INAUGURAL EDITION OF THE AIDA AWARDS: A GLOBAL STAGE REVEALING EXCEPTIONAL TALENTS FROM AFRICA AND BEYOND

The Africa International Design Awards (AIDA Awards) has announced the winners of its inaugural 2026 edition, selected by a powerhouse jury of 41 distinguished members representing 18 nationalities — an extraordinary gathering of leading designers, architects, cultural thinkers, creatives, and educators from across Africa and the diaspora.

The response to the first-ever AIDA Awards has been nothing short of remarkable. The programme received over 300 submissions from 40 countries, including 24 nations across the African continent — from Tanzania to Morocco, and from Zambia to Benin — affirming the depth, diversity, and global resonance of African-centred design today.

“When launching the first edition of the AIDA Awards, we hoped to reveal the extraordinary richness of design rooted in African experience — and what we received surpassed every expectation,” stated Astrid Hébert, Founder of the AIDA Awards. 

Submissions were reviewed across four main award categories: Spatial Design, Product Design, Fashion Design, and Communication Design. The jury board assessed each entry not only on aesthetic and technical merit, but on cultural resonance, sustainability, social impact, and innovation — values that sit at the very core of AIDA Awards’s mission.

Led by Bibi Seck (Founder, Birsel + Seck) as Head of Jury, the panel included voices such as Coline-Lee Toumson (Cultural & Artistic Affairs Advisor, Republic of Benin), Lani Adeoye (Founder & Designer, Studio Lani), Selly Raby Kane (Founder & Artistic Lead, SRK), Jomo Tariku (Designer, Jomo Furniture, LLC), Titi Ogufere (CEO, Africa Design Network), and Roberta Annan (Founder, African Fashion Foundation), Saki Mafundikwaamong (Founder & Director of Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ziva)), Issa Diabaté (Managing Director, Koffi & Diabaté Group) –  Juliet Kavishe (Executive Board Member, Pan Afrikan Design Institute (PADI) many others.

In the Spatial Design category, Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre by Xavier De Kestelier, Felix Holland, Joshua Mutabaazi, Edson Agume, Wilson Sendikwanawa, and Allan Semakula, of Hassell Studio and Localworks was awarded ‘Architectural Design of the Year’, recognized for its community-built performing arts centre serving over 270,000 South Sudanese refugees in Yumbe District, Uganda — a landmark in low-carbon humanitarian architecture. Pearl Jam by Nicole Moyo received the ‘Architectural Designer of the Year’, for a public art installation in the Miami Design District that translates Ndebele beading traditions into immersive sculptural form. The ‘Emerging Architect of the Year’ was awarded to François Abatan (with Sanny Axelle and Carol Gnimadi) of Africa Design School for OGOUN – Goddess of Iron and Courage, a contemporary reinterpretation of a Vodoun temple in Benin that bridges tradition and modern spatial expression.

In Product Design, Stitched, a story of our home by Tracy Lynch and Cebo Mvubu of Clout/SA, in collaboration with the Keiskamma Art Project, earned ‘Product Design of the Year’ — a wallpaper, fabric and homeware collection translating the trust’s signature hand-stitched embroidery into the interior design market, rooted in the coastal village of Hamburg, South Africa. Terry Aidoo received ‘Product Designer of the Year’ for Kabila Collection, a contemporary furniture series inspired by the spatial language of African home courtyards, produced in Italy using responsibly sourced Nigerian sapele wood. The ‘Emerging Product Designer of the Year’ went to Didier Stéphane Kingnide Gnonlonfoun of Beijing Institute of Technology for Sport Can, an innovative recycling device that converts plastic waste into footballs — addressing both environmental and sports access challenges across African communities.

In Fashion Design discipline, The Rowe by Charles Johnson of World Shoe, Inc. was named ‘Fashion Design of the Year’, a sustainably manufactured footwear innovation produced at a pioneering factory in Akosombo, Ghana, combining high-fashion sensibility with social enterprise and biodegradable EVA foam technology. Ghizlaine Elmanjra received ‘Fashion Designer of the Year’ for The Baazz Sneaker, a luxury fashion brand rooted in radical transparency and African craft heritage, born from a 1,200m² creative ecosystem in the old Medina of Casablanca.

In Communication Design, UE au Sénégal – Baie de Hann by David Vallier, Olivier Marchetti, and Tampidaro of Ag Partners Publicis Africa Group — commissioned by the European Union in Senegal — was awarded ‘Communication Design of the Year’, for a bold awareness campaign addressing the ecological crisis of Hann Bay in Dakar through the work of local urban painter Tampidaro. Tshepo Masilo earned “Communication Designer of the Year” for the BIC I Love Africa Pocket Lighter Series, transforming everyday product packaging into a cultural storytelling platform across Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Cameroon. The ‘Emerging Communication Designer of the Year’ was awarded to Annabelle Armstrong of Greenside Design Center for Becoming a Beacon, an editorial design project mapping Nelson Mandela’s life through the structural narrative of a lighthouse.

Bibi Seck, Head of the Jury: “When I was invited to serve as Jury President for the first edition of the African International Design Awards, I realized I had quietly crossed a threshold—stepping, perhaps, into the circle of elders. My grandson calls me Papi Bibi, while many young designers across the continent now call me BibiBaba. It is both tender and telling! As I write these lines, I think of my brothers in creation — Laduma, Christian Benimana, Issa Diabaté, Naeem Bijivi — and so many others who are shaping what can only be called a creative revolution across Africa. Every participant in this competition left a mark. What emerges is clear: our community of designers is not only growing, it is maturing — becoming sharper, more inventive, more rooted. Again and again, we witness intelligent responses to our realities, born from within. We see architects committed to imagining the spaces where we will live and work — spaces that are healthy, contextual, and grounded in materials and knowledge inherited from our ancestors. And through AIDA, we glimpse the next generation—those we will not only celebrate, but actively seek, support, and walk alongside.”

The AIDA Awards are made possible through a growing ecosystem of exceptional jury members, sponsors, partners, and supporters who share a commitment to elevating African design on the global stage. At the heart of the initiative stands the Africa Design School, alongside with two official sponsors L’École de Design Nantes Atlantique and the African Fashion Foundation (AFF).  The Awards ceremony and conferences will take place in Cotonou (Benin) at the end of July 2026.

Programme partners include African Female Architects, Africa Fashion Tour, Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week (ASFW), d5mag, Design Week South Africa, Design Week Lagos, Pan Afrikan Design Institute (PADI), Scape Magazine, v2com Newswire, DEFSA, Decorex Africa, The Fashion Law Institute, and PAID Summit.