Phius Communications Manager Max Lapthorne announces the opening of the Phius Passive Projects Design Competition and provides details on the competition.
“Good, better, best, never let it rest, ‘til your good is better and your better is best.”
That old, unattributed motivational adage surfaces occasionally in popular culture, with its most recent moment in the sun coming courtesy of Chicago Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson’s fiery postgame locker room speeches that went viral during the 2025-2026 NFL season. The mantra’s application to the world of professional sports is obvious, but in the lead up to this year’s Phius Passive Projects Design Competition, it kept popping into my head (my Chicago Bears fandom could have played a small part in this).
Phius Certified buildings are not just good, but better than most other buildings. But those that separate themselves even further with clever design decisions, striking aesthetics and innovative systems thinking? Those are the best. And those are the projects we’re looking for in this year’s Passive Projects Design Competition.
Entries will be accepted through Aug. 21, and projects must be fully Phius Certified prior to that date in order to be eligible for the competition. We recommend reviewing our sample entry form before submitting your entry to ensure you have all information and materials necessary to enter. The winners will be announced during the PhiusCon 2026 opening plenary Oct. 9 in Phoenix.
The criteria by which projects will be judged — which you can find here along with many other details about the competition — remain unchanged, but we have updated the awards structure. We will no longer be awarding honorable mentions for any of the categories, there will only be winners — the best. This change is meant to further spotlight the work of the project teams whose buildings truly go above and beyond and provide them with the distinguished recognition they deserve.
But don’t worry, we have maintained our wide array of award categories, so the competition will still highlight projects of all shapes and sizes. The award categories are:
Additionally, two projects from the above winners will be awarded:
The winning projects will be selected by our distinguished group of jurors, which is as impressive and diverse a group of passive building experts as we’ve ever assembled. As always, Phius Co-Founder & Co-Executive Director Katrin Klingenberg will serve as an advisory voice on the jury, and she will be joined by the following industry heavyweights:
This is one of the most exciting times of the year at Phius as we wait for the design competition entries to roll in and our jury gets to decide which are good, better and best. We know none of you will let it rest, so be sure to submit your entry by Aug. 21 for a chance to be recognized as the best!
