Introduction
Buildner is excited to announce the results of its second annual Home of Shadows international architecture ideas competition.
The competition series is designed to focus on the vital interplay between light and shadow in creating functional and inviting living spaces. It highlights the importance of natural light in home design, essential for creating comfortable, inviting, and practical environments.
Light is viewed as a language through which architects communicate emotions in their designs, with shadows playing an equally significant role in influencing the ambiance of a space. The balance between light and shadow allows for the creation of spaces with depth and texture, setting different moods for various purposes. Often, this balance can be achieved through the strategic placement of windows and doors.
For this edition, participants were tasked with designing a home for a hypothetical couple, adhering to one primary rule: no artificial light within the home. The jury sought designs that demonstrated how natural light could shape architectural decisions. Participants could select any theoretical site for their Home of Shadows and propose a fully functional building, incorporating essential amenities such as a kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom, and a small courtyard.
Buildner worked with a dynamic jury panel boasting a wide range of experiences and expertise: Sarah Broadstock is an architect at London-based Studio Bark; Ophélie Herranz is a Director of Nomos Architects in Madrid; Robert Hutchison is an American practitioner, researcher, and educator whose interests and practice overlap the fields of architecture, art and photography; Roxanne Kaye is a Principal at Cape Town-based SAOTA; Nikita Morell is a specialized copywriter for architects and Founder of Architects WordShop: an online shop dedicated to helping architects with their words; Andrew Maynard is Principal and Architect at Melbourne-based Austin Maynard Architects; Blake T. Smith is an architectural designer and educator based in Brooklyn, New York, where he works as an Associate and Senior Designer at BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group; Daniel Toole is Founder and Principal at Portland-based Daniel Toole Architecture; and Patcharada Inplang and Thongchai Chansamak are the founders of Chiangmai, Thailand-based Sher Maker.
Buildner and its jury panel extend their congratulations to the winning teams and thank all participants for submitting proposals.
We sincerely thank our jury panel
for their time and expertise
Ophélie Herranz
Director, Nomos Architects
Spain
Robert Hutchison
Robert Hutchison Architecture
USA
Roxanne Kaye
SAOTA
South Africa
Nikita Morell
Founder, Architects WordShop
Australia
Andrew Maynard
Principal and Architect, Austin Maynard Architects
Australia
Daniel Toole
Founder and Principal, Daniel Toole Architecture
United States
Blake T. Smith
BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group
United States
Patcharada Inplang
Sher Maker
Thailand
Thongchai Chansamak
Sher Maker
Thailand
Sarah Broadstock
Architect at Studio Bark
United Kingdom
1st Prize Winner
Dancing Flow
There are several reasons why participating in architecture competitions is valuable. First, architecture competitions provide a great opportunity to showcase creativity and test innovative ideas. They are appealing because they allow for experimenting with new design approaches and advancing innovative architectural techniques. Additionally, competitions serve as platforms to actualize projects and receive evaluations from experts. This feedback is essential for understanding how one's work would function in real-world environments and for making improvements. Lastly, architecture competitions offer networking opportunities. They connect participants with various professionals such as architects, designers, and interior decorators, providing opportunities for collaboration and enhancing professional expertise. Because of these reasons, architecture competitions are highly regarded and beneficial for architects and professionals in the field, which is why there is significant interest in participating in many competitions.
Read full interviewJury feedback summary
"Dancing Flow" is located in Jinju, South Korea. Utilizing Jinju's abundant sunlight, the house features a linear open floor plan with varied walls and openings. The curved bedroom walls provide privacy while welcoming morning light, guiding the couple from the bedroom through shadowed dressing rooms to softly lit bathrooms. The courtyard, framed by polycarbonate walls, creates a restful ambiance with delicate, time-dependent lighting effects. Functional spaces are designed with light considerations: the south-facing living room is bright yet shielded from glare, the kitchen optimally uses light at specific times, and the workroom and meditation room use light and shadow to create distinct atmospheres for productivity and introspection. The design harmonizes daily emotions with essential life functions.
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
Order your review hereThe project is defined by beautifully produced renderings and clear linework that is complex with details yet which communicate ideas simply and impactfully. The lengthy text would benefit from being divided into distinct themes for better readability. Unlike a news article, which presents information concisely, this submission reads more like a book, making it a bit harder and more complicated to navigate. Bold keywords and subtitles would help, as woul additional annotations on the diagrams and visuals to clarify materiality, design concepts, and specific spaces. These improvements would make the presentation more accessible and appear more thoroughly analyzed and complete.
