These are the most beautiful brick buildings in the world – A tomb, a museum and a liquor factory are also competing in the BRICK AWARD 26 finals

Wienerberger has been awarding the most outstanding brick architecture projects from all over the world every two years since 2004. The Brick Award is an international competition created by the company to encourage both architects and non-professional enthusiasts to explore new building forms and share design concepts. Entries are awarded in five categories – single-family homes, urban residential developments, commercial and industrial buildings, public buildings and innovative, disruptive buildings.

This year’s shortlist for the prestigious international event features 50 projects from 21 countries on five continents, selected by a pre-jury from a total of 849 submissions. The 26 BRICK AWARD winners will be selected in the final by an international panel of renowned architects and designers at the awards gala in Vienna on June 11, 2026.

Excerpt from the 50 best entries:

Projects from the Middle East include the Shafagh Tomb in the small town of Ardakan, Iran, whose inverted domes and free-flowing ribbing on its surface give it a unique look. The building thus becomes a “canvas” that celebrates freedom of expression. The structure, which serves as the gate to the cemetery, reinterprets an essentially private space as a memorial open to all – where the sacred and the mundane meet.

In Asia, the shortlisted projects include the Aga Khan Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which consists of four-storey, brick-clad buildings adjacent to a busy highway. The interior green courtyards provide a sense of calm in the densely built-up environment and provide outdoor spaces for play and learning.

In Chennai, India, the Metallic Bellows factory office is a single-storey brick building inspired by the local brickworks and clay soil. In an effort to reduce CO2 emissions, concrete has been minimized, and the traditional jack arch system gives the locally made brick architecture a light, almost floating appearance.

A prominent example in China is the UCCA Clay Museum in Yixing, designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates. The distinctive roof is defined by a rhythm of peaks that refer to the nearby Shushan Mountain. The “inverted shell structure formed by virtual spheres” is covered with 3,600 handmade dark and light brown glazed ceramic tiles.

Closer to Beijing, in the city of Tianjin, the three-story Zhongshuge Bookstore building offers a unique, immersive spatial experience with its unique, undulating brick pattern and hardware.

In Europe, Dutch Studio RAP has designed a “wave-like” facade made of 3D-printed ceramic tiles for Amsterdam’s historic Hooftstraat shopping street.

On a much larger scale, in Germany, the Leipzig Combined Heat and Power Plant’s production buildings were covered in glazed clay panels with a delicate, irregular vertical structure.

In Slovenia, an industrial hall in Ljubljana was transformed into a temporary theatre using recycled and reusable materials, with the exposed ceramic masonry elements painted silver.

In Australia, the Melbourne Holocaust Museum used around 25,000 bricks for its façade – a combination of Ceniza clay bricks and Poesia glass bricks. The elegant, hit and miss pattern balances transparency and security, creating a powerful architectural symbol of remembrance and resilience that creates a visual and physical connection to the community and natural light.

In Mexico, a tequila factory made the list: Clase Azul La Hacienda Jalisco’s warehouses and offices use local ceramics and quarried stone to blend into the volcanic landscape.

In Brazil, the White Bricks House was built using artisanal techniques using solid white-painted bricks. The varying brick layout creates varying degrees of openness and intimacy in the rooms, while carefully designed brick patterns lend the building a timeless, artisanal character.

The shortlisted project in the United States is 64 University Place, an 11-story residential building in New York’s Greenwich Village, with a hand-laid brick facade, arched windows, and a lattice structure formed by pilasters. The design combines historical references to the area with contemporary details, and the brick architecture highlights craftsmanship.