The best high-rise building in the world is not located in New York, Dubai or Shanghai, but right here in the Belgian capital: the ZIN building in the Brussels North District won this year's International High-Rise Award.
Organised by the City of Frankfurt, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) and DekaBank, the award is regarded as the world's leading architecture prize for high-rise buildings. It is presented jointly to the developer (Befimmo) and the architects (51N4E, l'AUC and Jaspers-Eyers)
"With ZIN, we have shown that the future of high-rise lies in transforming what’s already there," said CEO Befimmo Jean-Philip Vroninks. "This recognition belongs to a team that dared to choose the harder path, together with our architects, partners and public authorities."
Additionally, he stressed, the award is "a strong signal" for Brussels’ North District, BXNord, which is becoming "a vibrant, mixed urban neighbourhood."
ZIN building in Brussels. Credit: Befimmo
The building, located on Boulevard Roi Albert II, is a mixed-use project of around 115,500 m², and 129 metres tall. Its transformation was completed in 2024.
Becoming the first Belgian project to win the award, the building was selected from more than 1,000 towers completed worldwide over the past two years. The jury then selected 30 nominees in 12 countries, before making a shortlist of five buildings.
The One Pearl Bank (Singapore), Tencent Tower (Guangzhou), AGE 360 (Curitiba) and 88 Walker (Sydney) also made it to the final five.
Transformation instead of demolition
The jury described ZIN as "a paradigm shift in high-rise construction," putting transformation, resource efficiency and mixed use ahead of demolition and new build.
Befimmo retained the concrete cores and underground levels of the former 1970s WTC towers and connected them with a new double-height volume.
Today, ZIN combines offices, homes, a hotel, sports, food and drink, and publicly accessible spaces including a rooftop garden and a greenhouse – bringing life to the North District beyond office hours, a quality the jury explicitly valued. Among its occupants is the Flemish government.
ZIN joins previous winners including Bosco Verticale (Milan, 2014), VIA 57 West (New York, 2016), Quay Quarter Tower (Sydney, 2022) and CapitaSpring (Singapore, 2024).
The winners receive a statuette by artist Thomas Demand and €50,000 in prize money.
The exhibition Best High-Rises 2026/27 runs at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt from 5 November 2026 to 4 January 2027.
