The 2019 Stephen S. Kellert Biophilic Design Award will be bestowed Nov. 20 at Georgia Tech’s recently completed Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.

The Kellert Award was inaugurated by the International Living Future Institute in 2017 and named in honor of the late Yale University social ecologist Stephen R. Kellert, a pioneer in the field of biophilic design. According to last year’s announcement, the award recognizes projects “that demonstrate Kellert’s understanding that in addition to amplifying the human/nature connection, for a building to be truly biophilic, it must also perform like nature.”

Last year, two winners were selected by a five-judge panel: the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the Dixon Water Foundation Betty and Clint Josey Pavilion outside Decatur, Texas. (Check out the Vimeo videos on these two buildings that I embedded below. They’re pretty awesome.)

The Kendeda Building, which is the main focus of this blog, also places a strong emphasis on biophilic design, as is required under the Living Building Challenge.

Although the Nov. 20 date of the awards reception coincides with the giant Greenbuild 2019 conference in Atlanta this year, it’s technically an independent “shoulder” event. To get tickets, click here.

PHOTO AT TOP: Green roof of the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre. Image courtesy of Forgemind ArchiMedia; cropped for use here.