Thermory Design Awards 2025 winners highlight "enduring beauty of wood"
Promotion: Estonian timber supplier Thermory has announced the winners of its annual wooden architecture design awards, including a villa clad with vernacular lace-like timber, and a home influenced by Japanese wabi-sabi principles.
The annual Thermory Design Awards spotlights architecture and design, featuring "the most inspiring uses" of the supplier's thermally modified wood products.
Thermory has announced a winner for each of its four categories: best public building, best private house, best interior, and best sauna and spa. This year, the winners were selected out of 74 submissions hailing from 21 countries around the world.
The award for best public building was given to Võsu Primary School and Kindergarten in Estonia's Lahemaa National Park.
Designed by Estonian studio 3+1 Architects, the educational facility is characterised by a low-slung barn-style structure. It is clad with a mixture of different Thermory products and surface treatments, in addition to the CLT used during its construction.
The jury praised 3+1 Architects for its application of brushed cladding and oiled wooden elements, which they said contributed to the depth and warmth of the school's minimalist form.
"[It's] wonderful that children can experience such a warm, inviting atmosphere in a school," said the judges, noting the way in which the architecture studio used contemporary timber design to reinterpret local building traditions.
Set within Haapsalu's historic wooden district on Estonia's west coast, Summer Villa took home this year's award for best private house.
Designed by Estonian studio Apex Arhitektuuribüroo OÜ, the seafront home features a silvery facade clad with thermo-ash shingles and radiata pine panels produced by Thermory, as well as floor-to-ceiling glazing and sliding shutters.
The jury noted the studio's application of "lace-like timber", which nods to Estonian architectural heritage and honours local wood traditions.
According to the judges, Summer Villa demonstrates "the right level of crazy" in its craftsmanship, blending with its coastal setting – "but not in a predictable way".
Also in Estonia, Jõelähtme Juveel is a home located by a golf course that received the best interior award. The project was developed by window manufacturer Lasita – Perfecting Views, with the project designed by Tallinn-based architect Annika Valkna.
When creating the interior, the Lasita team looked to wabi-sabi, the Japanese design philosophy that celebrates imperfection and impermanence.
They paired Thermory thermo-ash walls with light CLT surfaces and subtly limewashed ceilings to achieve what the jury described as an "exquisite use of wood–like elegant clothing".
The judges praised the home's various hidden doors and refined joints. They also noted the decision to insert Thermory thermo-pine ceilings in the bathroom and also on the building's exterior canopy to sensitively "blur boundaries between inside and out".
Designed by American studio ZGF Architects, the Baltimore Ravens' Under Armour Performance Centre in Baltimore, US took home the award for best sauna and spa.
The studio applied a custom Thermory thermo-magnolia ceiling to the centre, using the same material to clad the dedicated sauna.
Natural light filters through a bespoke skylight in the hydrotherapy suite, prompting the jury to describe the architecture as "immersive and sensory".
"You can almost feel the water and scent of wood," they said.
The project was part of a wider renovation project by ZGF Architects, completed in July.
The 2025 jury featured Italian architect Alberto Salvadori of Quiet Architecture, as well as Estonian architects Karl Kiisel of DOKK Architects and Sander Aas of the studio Arhitekt 11.
Thermory representatives Katrin Reinaste-Parve and Hannes Tarn were also on the panel.
"The Thermory Design Awards celebrate the versatility, sustainability, and enduring beauty of wood in architecture and design," said the timber supplier.
"Each project reflects how thermally modified wood can shape spaces that are both innovative and human–designed to last for generations, while staying in harmony with nature."
For more information on the Thermory Design Awards, visit its website.
The photography is courtesy of Thermory Design Awards.
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Thermory. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
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