We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winner for our “Melbourne Affordable Housing Challenge” competition – Alex Stein from Australia!
Alex Stein from Australia
Alongside architectural work, I’ve worked for a furniture maker and an architectural builder on construction sites. This experience really helped to shape my understanding of different methods of construction.
I’ve always preferred working on residential projects. It’s much more personalised and it allows for a deeper connection and understanding of the client's needs/desires.
Architecture is about understanding the users and facilitating the best possible space/experience. The role of architects should be to design environmentally sustainable buildings which seamlessly blend into the environment and continue having a positive impact on the users long after the architect has finished. I’m also interested in keeping up-to-date with innovative technology, as I believe it has the ability to help create socially conscious architecture.
I love how there can be a huge variety of unique designs in response to the same issue. I also love the idea of tackling a real-world issue whilst remaining free to explore conceptual ideas.
Not only is it a great opportunity to gain exposure in the field, but it’s also good practice to think deeply about a pressing issue outside of our current professional/personal life.
Reimagine senior living spaces
Design an iconic tower for De Smet, South Dakota, USA
Design a beer spa in Iceland's captivating landscape
Take a seat and make a statement!
Design a new concept of small-scale home
Design a memorial that speaks to the cause of ending all nuclear weapons programs
Use architecture to create different emotional states
Shape the future of digital living environments
How would you represent the best that humanity has to offer through architecture?
Present your best work and submit your favorite architectural visualization
Design affordable housing solutions in Los Angeles
Design THE architect's t-shirt!
Submit your online portfolio!
"Competitions are a good way to improve working on complex tasks in a short period of time. We chose this competition because we saw it as an opportunity to experiment with “bigness” and arrange an enormous density to a human scale."
Honorable mention
SKYHIVE Timber Skyscraper Challenge competition
Christian Keuschnig, Daniel Lučić, Ingo Candussi and Timo Berkmann from Austria!
"Competitions offer a unique opportunity to fulfill our deep-seated passion for creative exploration and experimentation, allowing us to grow as designers."
"Participating in competitions is a way of testing myself. It is one way to learn how to convince people, how to think of questions and restrictions, and to improve digital skills."
"Architecture competitions provide us with a unique opportunity to explore new ideas, enhance our abstract thinking, and enjoy in the purest form of creative expression what architecture embodies."
"Competitions have always played a crucial role in nurturing my creative and technical abilities. I'm deeply committed to constantly refining and adapting my skills to meet the unique demands of each project."
"Participating in the various competitions that are now on offer allows me as a student to work on different phases/subjects that I have not yet explored. Moreover, it is a way to challenge myself individually. It is almost a way to reinterpret contemporary architecture to one's own perception, to push the ordinary to the extraordinary due to a certain form of freedom."
"On one hand we can address some of the contemporary problems, on the other we can test our ideas relating to geometry, presentation, function or typology."
"In the architecture contest, you encounter and challenge new things other than learning architecture at school. Team members review what they each learned in the design studio, apply and negotiate in a new way, and complete projects that could not be created alone. The whole process is not smooth and difficult, but there are definitely gains."
3rd and Buildner Student award
SKYHIVE Timber Skyscraper Challenge competition
Beom Seok Ko, Joo Hye Lim, Shiwon Kim and Eun A Jeong from South Korea!
"Architecture Competitions give me the opportunity to have a break from my everyday projects and express my architectural intentions more freely. Furthermore it gives me a more clear idea of that kind of architect I want to become and develop my creativity and my tools one step further."
"Architecture competitions offer me opportunities to think about future buildings and cities, to explore the boundaries of architecture, to study how new technologies can impact architecture."
"Designing a spontaneous architecture, strong of meaning, uses and materiality. To explore new geographical territories, to research about construction systems and materials that we do not encounter in our projects. Discover and connect with cultures, different peoples, maintain way of thinking and know-how."
"Architecture competitions are icebreakers, relieving the pressure to create something realistic to uncover magical ideas. One of the easiest things to do in design is to be stuck repeating what works, I believe the best work is often found outside that status quo. Competitions are opportunities to break that repetition."
