Brunel Awards

The prestigious Brunel Awards Competition distinguishes some of the best projects in railway architecture, graphics, industrial design and art, technical infrastructure and environmental integration, rolling stock, as well as examples of overall design quality across the world’s railways.

The aim of the awards is to promote aesthetic quality, customer orientation and sustainability across all sectors of the rail industry. Strong and visible manifestations of the railways as an indispensable transport mode with inherent economic and environmental advantages are key to an increased public awareness of the role the railways play in securing and enhancing the standard of living and quality of life that we all have come to take for granted.

The competition is named after the noted British railway engineer, inventor and architect Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), founder and builder of the Great Western Railway. Brunel, whose ideas were significantly ahead of his time, envisioned an intermodal transportation system which, through the integration of his Great Western Railway between London and the port of Bristol with his own steamship line, would connect London with New York. Brunel based his vision on everything the Great Western Railway had built. So well designed were his projects that many remain in service to this day.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel   biographics (37 KB)