Get inspired!

17,725 architecture projects

Learn from past Buildner architecture competition participants through our extensive project library, curated over more than 15 years!

Glazed Partitions and Wooden Columns Enhance Flexible Living Space

Author:
Mattias Nilsson
Glazed Partitions and Wooden Columns Enhance Flexible Living Space
Explore the full project presentation!
Subscribers only
With glazed partitions that invite nature inside and wooden columns providing structural support, the design creates a flexible living space focused on essential daily needs.
5 key facts about this project
01
Glazed partitions create a seamless connection between indoor living and outdoor landscape.
02
Wooden columns provide structural support while offering warmth and aesthetic appeal.
03
Natural insulation enhances energy efficiency and promotes sustainable living.
04
The layout prioritizes adaptability for future modifications and relocations.
05
Views from the bathroom enhance the sensory experience of daily routines.

The design emphasizes a return to basic living concepts, focusing on simplicity and practicality. Located in an environment that invites reflection, the dwelling is structured around essential needs, including a floor, walls, and a roof. It avoids the distractions of high-tech features and extravagant design, instead prioritizing areas for cooking, sleeping, bathing, and social activities.

Spatial Organization
-
The layout prioritizes usability and fosters a connection between residents and their environment. It is crafted to encourage self-sufficiency, allowing occupants to handle repairs, adjustments, and even relocation when necessary. This adaptability is central to the concept, asserting that a home should support the individual's ability to live freely and comfortably.

Interior Experience
-
Inside, spaces are designed to create a varied living atmosphere. A small hallway greets visitors, featuring hooks for coats and shoes. This leads to a bathroom with large windows that open up to the landscape outside. This design invites natural scenery in, allowing the cold air to meet the warm bathwater, enriching the sensory experience of the space.

Materials and Construction
-
Material choices are essential to the overall design. Wood is the primary component, with wooden columns providing structural support and wooden slabs arranged in a grid. Plywood is used for both cladding and interior surfaces, giving the home a balanced aesthetic. Natural fibers enhance insulation, while galvanized steel is utilized in roof details and stilts, ensuring strength and longevity.

Connection with Nature
-
The design addresses the important relationship between people and their surroundings, counteracting the tendencies of urban environments that can lead to disconnection. Emphasizing natural elements encourages an ongoing interaction with the environment. Glazed partitions help merge indoor and outdoor spaces, inviting nature into daily life and enhancing the overall atmosphere of the home.

Noticed a mistake?
Highlight the text and click on
Noticed a mistake

Enter an open architecture
competition now

The Home of 
Shadows
The Home of Shadows
The light studies. Edition #4
The Next House: USA
The Next House: USA
20,000 USD Prize
The Architect's 
Chair
The Architect's Chair
Take a seat and make a statement! Edition #5
Kinderspace
Kinderspace
Architecture for Children’s Development #3
The Architect’s 
Stair
The Architect’s Stair
Take a step and make a statement! Edition #3
Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2026
Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2026
100,000€ Prize / 2026

The Next House: USA — A Global Call to Reimagine the American Suburb

`
Competition organisers

Buildner is launching The Next House: USA, a global architecture competition that challenges architects, designers, and thinkers to reimagine the American suburban home for the 21st century. For decades, the suburban house has symbolized comfort and stability, but today it often reflects excess, isolation, and environmental strain. This competition asks: how can the American home evolve to address climate urgency, economic pressures, and shifting social values?

Participants are tasked with designing a prototype home of no more than 1,500 sq ft (≈140 m²) for a household of two adults and one child. The design should be compact yet generous, adaptable, sustainable, affordable, and replicable across diverse U.S. contexts. More than a design exercise, the competition aims to spark a conversation about how homes can support healthier, smarter, and more connected communities.

The total prize fund is $20,000 USD. The final registration deadline is May 20, 2026, and winners will be announced on September 22, 2026. The Next House: USA invites architects, students, and visionaries worldwide to redefine what the American home means today—and what it should mean tomorrow.

The Next House: USA

Design the next suburban home for the USA

20,000 USD Prize ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Early bird registration deadline 19 November 2025

Open architecture competitions

  • Closest deadline first
  • Project competitions first
    Selected winning projects have the potential to be constructed
  • Ideas competitions
    Experimental competitions with the focus on pushing the boundaries of creativity
new
The Next House: USA

Design the next suburban home for the USA

20,000 USD Prize ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Early bird registration deadline 19 November 2025
new
Iceland 
Slow Sauna

Design slow sauna in Iceland

project COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Early bird registration deadline 26 November 2025
Concrete 
Pavilion

Design a concrete pavilion

Edition #3 ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Final registration deadline 27 November 2025
new
Pavilion Atlas 2026

Design a story of your country

ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Early bird registration deadline 21 January 2026

Recurring architecture competitions

new
The Home of 
Shadows

Design a home with no artificial lighting

The light studies. Edition #4 ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility OPEN TO ALL
Early bird registration deadline 5 November 2025
The Last 
Nuclear Bomb Memorial

Design a memorial that speaks to the cause of ending all nuclear weapons programs

Edition #6 ideas COMPETITION SILENT CONTEST For this competition, NO DESCRIPTION TEXT is allowed. The architecture ideas must be communicated strictly with visuals.
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Final registration deadline 13 November 2025
new
The Architect's 
Chair

Take a seat and make a statement!

Take a seat and make a statement! Edition #5 ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Early bird registration deadline 20 November 2025
Hospice - 
Home for the 
Terminally ill

Design a safe and supportive space to those struggling with a terminal illness

Edition #5 ideas COMPETITION
Prize 10,000 €
Eligibility Open to all
Final registration deadline 26 November 2025
Kinderspace

Design a kindergarten of tomorrow

Architecture for Children’s Development #3 ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Final registration deadline 26 November 2025
Museum of 
Emotions

Use architecture to create different emotional states

Edition #7 ideas COMPETITION SILENT CONTEST For this competition, NO DESCRIPTION TEXT is allowed. The architecture ideas must be communicated strictly with visuals.
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Final registration deadline 27 November 2025
Re:Form - 
New Life 
for Old Spaces

Choose a site—used, abandoned, or forgotten—anywhere in the world, and give it a new purpose

Edition #2 ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Advance registration deadline 3 December 2025
The Architect’s 
Stair

Take a step and make a statement!

Take a step and make a statement! Edition #3 ideas COMPETITION
Prize Monetary award
Eligibility Open to all
Advance registration deadline 15 January 2026
new
Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2026

Celebrating your unbuilt architecture visions with a €100,000 prize

100,000€ Prize / 2026 ideas COMPETITION
Prize 100,000 €
Eligibility Open to all
Early bird registration deadline 26 February 2026

Media, partners and clients

To view this project in detail,
please log in with your
Architects’ Network Plus account.
Subscription instantly unlocks all the architecture projects plus other member-only benefits:
  • Access the 17,725 Concept Library
  • Professional tools including file transfer, email, portfolio management, and more
Register now
Already a member? Log in

This website uses cookies to improve user experience and gather usage statistics.

More information is available in our Privacy & Cookie policy