The Uluru-Kata Tjuta Signature Walk by Troppo Architects has been voted the People's Choice Winner of the 2026 Lysaght Inspirations Design Awards, earning a $2,500 prize on top of its inaugural Resilient Building Design Award. The public chose the airlifted, off-grid eco-lodges on Anangu Country, clad in LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® and KLIP-LOK® in a custom COLORBOND® steel Etna Red™ finish.
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta Signature Walk by Troppo Architects has been voted the People's Choice Winner of the 2026 Lysaght Inspirations Design Awards. The off-grid eco-lodges on Anangu Country also took out the inaugural Resilient Building Design Award, making the Signature Walk one of two projects to win twice in this year's program.
Chosen by the public
After entries closed, the People's Choice Award handed the decision to the public. Voting opened on Monday, 21 September and ran until 11.55pm AEDT on Sunday, 18 October 2026, with Australians invited to pick a favourite from the 2026 shortlist. More than 1,000 votes were cast, and the Signature Walk finished on top.
Leaving no trace on Country
The Signature Walk is a five-day guided walk between Kata Tjuta and Uluru, developed in partnership with the Anangu Traditional Owners. Troppo Architects designed its three camps for a site inside a World Heritage-listed national park, where ground disturbance, grid power and conventional construction were all ruled out. So every lodge was built off site, carried by road train to Yulara and set down by helicopter. Drawing on traditional Anangu wiltja forms, the buildings sit low in the dunes, run on standalone solar and stand on concrete-free screw piles, so the camps could one day be removed without leaving anything buried.
"The lodges were hoisted in by chopper, no mean feat in the middle of a desert and in the wind."
Troppo Architects
The role of LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® and KLIP-LOK®
In photographs, the colour does much of the work. LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® and KLIP-LOK® roofing and cladding were finished in a custom COLORBOND® steel Etna Red™, developed to sit within the red dunes of Uluru-Kata Tjuta and weather with them, and SHORELINE® and HALF ROUND® guttering complete the package. The steel was factory-finished and fitted to tight tolerances before each module left the shed, because there was no way to fix a damaged sheet once it was in the air. It arrived by road and helicopter ready to perform on one of the most remote building sites in Australia.
People's Choice Award Winner
The People's Choice Award is the one prize in the program decided entirely by public vote. Paired with the Resilient Building Design Award the judges gave the project, it means the Signature Walk has been recognised by both the panel and the public.
"It's rare for a project to win over the judges and the public in the same year. The Signature Walk does both because the story is so clear: buildings that arrived by air, sit lightly on Country and still feel at home in the dunes."
The 2026 judging panel
Troppo Architects receives the $2,500 People's Choice Award prize, in addition to $5,000 for the Resilient Building Design Award.
Dual recognition
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta Signature Walk closes the 2026 Lysaght Inspirations Design Awards as one of its most recognised projects, and the full story of its design and delivery is in our Resilient Building Design Award feature. It sits among the 2026 recipients led by the Overall Winner, Larnangurrak (Our Place).
Learn more about CUSTOM ORB®, KLIP-LOK®, SHORELINE® and HALF ROUND®
Explore the 2026 winners
Overall Winner and Commercial & Industrial Design: Larnangurrak (Our Place) by Y2 Architecture
Residential Design: MacKenzie House by Designers of Space
Regional Design: Blackheath Mountain Retreat by Matthew Dynon Architect
Resilient Building Design: Uluru-Kata Tjuta Signature Walk by Troppo Architects
Student Award: Goodwood Green Community Hub by Sasha Rounsefell
Images courtesy of Troppo Architects.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta Signature Walk: Off-Grid Eco Tourism Development by Troppo Architects won the People's Choice Award at the 2026 Lysaght Inspirations Design Awards. The project is a series of eco-lodge camps on a five-day guided walk between Kata Tjuta and Uluru in the Northern Territory.
The People's Choice Award is decided by public vote. Voting ran from Monday, 21 September until 11.55pm AEDT on Sunday, 18 October 2026, with the public choosing a favourite from the 2026 shortlist, and more than 1,000 votes were cast.
Yes. The judges named it the inaugural winner of the Resilient Building Design Award, new for 2026. Troppo Architects receives $5,000 for that award and $2,500 for the People's Choice Award.
The camps sit on sacred Anangu land inside a World Heritage-listed national park, where no ground disturbance, grid connection or conventional construction was allowed. Every lodge was built off site, set down by helicopter and runs on standalone solar, so the camps could be removed without leaving anything buried.
LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® and KLIP-LOK® form the roofing and cladding, with SHORELINE® and HALF ROUND® guttering, all in a custom COLORBOND® steel Etna Red™ finish. The colour was developed to sit within the red-dune palette of Uluru-Kata Tjuta and weather alongside it.