"I participate in architecture competitions since the first year of my university. For me it is a way of challenging myself as an architect. Competitions provide me an opportunity to explore new design ideas and push boundaries beyond the constraints of a typical project. Additionally, participating in competitions is my way to engage and learn from architecture community."
"For us the participation in an architecture competition is a unique opportunity where you can follow your passions, work creatively and explore on your own responsibility."
"Projects for competitions are a manifesto of pure creativity. They appreciate the courage of thought, the unexpectedness of the ideas. The main point is to offer a bright, clear concept, and adaptation to the features of the real physical world is the following step. Which may not follow at all."
1st and Sustainability Award
Rammed Earth Pavilion competition
Amina Yusupova, Thanatcha Cholpradit and Farid Younesi from United Arab Emirates!
"It is the first competition I have participated in. The topic that I worked on was very personal and I felt like I had something important to say. I am planning to take part in more competitions in the near future. I think that competitions give us the possibility to test new ideas and change the way we think and we design."
"We believe that it is important to participate in competitions as a working professional, because they keep you tethered to the importance of design and narrative so that as you grow, you understand how pragmatic reality and conceptual design come together to help make you a more powerful thinker and competent maker as an architect."
"I participate in competitions partly to develop my skills in designing narrative spaces and to hone my craft in representation. Prompts I am drawn to exist outside of the reality of a traditional brief for a built project as they stimulate creative impetus in a way that is difficult to source outside of academia or intentional collectives."
"I participated in a competition because I enjoy contemplating interesting topics and expanding my perspectives. Additionally, when I see the works of others in the competition, it sparks my interest in new viewpoints and methods of expression that I may not have been aware of before."
"The open-ended briefs of architecture competitions allows us to imagine and speculate futures, as well as test them with the methods and tools we’ve learned from the discipline."
Honorable mention
Memorial for Witches competition
Agata Mrozowski, Nadia Chan and Madison Appleby from Canada!
"Architecture competitions are unique experiences for young and experienced professionals to trigger and revitalize their professional dynamics and to recognize themselves and even push their limits."
"Architect is a thinker; we should use our knowledge from what we learned to share the ideas to the society. And Buildner gives us an opportunity to do so."
"We love to explore the world of architecture through unique themes. Especially in this competition, for us, the brief of Memorial for Witches is very interesting. This competition encourages us to build a strong idea about injustice uniquely."
3rd and Student prize
Memorial for Witches competition
Annasya Koesty Fadhillah, Muhammad Rafli and Gina Khairunnisa from Indonesia!
"You are given the chance to challenge yourself to the maximum, to refine and sharpen your skills, from the birth of the idea to the most expressive and honest way of transmitting it."
"Joining architecture competitions let us jump out of daily practice once a while and the process of brainstorming really provided us more inspiration and insights. Also, it made us pay more attention to the society around us and expanded the scope of architecture itself."
"I find it a good reason to flex your mind creatively and see where you stand in relation to the collective order of things within the profession. The fixed deadline and topic forces you to operate in a way as you would with a client but with much greater freedom."
"We see the competition as a place to connect with fellow artists who share same passion about architectural visualization as our team."
Honorable mention
Architectural Visualization Award competition
Karolis Bulika, Ilya Korolyov and Mantas Vilkelis from Denmark!
"Participating in architecture competitions has been an important part of my personal and professional development as an architect. These competitions have allowed me to explore different techniques and approaches to design, including visualization, communication, typology, and more."
"Architecture competitions are a good way for me to prepare for later working life. They are also fun and a challenge because you always have a new task or topic to deal with over a certain period of time. I think you always acquire new skills and learn from them."
"With the multitude of architects and designers on the rise in this day and age, architecture competitions provide an excellent platform for students and professionals in the field to showcase their best work."
"Some of competitions that are different from traditional architecture, especially interaction design and interdisciplinary art. These give us more creative possibilities and space to explore."
"I participate in architecture competitions because it can give a work direction, focus and a set time frame. I find this gives me a space and an arena to bring forward ideas that otherwise might continue to float around without ever reaching their full potential."
