Eight campus architecture projects named to Prix Versailles 'World's Most Beautiful Universities' 2026 list

The Prix Versailles award program is back with its annual list of the World's Most Beautiful Universities, highlighting campuses where architecture is doing more than housing classrooms and labs. 

This year's selections reflect a growing shift toward universities that double as inspiring, nature-connected environments, recognizing that the best campuses today are designed not only to support learning and research but also to foster collaboration, creativity, and a stronger sense of place.

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) managed to land two winning designs on this year's list: Claremont McKenna College's new Robert Day Sciences Center and the Bloomberg Student Center for Johns Hopkins University.

Check out the eight selected designs in this category for 2026 below, and explore other recent Prix Versailles winners for the World's Most Beautiful Emporiums, Airports, Restaurants, Hotels, and Museums.

University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney: Health Translation Hub, Randwick, Australia, by Architectus

Project description: "Located on Bidjigal Country, the UNSW Health Translation Hub calls to mind wind-carved coastal dunes. The facade’s complex system reduces solar radiation by around 60%, while maintaining an impression of airy transparency. Architectus, the practice responsible for the project, also embedded an Indigenous reading of place into the landscape and public interiors, drawing on native flora with medicinal and cultural significance. Full of color and warmth, and rich in texture, those details convey a distinctly non-institutional image."

University of Cambridge: Ray Dolby Centre, Cambridge, United Kingdom, by Jestico + Whiles

Project description: "Designed by Jestico + Whiles as the new home of the Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics), the Ray Dolby Centre is where cutting- edge architecture meets scientific innovation. Named after the alumnus who famously invented the Dolby noise reduction system, this 32,900 m² research center is the largest of its kind in the UK. It holds a total of 173 laboratories and 1,500 m² of cleanrooms, offices, and collaboration space, all of which benefit from highly advanced technical facilities, including exceptional vibration, humidity, and temperature control."

University of Oxford: Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford, United Kingdom, by Hopkins Architects

Project description: "Bearing the stamp of philanthropist Stephen A. Schwarzman, this new center co-locates Oxford University’s different Humanities faculties for the first time: English Language and Literature, History, Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, Medieval and Modern Languages, Music, Philosophy, and Theology and Religion. It also houses the Institute for Ethics in AI, the Oxford Internet Institute and the new Bodleian Humanities Library. Designed by Hopkins Architects in the heart of the city’s Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, the center is arranged around a spacious atrium topped by a spectacular dome. Clad in a mix of Clipsham stone and cream-colored brick, the building melds harmoniously with the traditional palette of Oxford’s architecture."

University of Amsterdam: University Library, Amsterdam, Netherlands, by MVSA Architects in collaboration with Buro van Stigt

Project description: "The new University Library at UvA marks the flamboyant conversion of a listed former hospital complex, without altering its historical identity. This project by MVSA Architects, in collaboration with Buro van Stigt, is amplified by an idea that was as simple as it was ambitious: To transform the inner courtyard into a vast atrium. This was the basis for the biomimetic roof, a slender, self-supporting steel structure inspired by the geometry of a leaf. Harmoniously straddling old and new without imposing on the historical fabric, it maximizes daylight, enhances indoor comfort and creates a climatic buffer. As the building’s spatial and social heart, the atrium is anchored by its sculptural 'Tree of Wisdom' staircase, which encourages movement, encounters and discovery."

University of Arkansas: Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation, Fayetteville, United States, by Grafton Architects

Project description: "In their acceptance of the 2020 Pritzker Prize, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara remarked, 'Architecture could be described as one of the most complex and important cultural activities on the planet.' The Irish architects have a reverence for site-specific contexts. In this case, wood is an iconic material in Arkansas, as recalled by the business of the company that gave the facility its name. Because the Center is dedicated to education, applied research, and cutting-edge fabrication for the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the architectural gesture was of vital importance. And the result is as splendid as it is unexpected."

Claremont McKenna College: Robert Day Sciences Center, Claremont, United States, by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

Project description: "The 13,500 m² Robert Day Sciences Center at Claremont McKenna College is a hub for computer science, data science, and life sciences. It illustrates the new gospel of university campuses: Creating, within a single structure, an environment designed to foster collaboration across traditionally separated fields. The spectacular architecture, from the imagination of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), is an expression of the alignment between building and teaching, with a central atrium derived from the rotation of a set of superimposed volume — with each pair pivoted 45 degrees from the floor below — providing for laboratory transparency and encouraging interdisciplinary exchanges. Eight rooftop terraces, many collaborative spaces, and open walkways are further extensions of this notion of decompartmentalized learning."

Harvard University: David Rubenstein Treehouse, Boston, United States, by Studio Gang

Project description: "Located within Enterprise Research Campus, the David Rubenstein Treehouse has reinvented the concept of the university conference center as an open, welcoming destination that connects people to nature. Designed to stimulate exchanges with opinion leaders, industry, and the local community, the building is true to its name, invoking the feeling of being nested high up inside a treetop cabin. Guided toward the interior, visitors ascend along a sculptural central staircase wrapped around freestanding elevators before arriving at Canopy Hall — the project’s signature gathering space — and its panoramic terrace. Harvard’s first building to showcase both mass timber construction and low-carbon concrete, the Rubenstein Treehouse also features high-performance systems that considerably reduce its ecological impact while enhancing occupant well-being."

Johns Hopkins University: Bloomberg Student Center, Baltimore, United States, by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and interior architect Rockwell Group in collaboration with executive architect Shepley Bulfinch

Project description: "A cascading village capped with 29 roofs installed with close to 1,000 solar panels in total: The Homewood campus’s new social and cultural hub promises to transform the university experience on a lasting basis. The Bloomberg Student Center, the university’s first facility solely dedicated to student life, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in collaboration with Rockwell Group, comprises a series of timber pavilions that instinctually hug the hillside, providing direct entry to all four stories. Its many sun-drenched meeting areas represent the materialization of an ambition of providing a sprawling 'living room' for student use."

Got a favorite among these? Which other recent campus architecture projects should have made the 2026 list in your view, and why? Share in the comments.