For the sixth annual AZ Awards, our intrepid jury narrowed the field from over 800 submissions, received from dozens of countries, to select just 48 finalists that stood above the rest. In addition to presenting the AZ Award winners, Azure recognized these projects, products and concepts with Awards of Merit.

Last spring, the terrace outside Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center became a psychedelic playground animated by giant, multicoloured spinning tops made from woven fabric over metal frames. Los Trompos, the work of Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena, is both an invitation to play and an enchanting conceptual design piece, one that enlivens a granite piazza with bursts of colour. All of the tops actually spin, though it may take some teamwork to set them in motion. Esrawe and Cadena were inspired by the universality of their subject, since children everywhere play with tops.

Location: Atlanta, U.S.

Firms: Cadena + Asociados and Esrawe Studio, Mexico

Team: Ignacio Cadena and Héctor Esrawe, with Ricardo Bideau, Arturo Bonilla, Jorge Castruita, Sofia Centeno, Alejandro Flores, David Flores, Javier García-Rivera de la Plaza, Moises González and Alberto López Monzón