"We participate in architecture competitions because they are an exciting opportunity to learn and experiment with novel ideas. We also enjoy how architecture’s creative design process necessitates research in order to familiarize oneself with different environments and cultures."
"Competitions are challenging and allow us to gain experience by playing with our creativity."
"I participate in architecture vision competitions when i find extra time in my academical work. Competitions in architecture are an excellent method to test out strategies, explore individual interests, and exercise more creative flexibility."
"Sometimes in the capitalist world it’s hard to bring your own voice while working on commercial projects. We, architects are lucky that there are available competitions where we can express our creativity and leave the commercial boundaries behind. For me right now it is a perfect way to explore my limits in an international context."
"While design assignments within schools often have a lot of rules and regulations, competitions allow us to maximize our whims. Participating in architecture competitions has helped us develop our passion for architectural design, so that we would not lose ourselves in rigid academic projects."
"It is because I am curious about the thoughts of people in other cultures and want to share them."
"Competitions are opportunities to develop other ways of doing things and to reflect on subjects that differ from the demands of traditional sponsors. For the agency, this has always made it possible to freely explore fields of ideas and to shape new concepts."
"I was interested in the topic itself."
"We participate in architecture competitions to be able to test out our ideas and our will to create. Additionally, it provides us with a platform for not only exploration but also growth and put us in a critical condition. In academia, or even in practice, the brief and the learning outcomes are already set out prior. With architecture competitions, we can pick and choose what sort of briefs interests us."
"It would take a good psychologist to know. Something magical and fascinating happens during architectural competitions. Just think of two people who have never met, do not speak the same language, live in different places, at different times, and despite this they communicate with each other."
"We participate in competitions because they are fun. A group of us gets together and researches a brief that gets us excited. Each competition entails research, experimentation, ideas and conversations. "
Honorable mention
Iceland Movie Pavilion competition
Giovanni D Fruttaldo, Shion J Lackie and Skaila D Mendoza from United States!
"I think that it allows myself to go a step further and get out of the profile of projects that I have usually been able to face."
"This is a new and exciting experience that differs from our usual workflow. Architects usually refer to participation in competitions as leaving their comfort zone. For us, in Ukraine in 2022, this competition was actually an opportunity to return to our comfort zone. A chance to practice our creativity and switch attention from the context of war we live in. "
Honorable mention
Iceland Movie Pavilion competition
Alyona Tryhub, Nataliya Stukonog, Kateryna Vasylevska and Oleksandra Zavada from Ukraine!
"We both believe that an architecture competition is a great opportunity to challenge ourselves and work on designs that develop our creativity. They force us to respond to problems we might have never come across during our education or professional life as architects. Moreover, it is an opportunity to share ideas internationally and compare your work with other design propositions."
"I personally participate in competitions because it allow me to get out of my comfort zone and experiment with new challenges. By pushing myself to explore new ideas and approaches, I find new inspiration and approaches to design that I can bring back to my regular work."
"Challenges are an integral part of a designer's experience, and I believe that they are essential for growth and development. I find it particularly meaningful to tackle architectural design competitions, as they provide an opportunity to test my skills and creativity in a competitive environment."
"We participate in competitions in order to work without too strict boundaries, but still within a given task and a set of goals. Competitions allow us to test and stretch rules to achieve a better solution in the context. "
Buildner Sustainability Award
Iceland Movie Pavilion competition
Ola Spangen, Rikke Sandbugt, Marius Erikstad and Kathinka Magnus from Norway!
"It was an exciting experience and the opportunity to convey ideas through the prism of your worldview. We've got out of our comfort zone in a way, had valuable interactions with the newly formed team, and enjoyed fascinating research and analysis of new information – everything we hoped to get out of the competition and more."
"It would take a good psychologist to know. Something magical and fascinating happens during architectural competitions. Just think of two people who have never met, do not speak the same language, live in different places, at different times, and despite this they communicate with each other."
"As young architects, competitions are greate opportunities to test out your imaginary ideas and visually communicate with the world. We also learn a lot from competitions through collaborating with the team as our different ideas constantly benefit each other."
Honorable mention
Gaudi La Coma Artists’ Residences competition
Kwang Hoon Lee, So Jung Lee and Jeongwoo Kim from South Korea!
