This competition is part of a strategic partnership between Buildner and ArchDaily that aims to explore "The Contemporary Home".
Learn moreThe contemporary home
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Introduction
COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Official partners
The Denver Affordable Housing Challenge is an international architecture competition organized by AIA Colorado, the City and County of Denver, and Buildner. As the 19th installment in Buildner’s Affordable Housing Challenge series, the competition explores how affordability and design excellence can be harmonized to create innovative, high-quality housing solutions tailored to Denver’s specific context.
While housing affordability remains one of the city’s most urgent issues—exacerbated by population growth, economic pressures, and shifting demographics—this initiative calls on architects, designers, and urban thinkers to propose visionary solutions that do more than meet basic housing needs. Participants are encouraged to reimagine the role of affordable housing as a tool for elevating neighborhoods, reinforcing urban identity, and addressing broader challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inclusion.
Rather than prescribing a specific site or scale, the competition offers flexibility, inviting proposals across architectural, urban, or policy-driven frameworks. Participants may propose building typologies, neighborhood strategies, or systemic interventions. Proposals should reflect a deep understanding of Denver’s environmental, cultural, and technological landscape, with designs that are scalable, sustainable, and grounded in a vision for long-term resilience and equity.
Submissions should present a coherent and compelling architectural narrative, supported by site strategies, housing models, and thoughtful design detailing. Solutions should prioritize quality of life, community integration, and environmental responsibility, pushing beyond cost-effectiveness to explore how affordable housing can contribute to the city’s vibrancy and sense of place.
Ultimately, the Denver Affordable Housing Challenge is not just a competition—it is a platform for shaping the future of cities. By bringing together a diverse global audience of creative professionals, it seeks to provoke new ideas, question outdated norms, and inspire the next generation of inclusive, high-quality urban development.
Download the full competition brief for more information!
Competition is open to all. No professional qualification is required. Design proposals can be developed individually or by teams (4 team members maximum). Correspondence with organizers must be conducted in English; All information submitted by participants must be in English.
Brief
The full competition brief can be downloaded as often as required; no additional information will be provided after registration.
Full Competition Brief
Prizes
Prize fund
20,000 $
1ST PLACE
10,000 $
2ND PLACE
5,000 $
3RD PLACE
3,000 $
Buildner Student Award
1,000 $
Buildner Sustainability Award
1,000 $
6 Honorable mentions & certificates
Buildner will acknowledge the outstanding performance of all winners and honourable mentions with Certificates of Achievement.
Publicity campaign
Buildner's publicity campaign offers extensive exposure to the architectural community, ensuring that the results of the competition are seen by a vast audience:
Buildner's two million
The results are published on buildner.com, a leading website in the architecture industry, attracting over one million unique visitors annually. Additionally, the campaign extends to Buildner's social networks, which boast over 800,000 followers combined, and through newsletter campaigns reaching over 200,000 subscribers.
Interview and movie
Winners will have the opportunity to submit a movie and an interview, boosting their recognizability and helping to build their name in the industry.
Extensive media network
Buildner leverages an extensive network of media industry leaders to publish the competition results. This broadens the audience further, ensuring that participants' work is showcased across multiple platforms known for their influence and reach in the architecture and design sectors.
Publicity
ArchDaily feature
As part of the collaboration between Buildner and ArchDaily, the competition winners will be showcased on ArchDaily, a leading architecture news platform.
This feature will greatly boost the winners' visibility to millions of architecture professionals and enthusiasts worldwide, increasing their chances for new opportunities, attracting new clients, and establishing their reputation in the industry.
Read more about Buildner and ArchDaily partnership
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Meet your jury
Currently, the jury panel for the Denver Affordable Housing Challenge Architecture Competition has not yet been published. However, you can see the jury panels from previous competitions at the following link: https://architecturecompetitions.com/guest-jury
Buildner is committed to selecting the most qualified industry professionals to comprise its jury panels. These panels consist of architects and professionals from other relevant fields to ensure the most objective competition results. All communication regarding the competition should only be carried out with Buildner staff. For any questions, please contact us at [email protected].
Key dates
Send remindersClosing date for registration
18 September 2025
Competition Q&A deadline
24 September 2025
In order to guarantee equal opportunities to all competition participants.
No new questions will be answered after this deadline.
Closing date for project submission
20 October 2025
23:59 (LONDON TIME)
Announcement of the winners
10 December 2025
Competition Q&A deadline
24 September 2025
In order to guarantee equal opportunities to all competition participants.
No new questions will be answered after this deadline.
Registration fees
STUDENT REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
Contact us to receive special student rates for group registrations (discount applies for 3+ registrations from one university/school) and to receive further information and support for getting your students involved in architecture competitions. Send us request from your university email address along with basic information about yourself and your university/school. Please note that only recognized university staff can apply for the reduced student rate.
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Architecture competitions newsletter
Click on "register now", fill in all the required fields, choose your payment method and submit your information. You will be forwarded to Paypal or CPS secure payment gateway, to cover the competition fee. Once we receive your payment, we'll send you an email with your username and password to upload your submission directly to the website.
You can add/remove/edit team member information as often as you want in the upload panel, up until the submission deadline.
Yes we are in the process of negotiating with multiple international industry-related media representatives. The list of media partners is constantly updated on our website, please check it regularly to find latest updates.
Yes. If the jury panel selects a Student award's submission for the top 3, it will automatically be awarded both prizes.
No. Competition entries are evaluated anonymously. The participant registration type is only revealed upon the announcement of the results.
Please contact us – [email protected] and we will address the problem directly.
The short answer is yes, you may submit a previously published design concept as long as you are the author. Before re-submitting your project, please carefully read the following clarification points listed here - architecturecompetitions.com/resubmit-your-design
As AI-generated images may be based on pre-existing work or generated using proprietary algorithms, it is best to check the specific terms and conditions of the AI tool used to generate the image to determine its ownership status. It may also be necessary to seek legal advice to fully understand the ownership rights and any restrictions that may apply. In general, it is not recommended to consider AI-generated images as your sole work or intellectual property unless you have obtained explicit permission to do so.
Celebrate your idea.
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