Valentino Architects recognised at the International Architecture Awards 2026
Valentino Architects has received two distinctions at the International Architecture Awards 2026, with Stilla San Lazzru Guesthouse named a winner in the Restoration/Renovation category and the VIP Terminal at the Malta International Airport receiving an Honourable Mention in the Airports and Transportation Centers category.
Organised by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, this year’s awards selected almost 190 projects from a shortlist of over 500 international submissions.
Stilla San Lazzru, completed in Cospicua in 2025, converts a historic dwelling within the Urban Conservation Area into four independent guest studios. Forming part of Stilla’s albergo diffuso across Malta’s Three Cities, the project retains and adapts the existing building while introducing a sensitively scaled vertical extension and a contemporary material language rooted in the building’s historic fabric. The award follows the project’s Prix d’Honneur at the 2025 Din l-Art Ħelwa Architectural Heritage Awards.
The VIP Terminal at Malta International Airport received an Honourable Mention for an architecture rooted in Maltese material and craft traditions. Salvaged limestone from the former terminal was reused and hand-textured using the traditional mannarett chisel, forming a new stone skin and embedding the material memory of the previous building within its replacement. The project was also recognised at the 2025 Premju Emanuele Luigi Galizia Awards. Both projects will be exhibited at “The City and the World” in Athens, opening on 18 September 2026.