"We enjoy participating in competitions, as the thinking process during competitions allow us to push boundaries and experiment, and those experimentations can certainly create the unusual and spectacular."
Honorable mention
Gaudi La Coma Artists’ Residences competition
Alexander Herrera-Rojas, Kasia Ziolkowska and Rafael Domínguez from United Kingdom!
"Working in competitions challenge me to jump out of my comfort zone. To work on projects that are in a different context than my usual work. It is also a great way to test out my skills in problem-solving and graphic communication."
"We think that architecture competition is a really productive way for students to experience the architectural design workflow in the real world."
Buildner Sustainability Award
Gaudi La Coma Artists’ Residences competition
Michael Kan, Kelly Tanim and Kevin Chen from United Kingdom!
"Architecture competition is field of opportunity to testify your architectural knowledge and aesthetic perception through out rapid pace of design process. From this process, you can strengthen your design ability by exploring yourself to the ocean of idea that you have never experienced. Also, it is the best resource for us to express our design capability to the public."
"Participating in competitions helps us make these discoveries. We exchanged existing design principles during these processes, discovered new design methodologies, and disputed new techniques and materials. Regarding architecture as a living organism, and giving each part of the building a definition in biology is the new methodology we found, and is effective for connecting each part."
"Architectural competitions allow a sense of freedom to test my own ideas and inventions, free from client constraints and agendas of office life. To me, they provide the perfect training and challenge of my own architectural ability and provide a welcome break for architectural self-reflection."
"We are extremely glad about this result, and we hope that this success will enable us to develop our collective. At the very least, the competition will help us create common basis for our urban and architectural approach, and debate about the shared values that we want to express across our architectural practice."
"It’s great field for exchange views and thoughts based on the work put into the design processes. It's not about competing, it’s about our self develop."
"The competition presents us with a rare opportunity to broaden our design philosophy through the investigation of innovative architectural ideas and the resolution of new and diverse design challenges. At LMTLS, we view this competition as a platform for experimentation and a means to continually refine and evolve our design philosophy and approach."
"We participate in architectural competitions to test ourselves on the international stage. During our studies, we mainly design in Poland. Competitions, especially international ones, allow us to encounter other cultures with different building and aesthetic needs."
"Architectural competitions allow us to develop proposals focusing on fundamental architectural concepts and open up new fields and ideas that are not always available within conventional practice."
Honorable mention
Painter’s Lake House competition
Kalle Zetterholm, Linnéa Holmberg, Tobias Puhlmann and Charlie Tomlinson from Sweden!
"Competition work is an opportunity to engage with often interesting narratives and contexts outside of your everyday experience."
"It is an opportunity to challenge ourselves and think in unconventional ways, working with other themes, settings, and frames than what our common projects provide. It is not every day we are asked to design dwellings for bats for example."
"I wasn't entirely satisfied with my academic projects, and so external competitions were both a way of improving my skills in designing, and also served as an act of redemption to prove myself."
"Collaboration elevates design quality by fostering a broad range of perspectives and creative problem-solving by integrating the design approach of various architects. Competitions produce demanding programmes that call for these original and comprehensive concepts. By participating in architecture competitions, we hope to promote improved design quality through collaborative design."
3rd prize
Painter’s Lake House competition
Kaan Oncuoglu, Ekin Guzer, Orcun Cinar and Sevin Erkenek from Turkey!
"Participating in competitions allows me to focus on conceptual thinking. I always try to pick something new, a subject or a programme I haven’t had the chance to approach before, so I learn a lot in doing research this way. It is an excellent way to better your concept approach, learning about new technologies, adding a great project to your portfolio, etc."
"Through architectural competitions, we can better, and to some extent more freely, show our creativity. Even many buildings that are difficult to realize in real life can be boldly attempted in architectural competitions, which also promotes the development of the architectural industry to a certain extent and provides more possibilities for architectural design."
"We think that entering an architecture competition like this means exploring new and innovative design ideas, without the constraints that other types of projects often have. It is very important to take advantage of the opportunity to discuss and study the most current themes of architectural research."