2nd Prize Winner +
Buildner Student Award
Buildner Student Award
The Dance Of Shadows
As an architecture student, I believe that the design opportunities we encounter in school are limited. Architectural competitions, however, push me forward, helping me explore what design can be like under extreme conditions. Additionally, the impact of natural light on architecture is a theme I have always wanted to explore further.
Read full interviewJury feedback summary
"Dance of Shadows" harnesses natural light to shape the daily rhythms of its occupants. The design aligns spaces with the sun's path, creating dynamic, interconnected fragments that evolve with the changing light. Organized around a rounded courtyard, the home features an entrance illuminated from above, where shadows indicate the time of day. The artistic space captures the gentle morning light, fostering creativity. The living room is positioned to bask in the warm, golden glow of the sunset, enhancing its ambiance. The bedroom, centrally located, is bathed in the tranquil light of the moon and stars, providing a serene environment for rest. This thoughtful arrangement highlights the profound relationship between light, shadow, and architecture, enhancing the daily experience of its residents.
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
Order your review hereThe project showcases excellent visuals and simple linework and diagrams, it remains highly conceptual and would benefit from additional details to express it as a constructable proposition. The absence of human figures detracts from understanding scale and spatial experience. The text would be clearer if reduced and more targeted to align directly with corresponding drawings and visuals. The images would benefit from slightly more variation to describe different spaces, with different funiture settings to communicate use - for instance, how does a kitchen work in a home like this?
3rd Prize Winner
Shamash - The Shade Of The Sun
We see architecture competitions as an opportunity to push the limits of our thinking and test our strengths in every aspect of working as a group.
Read full interviewJury feedback summary
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
Order your review hereThe project design intent is clear and takes advantage of high-quality drawings to communicate the concept. While the hierarchy and variation of perspective/scale in the renderings is excellent, the use of so many renderings of similar quality is nonetheless rather repetetive. The author would benefit from more varied drawing types. The imagery would also communicate additional information if key concepts, materials, space labels or other annotataion related to design intent were included as an additional 'layer' of information. Such details are critical for a jury to really understand this project as an architectural solution. How are the walls constructed? The roof? What climate-friendly solutions are embedded in the architecture? While this may also be included in texts, the most clear representation for reviewers is through corresponding text with images.
Buildner Sustainability Award
Komorebi House
What motivated us to participate in this competition was the proposal: connecting with light as a material of visibility and knowledge. Light-based design questions the design process, inverting the idea of habitat, intimacy, and protection, and challenging the choice of materials and the scope of the technical aspects of elements.
Read full interviewJury feedback summary
This project explores the coexistence of nature and humans by focusing on light as a structural element of visibility and comfort. It addresses challenges in environments with limited natural light, balancing natural habitat with the necessary protection and visibility for societal development. The design situates itself in complex terrain where light and habitat coexist in a metastable relationship, demanding a unifying approach. Light is taken as the organizing principle, with direction and position as key elements. The central axis directs light, a linear sequence reflects time, and a dome covers the controllable habitat, forming a space surrounded by pure light. This habitat modulates visibility to create environments with specific uses and functions, demonstrating the potential for harmonious coexistence between light and habitat.
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
Order your review hereBuildner has two primary suggestions for this submission. The first is related to the line drawings. It is recommended that the author test more varied use of line weights to provide hierarchy and balance to the section, plan and diagrammatic drawings. As submitted, these are all quite uniform and difficult to read, both at the scale of the page and when zoomed into a single drawing. The plan drawing in particular would benefit from darker 'cut' lines to more clearly describe the spaces. The second recommendation is related to annotation. Neither the plan or section are labeled, nor are any of the renderings. As a result the project appears incomplete and unanalyzed. Simple annotation would allow jurors or readers to more clearly understand what they are reviewing without having to search for the information elsewhere.
"The shade of the sun" centers around a home designed to synchronize with the Sun's path, creating a rhythmic living experience akin to clockwork. The house features concentric circles that mimic a temple-like atmosphere, with strategically pierced openings in the walls to filter sunlight. Inspired by Mesopotamian maze-like structures, the circular floor plan captures varying spatial depths under a single roof. To reach the central fire pit, symbolizing the hearth, one must traverse a path through water, which sustains both vegetation and residents. Emphasizing the interplay of light and shadow, each room is treated as an individual entity, resulting in diverse shadows that highlight the vitality of life within the enclosed oasis.