Chinese architect Xu Tiantian, founder and principal architect of DnA_Design and Architecture, has been named the recipient of the prestigious 2026 Charlotte Perriand Award by the Créateurs Design Awards (CDA). The honor recognizes architects whose work demonstrates exceptional innovation, social responsibility, and deep engagement with community development and place-making.
Xu Tiantian was specifically recognized for her transformative work in bridging urban and rural communities through innovative design interventions across China. Her architectural approach has been acknowledged as a powerful tool for cultural preservation and rural revitalization, making her an exemplary recipient of this distinguished honor. The award has previously been bestowed upon prominent international architects including Frida Escobedo, Jeanne Gang, Kazuyo Sejima, and Ryue Nishizawa.
The Charlotte Perriand Award honors architects who embody the spirit of Charlotte Perriand's legacy, emphasizing a commitment to innovation, social responsibility, and design that serves humanity. The recognition goes beyond aesthetic achievement to celebrate practitioners whose work creates meaningful impact on communities and the built environment. The award is presented by the Créateurs Design Awards, a global peer-to-peer recognition program that celebrates excellence across architecture, design, interior design, photography, journalism, digital art, curation, and landscape architecture.
Xu Tiantian holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from Tsinghua University. Since founding DnA in the early 2000s, she has concentrated on projects that actively engage local communities, cultural heritage, and landscape integration. Her work focuses on integrating architecture into existing social and ecological systems to create interventions that strengthen rather than disrupt community fabric.
Beyond her practice, Xu Tiantian serves as a visiting professor at several prestigious institutions, including Yale University, Tsinghua University, the University of Hong Kong, and the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Mendrisio. Her work has been exhibited internationally at renowned venues such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Venice Biennale, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA).
The award specifically recognizes her practice as being "rooted in community and place." In 2014, she introduced her innovative "Architectural Acupuncture" approach in Songyang County, Zhejiang Province. This unique methodology applies precise, small-scale interventions to underutilized spaces, with the primary aim of revitalizing local economies, preserving cultural heritage, and reinforcing community identity. The approach has gained international recognition from UN-Habitat as a model for strengthening urban-rural linkages and has significantly influenced global discourse on sustainable rural development.
Meredith Xavier, Co-Founder of the Créateurs Design Association, praised Xu Tiantian's selection, stating: "Xu Tiantian embodies Le Prix Charlotte Perriand and what it stands for with her deep grounding and appreciation for the local communities and cities she is designing within. She is reshaping rural landscapes in China in a way that is shifting the cultural dialogue, and we are excited to celebrate her work through our global community."
Xu Tiantian's impressive list of previous recognitions includes the 2022 Swiss Architectural Award, the 2023 Berlin Art Prize for Architecture, the Marcus Prize, the UNESCO Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, the Holcim Gold Award for Asia-Pacific, and the 2025 Wolf Prize for Architecture. In 2024, she was elected as a member of the prestigious Akademie der Künste (ADK) in Berlin.
The recognition will be formally presented during a ceremony scheduled for January 17, 2026, at the Shangri-La Paris. The Créateurs Design Awards continues to accept submissions until November 23, 2025, for works completed between April 2024 and November 2025 across eight categories: Architecture, Design, Interior Design, Photography, Journalism, Digital Art, Curation, and for the first time this year, Landscape Architecture. This award places Xu Tiantian among a growing number of women in architecture receiving international recognition, including the Indian office ReSa Architects, winners of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale Début Award 2025, and Vietnamese architect Trần Thị Ngụ Ngôn, recipient of the Diversity in Architecture (DIVIA) Award 2025.