Honorable mention
Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Emanuele Carenzo, Martina Conti and Federico Rodio from Italy!
"We see competitions as a challenge of our strength and potential. It goes beyond the boundaries of a real project and inspires us to explore our creativity, energy, and new techniques."
"By participating in the competitions, it is great opportunity to go out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. It can help broaden your horizons and creativity. By participating in international competitions, it is possible to learn and understand the wonders of the culture of other countries through their architecture."
Honorable mention
Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Gantumur Bujinlkham, Lujain Ahmad Mohamadamen and Sara Ardalan Hussein from Hungary!
"We decided to participate in architecture competitions because it allows us to think creatively without any constraints, especially when we are faced with projects that might be out of our comfort zone. Therefore, we can have fun while also challenging ourselves to enhance our potential."
Honorable mention
Las Vegas Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Dhiya Luthfiyyah, Lulu Safitri Wijaya Jonni and Nadia Putri Humaira from Indonesia!
"We feel architecture competitions are beneficial to the participants because they allow for feedback and the exchange of ideas without the confines of working in practice."
"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."
"I'm taking part in architecture competitions because I enjoy developing new ideas and turning them into designs."
"Personally, I see architecture competitions as an intellectual delight and a way to acknowledge and measure the current practices on an international basis. Also, it is a way to improve my skills of design and graphic representation and keep them at the sharpest level."
"Competition is the moment to be involved in different themes and scale, sometimes to do pure research with less constraints of real world, sometimes to confront with projects about your professional interests to indagate new solutions."
"Architecture competitions of this nature allow anyone to challenge and provide a fresh approach to existing design dogmas. It is an incredible chance to step away from the conventional means of execution and present a different perspective to a broader audience. It helps to facilitate change in the profession through exposure and discussion, as well as one’s own professional growth."
"In our view, architecture competitions challenge their participants to reconsider their point of view and to find new ways of thinking and designing. They also give a chance to collaborate with professionals from different fields and gain new insights into the built environment."
"Architecture competitions are a fun way to challenge our thinking and improve our skills. Participating in competitions gives us an opportunity to work with architecture without the constraints of permits, policies and regulations. It is fun to push the boundaries of what architecture can be."
"This has been our first time participating in an architectural competition as a team. Although sometimes loosely based on reality, competitions let us go all-out and experiment with ideas and concepts we wouldn’t be able to carry out realistically."
Honorable mention
Museum of Emotions / Edition #2 competition
Mariana Merlo Zurinaga, David Acevedo and Diego Estrada from Puerto Rico!
"By taking part in architectural competitions, we are given the opportunity of a different approach to each project, as there is a freedom in design that is often not affected by regulations, giving us the opportunity to expand our horizons and take our idea a step further."
"I believe participating in architecture competitions is a way for me to do more innovative thinking and get out from my comfort zone. It is challenging and fun at the same time."
"It is about the assemblage of form that has the ability to stir emotion and change preconceived notions about space."
"We are 4 students from Cairo, Egypt. We are very passionate about architecture. It is a job and a hobby for most of us. We love participating in such competitions that stimulate creativity and discover new things through architectural elements. We enjoyed this competition very much."
1st and Student prize
Museum of Emotions / Edition #2 competition
Hassan Mohamed, Fayrouz Khalid, Youssif Mohamed and Marium Hesham from Egypt!
"Architecture competitions provide an opportunity to explore specific topics in a research-like manner. Experimentation, in these cases, can be more advanced, with positive spin-offs on other projects as well."
"Competitions are the opportunity to get immerse in new world projects, in understading new cultures, and to let our minds create with no limits (or fewer)."
"Architectural competitions are a great way to broaden your own horizons. In addition, it is a good way to exchange design philosophies with other students and professionals. We are constantly looking for new architectural challenges."
Honorable mention
Tili Wine Italy Guest Homes competition
Patrycja Skawicka, Piotr Skorupiński, Weronika Wodras and Wiktoria Zalewska from Poland!
"We do enjoy the chance to challenge ourselves. We like to think out of the box, test our strengths and endurance. We love to collaborate, share ideas and be creative."
