible with safe, healthy living spaces that incorporate recycled, renewable, or otherwise sustainable materials.

3. Structurally innovative in their use of new materials and/or methods.

4. Aesthetically innovative with interesting use of form and finishes.

5. Contextualized and responsive to their surroundings to ensure they fit into their environment.

Panel of Judges

Winners, runners-up, and the honorable mention will be determined by our panel of judges, which includes:

Brandon Berg, VP of Research & Development at Andersen

Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, Dream Awake

Jesús Edmundo Robles, Jr., Dust Architects

Talitha Liu and Lexi Tsien, Soft-Firm

William Hanley, Editor-in-Chief of Dwell