And the CEBRA award 2026 goes to…

A new generation of architects has just graduated from Aarhus School of Architecture. At the end of every graduating semester, the CEBRA award is presented to a graduate for a project that, in a convincing manner, through its entire course of study, has managed to challenge the field and boundaries of architecture. The project should be investigative and curious in its development, seeking to push the boundaries of the traditional approach to creating and perceiving architecture and space, as well as it should point to the future rather than the past.

‘Wet Rehearsals & Tidal Futures’ by Constance Belling addresses one of the most urgent architectural questions of our time: how can we live with water as sea levels continue to rise?

Through a precise, site-specific analysis of hydrology, housing typologies, and the latent potential of the landscape, Constance develops an alternative to the technical, and often excluding, solutions that currently dominate much climate adaptation. Instead, she proposes a scenario in which water is given space, and everyday life unfolds through new rhythms and spatial strategies.

Through a precise, site-specific analysis of hydrology, housing typologies, and the latent potential of the landscape, Constance develops an alternative to the technical, and often excluding, solutions that currently dominate much climate adaptation. Instead, she proposes a scenario in which water is given space, and everyday life unfolds through new rhythms and spatial strategies.

CEBRA

With beautiful, persuasive drawings, she demonstrates how the existing detached houses might be transformed and how the surrounding neighbourhood could gradually evolve into a wetland landscape – one that not only manages rainwater but also fosters new forms of shared life and renewed encounters with nature. She outlines two distinct strategies: allowing water in, letting the ground floor of the house become a basin – or keeping it out by raising the terrain and creating an island around the home. In both cases, architecture becomes, in Constance’s interpretation, both more compelling and more richly experienced.

‘Wet Rehearsal & Tidal Futures’ turns dystopia into utopia, offering an image of a future in which we do not merely attempt to defend ourselves against climate change, but learn to live with it – using creativity to shape better conditions for life.

Constance Belling receives the CEBRA award – Le Corbusier’s legendary eight-volume ‘Oeuvre Complete’, as well as our books ‘CEBRA files 04’ and ‘We Build Drawings’ – for her artistic, critical and constructive approach to architecture as a tool in a time marked by crisis and change. She shows that the solutions of tomorrow are not only about technique and control, but also about imagination, beauty, and hope.

Congratulations on your achievements, Constance!

Illustration: ‘Wet Rehearsals & Tidal Futures’