Honorable mention
Tili Wine Italy Guest Homes competition
Mello Louari, Eirini Xanthopoulou, Iraklis Romanopoulos and Dimistrios Rigas from Greece!
"To express the creative side in me and challenge my own style and views on architecture."
"I wanted to challenge and express myself in a project carried out autonomously without university supervision."
"We like to participate in architecture competitions because the proposals are always very interesting and allow us to experiment with new concepts in different places."
"I think architecture competitions are very importante to chalenge my day to day work and take me out of my comfort zone. The start of a new project is always very exciting and the competition format, where we only get feedback in the end, makes it even more thriling."
"We believe that competitions develop architectural practice. We are excited to work in different subjects and fields. Seeing different approaches on the subjects studied gives us new perspectives. We also enjoy developing projects."
"We can think out of the box and try different kinds of concepts and new experiments. Thinking conceptually, applying new ideas and developing sketches into actual buildings and concepts – in some small measure, it is a feeling of the divine, because you are allowing something that was not there to be created. It appears later in its context, providing meaning and experience."
"Participating in architecture competitions allows me to push my creativity and grants me the freedom of experimenting with innovative solutions without many restrictions."
"We like to challenge ourselves, work on something together and learn new skills and architecture competitions are a great way to do that. We also want to do more projects than we have on our studies and we have the freedom to do whatever project we want. Through team work we learn how to communicate and discover what we need in order to work our best."
"Architecture competitions have two sides that make them attractive to us: on one hand, it is a way to democratize architecture by making everyone compete on the same level, and on the other hand, it is a way to go back to designing as it was done in the academy."
Buildner Sustainability Award
MICROHOME / Edition #5 competition
Eloy Bahamondes, Lucas Vásquez and Johann Grünenwald from Chile!
"Architectural competitions are a great way to advance the understanding of architectural design with bold and free steps, and to discover new perspectives. It is a platform where anyone with a good idea, who wants to make a proposal for important issues about the world, contribute to the design literature, has equal rights and can share their ideas so that they can reach a large audience."
"What fascinates me about architecture competitions is the creative process. From the eager exploration of new cultures, sites and history to the absolute freedom to express oneself fully without constraints. Nonetheless, it's a great exercise for me to build confidence, express my ideas and engage in dialog with other architects around the world."
"Competitions are fun but serious, short but have a lot to learn from, and most importantly are usually on new and most contemporary issues. Therefore, competitions are a great way for architects to gain experience, stay up to date, and greatly improve their skills in just a short period of time."
Honorable mention
MICROHOME / Edition #5 competition
Nasim Mollazadeh Sorkhabi, Arezou Fallah, Sara Vejdan and Niki Haddadrazavi from Canada!
"Honestly, this is also the first time I participated in architecture competition, I hope to continue improving my design skills during my gap year, I think this is a good opportunity to let more professional practitioner see and comment on my design."
"To me, every architecture competition is an uncharted journey and challenge. Competition help us think in a wider variety of perspectives that we never did before. I really like the main subject of microhome competition. The allowed buildable footprint is tiny but I don’t consider it as limitation. Instead, the restriction is the force triggering more creative and unthinkable imagination."
"It is an opportunity to evaluate the creative and problem-solving abilities of our team, which go through the confrontation of our ideas with the rest of the contestants based on the objectives set. It is a pleasure for us to be able to be involved in events of this type, where important personalities from the field of architecture and design evaluate the solutions."
"I participate in architecture competitions because I’m a designer and these give me the opportunities to continue to improve on my creative skills. It gives me the opportunity to be as creative as I can be, get experimental, test the limits of what’s acceptable in architecture. It’s also an opportunity to continue to work on improving my skills in drafting, model making, etc."
"Architectural competitions, such as this one, give us the opportunity to step out of our day-to-day routine and explore new concepts and ideas. They are the perfect way to boost our personal portfolios and get the desired recognition while increasing our creativity and imagination."
Honorable mention
Greening the Industrial City competition
Joel Samuel, Yelena Vieyra, Chris Blahuta and Gassan Nasr from United States!
