Architecture Competition Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge Honorable mention winner - Ruichen Xu

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winner for our "Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge" competition – Ruichen Xu from United States!

Ruichen Xu from United States

I have dreamed of becoming an Architect for a decade. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with an 8-year Architecture study, I started my career at AECOM as an Architecture Designer. I am focusing on using traditional architectural ways to seek solutions to social issues like post-pandemic architecture and affordable housing in specific communities. My studies in architecture grant a unique perspective along with experimental concept designs to explore possibilities and feasible resolutions for such topics. I hope architecture and illustrations could help designers express both their understanding of the world and their expectation for a better world.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

Along with my day-to-day activities at AECOM, I dedicate myself to sustainable design and renovation projects. I have been working on a modernization renovation project called Sijan Hall, located in Colorado Springs, which requires multidisciplinary cooperation and high performance in sustainable aspects.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

I believe that Architecture is an extraordinary and eternal way of expressing civilization when it has been a rigid demand for human beings for thousands of years. All details live in architecture, cooperate and evoke for itself the world with their voice as architecture. We, architects, translate our thinking and understanding of the world using the language of architecture by creating a dialogue with the users and visitors while inserting our visions and expectations of the world. The architectural expression has become a second language to me and it almost penetrated every second of our life. Architecture could not only serve as a functional shelter, a beautiful eye candy, or even a Rolex for someone's inordinate vanity but more like a help offering to the users by improving their lives with my profession and responsibility.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

After working in the practical world for more than one year, I have experienced the limits and constraints in the actual projects which are driven by the client's aesthetic preferences, the capital market, and force majeure. All of these aspects form the real estate world but narrow down the imagination of a better world. Development and revolution are born from challenge and experimentation. While participating in architecture competitions, we can utilize all possible and impossible ways to try to provide our help and visions for real social issues or personal requirements for specific locations, programs, and functions.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

I believe people who are struggling with this decision are those who love architecture and design. Always remember that when you feel it is difficult to decide to do or not to do, just do it. You have already decided but cannot give it up. Architecture competitions are time-consuming and exhausting. But when you finish the project which 100% belongs to you, you would be extremely proud of yourself while your solution to the topic could become the open sesame for a new generation. Just do it!

Open architecture competitions

  • Closest Deadline first
  • Project competitions first
    Selected winning projects have the potential to be constructed
  • Ideas competitions first
    Experimental competitions with the focus on pushing the boundaries of creativity
project COMPETITION
Sansusī Forest Food Court

Design a sustainable food court structure for the heart of a classical music festival

Prize: MONETARY AWARD + CONSTRUCTION
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Jan 10
Feb 08
Apr 06
ideas COMPETITION
The Home of Shadows

Design a home with no artificial lighting

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Dec 05
Jan 24
Apr 18
project COMPETITION
Portugal Elderly Home

Design a comfortable and accessible home for the elderly in Portugal

Prize: MONETARY AWARD + CONSTRUCTION
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Dec 06
Jan 25
Apr 19
project COMPETITION
Portugal Olive Guest House

Design a guest house and olive oil tasting room located in Portugal

Prize: MONETARY AWARD + CONSTRUCTION
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Dec 08
Jan 27
Apr 21
project COMPETITION
Yoga House in the Bog

Design a yoga guest house located within rich bog wildlife

Prize: MONETARY AWARD + CONSTRUCTION
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Jan 11
Feb 08
Apr 26

Reccuring architecture competitions

ideas COMPETITION
Silent contest
For this competition, NO DESCRIPTION TEXT is allowed. The architecture ideas must be communicated strictly with visuals.
Architectural Visualization Award
Edition #2

Present your best work and submit your favorite architectural visualization

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Mar 23
May 25
Jul 27
ideas COMPETITION
MICROHOME
Small living, huge impact! Edition #6

Design a new concept of small-scale home

Prize: MONETARY AWARD + PUBLICATION IN MAGAZINE
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Feb 16
Apr 18
Jun 16
ideas COMPETITION
Silent contest
For this competition, NO DESCRIPTION TEXT is allowed. The architecture ideas must be communicated strictly with visuals.
Museum of Emotions
Edition #3

Use architecture to create different emotional states

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Mar 17
May 19
Jul 21
Run repeatedly
Portable Reading Rooms
Edition #2

Design a portable reading room that encourages reading in any location

Prize: MONETARY AWARD + SCOLARSHIP
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Feb 13
Mar 23
May 15
Register now
Run repeatedly
Pavilion Of Humanity: First Contact
Edition #2

How would you represent the best that humanity has to offer through architecture?

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Mar 27
May 25
Jul 24
Register now
Run repeatedly
Children's Hospice
Home for the Terminally ill / Edition #2

Design a safe and supportive space for children struggling with a terminal illness

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Dec 06
Feb 08
Apr 06
Register now
Run repeatedly
Milan Affordable Housing Challenge
Affordable Housing Series #15

Design a concept for affordable housing in Milan

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Dec 07
Jan 26
Apr 20
Register now
Run repeatedly
Virtual Home
Edition #2

Design virtual home as architecture moves into the metaverse

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
May 02
Jul 04
Sep 06
Register now
Run repeatedly
Office
Office Design Challenge / Edition #2

Reimagine the workplace of the future, and design the new way of working

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

registration deadlines

Remind me
Jan 03
Mar 01
May 04
Register now

Creativity gym Short term competitions for you to exercise your creativity

T-SHIRT DRAWING COMPETITION
The Architect's T-shirt
Edition #18

Design THE architect's t-shirt!

Prize: 3,000 €
Eligibility: open to all

registration deadlines

Remind me
Feb 28
Mar 31
Apr 30
Register now
ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO COMPETITION
The Buildner's Architecture Portfolio Competition
Edition #2

Submit your online portfolio!

Prize: 5,000 €
Eligibility: open to all

registration deadlines

Remind me
Mar 31
Apr 30
May 31
Register now

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Competition results

Hong Kong 
Pixel Homes

Hong Kong Pixel Homes

Affordable Housing Series #2
MICROHOME

MICROHOME

Small living, huge impact! Edition #4

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