Press Release
Box Factory Zero Energy Resilience Hub by Hafsa Burt - Hb+a Architects Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design
Hafsa Burt - Hb+a Architects of hb+a Architects honored for sustainable products, projects and green design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 15, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Box Factory Zero Energy Resilience Hub by Hafsa Burt - Hb+a Architects of hb+a Architects has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
Regarding Box Factory Zero Energy Resilience Hub
This Zero Energy, low carbon project has operational data that confirms its actual performance. It is an all electric building that relies on onsite solar to meet its energy needs, with heat pumps providing heating and cooling. Careful siting and form work as hard as the systems, with the building oriented to local wind patterns and sun angles. Box Factory integrates climate resilience, innovation, and community impact through thoughtful design. During the 2022 Electra Fire, which burned 4,500 acres in Amador County, the project proved itself resilient and climate ready.
About Hafsa Burt - Hb+a Architects
Hafsa's long-term advocacy and innovation-focused career translates practice into environmental policy and education to advance the profession of architecture as a catalyst for ecological resilience. Hafsa has spent the majority of her career integrating environmental best practices into projects ranging from small tenant improvements to major infrastructure and community hubs. Her leadership has resulted in hundreds of high-performance buildings with robust systems for conservation, waste diversion, and healthy indoor environments across diverse sectors, including retail, institutional and transit. Hafsa’s projects demonstrate a holistic approach and long-term community benefit.
About hb+a Architects
Pioneers in the Sustainability realm, highly experimental firm.
Award Record
With this recognition, Hafsa Burt - Hb+a Architects of hb+a Architects is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design Award
The A' Sustainable Product Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good sustainable products by leading designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to sustainable product designers, green product manufacturers, eco-friendly product brands and industrial designers from all countries. Typical entries include sustainable projects, environment friendly designs, recycled, upcycled and bio-degradable products. The awarded sustainable product designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/sustainable-product
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/180146
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/180146
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!180146
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/378955
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://hbaarchitects.com/
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Box Factory Zero Energy Resilience Hub
- Function
- Zero Energy Resilience Hub
- Category
- Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Sustainability
- Colors
- Lavender, Dark Gray, Light Gray, Dark Slate Gray and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Hafsa Burt - Hb+a Architects
- Country
- United States of America
- Brand
- hb+a Architects
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #180146
Credits
- Team
- hb+a Architects - Architecture, MEP, Landscape Design, Sustainability programming, SDE Engineering - Foundation Slab and Doug Birnbaum - Photography
- Image Credits
- Doug Birnbaum
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This project is Zero Energy with operational data to confirm its performance. It is an all‑electric building that relies on onsite solar to meet its energy needs, with heat pumps providing heating and cooling. Careful siting and form work as hard as the systems, with the building oriented to local wind patterns and sun angles. The design is also a flex space designed for diassembly and flexibility for programmatic functionality.
- Inspiration
- In 2022, the Electra Fire ignited near Electra Road and Highway 49 in Amador County and rapidly spread across 4,478 acres in both Amador and Calaveras counties. The fire prompted evacuations and posed significant threats to local infrastructure and communities. During these events, the project functioned as a resilience hub for neighboring properties when residents had to evacuate due to safety warnings and countywide power shutoffs.
- Research
- The Box Factory takes a deliberate approach to materiality, using a compact form, low‑impact construction methods, and carefully vetted assemblies to reduce its environmental footprint. Structural components were prefabricated off‑site and assembled on location, which dramatically cut construction waste, noise, and dust while tightening quality control and speeding delivery. This approach limited disturbance to the surrounding landscape and community, aligning construction practice with the project’s long‑term environmental ambitions. Materials were selected for durability, low toxicity, and ease of maintenance, reinforcing both climate goals and lifecycle performance.
- Challenge
- This project is Zero Energy Ready, with performance continuously monitored rather than assumed. It is an all‑electric building that relies on onsite solar to meet its energy needs, with high‑efficiency heat pumps providing both heating and cooling and smart controls fine‑tuning operation over the year. Careful siting and form do as much work as the equipment: the building is oriented to local wind patterns and sun angles, with shading tuned to block high summer sun and admit lower winter sun, and north‑facing windows opening toward existing mature trees to frame views while tempering light, glare, and heat gain.
- Realization and Technology
- Low Carbon with some prefabricated elements
- Operation and Interaction
- Box Factory integrates sustainability, innovation, and community impact through thoughtful design. It champions creative slab reuse, minimizes embodied carbon, and prioritizes environmental responsibility in ways that are tangible to everyday users. Framed by leading international standards for zero energy, low‑carbon design, it advances architecture by balancing holistic performance, rigorous metrics, and meaningful contributions to its community, turning a modest building into a living demonstration of what resilient, climate‑positive design can look and feel like in practice.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project is located in California, design started in 2019 and final rack was installed in 2022 and landscape was also finished in 2022.