"This is a chance to challenge yourself and level up your knowledge, skills and experience. Architectural competitions also provide you with networking opportunities due to the media exposure secured for the successful participants. Lastly, you get to see many like-minded individuals’ projects, which has to be inspirational for every designer."
"I have always appreciated the place of competitions in the architectural discourse. It is an opportunity to explore ideas and theories in a consequence-free environment and hone one’s concepts and aesthetics. I am seasoned professional looking to promote a new company. Winning recognition is amazing and will certainly help, but I strove to make work that could be used in promotion, regardless of results."
"To explore the possibilities that architecture and urban design has applied to different contexts and realities."
Honorable mention
GREENING THE INDUSTRIAL CITY competition
Matías Griffiths, Nicolás Iza, Sebastián Alarcón and Kevin Johnson from Chile!
"We participate in architecture vision competitions as our means to improve our creativity and skill sets. PMA is composed of designers that are longing to create a better environment through practical solutions. Despite our busy schedule, we always try to spare time to join competitions to give the opportunity especially for our junior staff to learn and grow."
Honorable mention
Greening the Industrial City competition
Susanto Soenjoyo, Reyhan Frumentius Layrenz, Zen Zhang and Nevin Yu from Indonesia!
"Competition is a good way for us to test our thoughts and skills. It allows us to think outside of the box and envision how an idea can take off and be visualized in a short time-frame."
"It’s a necessary exercise, both internally and externally of the profession, for designers to participate in an imaginative disciplinary dialogue. Having the possibility of a platform to share our ideas with others is also a great additional opportunity."
"As we said above, we’re happy to take up new challenges: new context, new problem-solution setting, and new continents:) Win is fun, getting known in the new markets is great for business, but the key is learning and getting stronger after every new case - the skills we later apply for our work with Customers."
"Architecture competitions of this nature allow anyone to challenge and provide a fresh approach to existing design dogmas. It is an incredible chance to step away from the conventional means of execution and present a different perspective to a broader audience."
Honorable mention
Vancouver Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Chang Yuan Max Hsu from United States!
"In the competition we can explore our creative thinking with certain themes that are prepared, and also we can see the different approaches from other participants in solving the same problems. Enrich our insight."
"I usually don't participate in competitions, but the topic of solving affordable housing (simultaneously with the problem of sprawl) is near and dear to me as someone who values nature's role in cities, and wishes for everyone to be able to live with dignity and comfort."
3rd and Sustainability award
Vancouver Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Martin Chow from Canada!
"We participate in architecture competitions to improve our design knowledge and to challenge our ways of thinking. Through the speculative lens in which we propose solutions to a competition prompt, we often discover new ways of practicing that we tend to oversee. Combining this with exposure to real world project delivery, we’ve always learnt something new that we carry with us into future pursuits."
1st prize
Vancouver Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Xian Chris Li, Elitsa Vutova and Nadthachai Kongkhajornkidsuk from United States!
"I participate in architecture competitions because it stretches me past any perceived limitations. Through it I am able to explore the depth and breadth of my creativity and innovation. Using it as an expression of art, I am free to push all boundaries and really find that which lights me up. Through every competition I participate in, I come closer to truly expressing my soul through architecture."
"Architectural competitions are a great opportunity to think outside the box, to let ideas run wild, and sometimes to express innovative ideas. It gives a sense of freedom that I think is essential for a creative career. I think it is excellent that there are more and more such competitions and that students can take part in them."
"Competitions offer a great opportunity to develop new ideas and utopias independently of clients and budgets. You can fully develop yourself and your ideas and have a great platform to share and spread them."
Sustainability Award
Museum of Emotions competition
Anna Schuler and Sofie Louise Vieth from Germany!
"It became a fun and educational extracurricular activity ever since my student days when I, with a group of colleagues, entered our first big competition and won the third prize."
"The participation in this architecture competition was a part of a university project."
"This is a chance to create an interesting concept not defined by money. And besides, this is a good opportunity to present our solutions to the many problems with which the world today is measured. Especially as young architects - it’s important to talk if you want to be heard."
"Through competitions you are able to express yourself in a very raw and creative way – straight from your soul. An idea is growing without all the noise of daily (work-)life. Viewed upside down, it’s also a way of finding yourself by researching topics you identify with."
