Submissions Open: July 10, 2025
Submissions Close: September 9, 2025 at 11:59 PM CST
Honoring excellence and originality in healthcare interior design that is exemplary of extraordinary innovations in design concepts across 15 categories.
The IIDA Healthcare Design Awards take place annually. 2025 commemorates the 14th annual design competition.
Competition Guidelines
Submission Requirements
All submissions will be done electronically, no hard copy submissions will be accepted. To enter a project into this competition, you will need to prepare and submit the following:
Eligibility
Any interior designer, interior architect, or architect may submit design project(s). Projects must be healthcare interior design projects completed no earlier than June 1, 2022.
Written Component
- Your firm's contact information including name, address, phone number, and email
- Your design project's information including name and location
- Project description: a brief project summary (50-word maximum)
- Challenge statement: a description of your design challenge (250-word maximum)
- Solution statement: a description of specific solutions to project challenges (250-word maximum)
Images
Please submit color images of your completed project, in JPG or JPEG format with a maximum file size of 2MB. You may submit captions to your images, not to exceed 50 words. Take note of the following additional guidelines:
- Submit 7-10 color images total - of these images only one (1) exterior image is permitted, and a maximum of three (3) floorplans
- No composite images allowed - only one photograph per image upload
- Use numbers to name your image files, in order of uploads (01, 02, 03, etc). Please use the following format for floor plans: "floorplan1, floorplan2, floorplan3"
- Do not reference or include your design/architectural firm name/logo in the images.
- Images may be edited to improve contrast ratio, color balance, and composition through cropping only.
- Images may not be edited to add, remove, or alter any aspect or element of the project including its context. Images should represent the project as it exists in the built environment.
- Conceptual renderings will not be accepted
Categories
Projects must be submitted in one of the categories below. All projects are eligible for the Transformation and Innovative Award, which recognizes a project that is leading the industry and advancing healthcare outcomes. Categories may be renamed, consolidated, or eliminated (and projects reclassified) at the discretion of IIDA and/or the jurors.
- Ambulatory
- Specialty clinic
- Pediatric
- Cancer center
- Ambulatory surgery center
- Urgent care center
- Hospitals
- Community
- Academic/teaching hospitals
- Pediatric
- Women's
- Psychiatric
- Extended Care & Assisted Living Facilities
- Skilled nursing facility,
- Mental health
- Long-term care
- Hospice/palliative care
- Independent Living
Judging
The winning design projects are chosen by a jury of design professionals. Submissions are judged on excellence in aesthetics, design, creativity, and function as well as the suitability of the design solution to the project challenge and the successful integration of the elements of design. The jury reserves the right to not select a winner from the entries submitted.
Prize
Category winners are scheduled to be announced on October 28, 2025. The Best of Competition Award and the Transformation and Innovation Award winners will be announced at the IIDA Healthcare Design Awards Winner’s Celebration on November 13, 2025, at IIDA Headquarters in Chicago. Winners will be featured in Healthcare Design magazine and on IIDA.org. Winners will also receive official digital assets, including competition winner logos for self-promotion, coverage and mention on IIDA’s social media accounts, and in an official press release distributed to leading industry outlets and media partners.
For questions or more information, contact Veronica Whitaker at vwhitaker@iida.org