The Dezeen Awards celebrate the design and innovation behind the world’s best new buildings  – and even mid-pandemic, there’s been plenty.

Here’s our pick of the winners, from a pink Los Angeles megastore to a Samurai-inspired restaurant in Mexico City…

Best Overall Architecture Project and Best Rural Building – The Red Roof, Taa Design: Crowned the prize piece of architecture in the entire competition, the Red Roof in Vietnam won over judges by perfectly blending fashion with function. The tiered levels each play to a different part of the local lifestyle, and make the most of every inch available. Judges said: “Small projects like this one show that great design can be made available to ordinary people.”

Best Urban House – Thang House, Vo Trong Nghia Architects: A leafy, angular build, all straight lines and corners, Thang House integrates rural living into the growing metropolis of Da Nang, Vietnam. The house is divided into two parts: Living spaces, and natural spaces, labelled ‘green lungs’.

Best Restaurant Interior – Tori Tori Santa Fe, Esrawe Studio: A striking Japanese restaurant in the heart of Mexico City, the centrepiece invokes the grid-like scales of the ‘dō’ breastplate – a type of armour once worn by samurai. The judges said: “The contrast with the darker, subdued materials allows the timber to stand out in a very powerful way.”

Best Overall Interior Project and Best Hotel and Short-Stay Interior – Capsule Hotel and Bookstore, Atelier Tao+C: Built inside an old earthen structure lined with bamboo bookshelves, this guesthouse-cum-book shop impressed judges with its simplicity, and effective use of an existing environment. They said: “The resolution of the capsules themselves within the bookshelves is both well-crafted and meticulous.”

Best Large Retail Interior – The Webster, Adjaye Associates: All columns and semi-circular tables, this flagship retail outlet next to the Los Angeles Beverly Center, is layered, fluid, and eye-openingly pink. The judges said: “It’s completely fresh and new, from the curved shapes and plan to the colour of the concrete.”

Best Bar Interior – A Secret Bar In A Lively Downtown, Atelier XY: A dimly-lit bar with a deliberate air of mystery, this Shanghai tavern uses translucent surfaces to squeeze the most out of what little illumination it has. Curiosity comes from the double glass-brick walls and rows of amber-encased insects.

Best Small Interior – Smart Zendo, Sim-Plex Design Studio: A futuristic ‘smart home’ that looks straight out of 1960s sci-fi, this shoebox flat is spatially optimised down to the last square foot. Converted from a two to a four bedroom flat, its size belies its hi-tech credentials, and judges singled it out as a “challenging but highly functional space.”

Best Small Building – In Absence, Edition Office and Yhonnie Scarce: This cylindrical black monolith was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia to commemorate the erasure of indigenous peoples from Australia’s culture and history. Representing absence rather than presence – a void rather than anything material – judges praised the “powerful and visceral” conceptual tone.

Best Civic and Cultural Interior – MuseumLab, Koning Eizenberg Architecture: Originally one of the first free public libraries in the US, the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh was almost destroyed when it was struck by lightning in the mid-2000s. Now a children’s museum, this refurbished interior makes a virtue out of being a ruin, effortlessly blending modern concrete with crumbling stone.

Best Infrastructure Project – Cycling Through The Trees, Visit Limburg: An 700 metre, circular, elevated cycle path in Limburg, Belgium, the supporting columns are positioned and coloured to blend in as closely as possible with the surrounding forest. Judges said: “It’s a simple gesture that lifts you beyond the canopy of trees and allows you to contemplate the forest. It perfectly fits the environment and yet provides a great viewpoint.”