Honorable mention
SKYHIVE Challenge #5 competition
Christian Rudolph and Justus Würtenberger from Germany!
"Participation in architectural competitions helps me escape from everyday routine. This is an opportunity for me to approach the designing process more freely, research new trends and develop as a professional."
"Participating in competitions is a way to challenge and express myself. There are not too many restrictions, there is more room to play, and the design will be more interesting. Seeing the designs of talented people also inspired me."
"Architecture competitions are a great way to explore risky and unconventional ideas and communicate them to a larger audience. I see a lot of value in having the chance to share my work with people from around the world and hopefully start new conversations about it."
"Many international students participate for the BUILDNER’s architecture competition, and the panels and plans for the projects became so much inspiration to us. It has been very helpful for us to do the project and we have been interested in your competition for several years."
1st and Student prize
SKYHIVE Challenge #5 competition
Dong Young Kim and Young Hyun Choi from South Korea!
"Participating in competitions helps to experience the joy of working with others to complete a task in practice. It can better stimulate the exploration and innovation spirit of designers, and strengthen the mutual communication between designers."
Honorable mention
Virtual Home competition
Bochuan Zheng, Jiayi Cai and Xuhan Zhao from United States!
"The competition is a free place dedicated to abstraction and experimentation, where knowledge and imagination can be combined in the creation of ideal human scenarios through architecture and design."
"Because competitions not necessarily for architecture confront you with new things, you get out of your comfort zone and increase your abilities to solve current problems, that is, with each competition you raise your level of competitiveness."
Honorable mention
Virtual Home competition
Stiven Rojas Sierra and Ana María Gaitán Ávilafrom from Colombia!
"I enjoy the process of being creative, finding solutions, and the challenge of a competition."
"Competitions are a way for me to sharpen my skills, develop new ones, and experiment. They also allow me to test my creative problem-solving skills through unconventional briefs I might otherwise not be exposed to."
"As a lover of competition, participating in architecture contests seems like a great opportunity to train creativity and detach from everyday routine. A very important factor is also the visibility and the possibility of sharing projects with a much wider community, which especially in my case, as I am just out of university, is very important to start a professional career."
"We participate in architectural competitions to strengthen our skill set and see how we stack up against other architects across the globe. moreover, observe various architectural trends. Along with adding more exciting projects to our portfolios."
"It is a great way to challenge yourself to find innovative and creative solutions to design problems. For this specific competition, the chance to explore and play with a virtual environment was very exciting for us. We felt very "free" throughout the process since the scope of the competition allowed us to experiment with different elements and go beyond limits."
"We find competitions compelling and challenging. They are a great opportunity to sharpen our workflow and organizational skills, while tackling new and interesting topics. Our line of work is still developing and is very dependent on current trends, which is why it is easy to lose focus. Competitions require us to think and work fast, while retaining a sense of art direction."
"This is our first architecture competition, and we wanted to participate in order to gain experience with this medium. We believe that architecture competitions are a great entry port to the real world of architecture. Open competitions have an important democratic function in helping young architects to show their work."
Honorable mention
Timber Pavilion competition
Vilhelm Tham, Felix Olofsson, Svante Hallgren and Adam Rydén from Sweden!
"We consider competitions as a challenge to improve our creativity, a chance to get out of our comfort zone, a moment to experiment and learn about different structural, material, and formal subjects. What's more, we view competitions as a way to put ourselves in a more flexible design environment than the one we face in our daily jobs."
Honorable mention
Timber Pavilion competition
Gabriel Rodríguez Apolito and Franco Allia from Uruguay!
"It became a fun and educational extracurricular activity ever since my student days when I, with a group of colleagues, entered our first big competition and won the third prize."
"We enter competitions to explore spatial ideas more freely. To speak up and ask questions. We have found the process eye-opening and encourage all those curious about space, shelter, enclosure to do the same."
"We participate in architecture competitions as they provide a positive environment to further develop architectural research while stimulating creativity to produce experimental, yet adequate design solutions."
2nd prize
Timber Pavilion competition
Matteo Fraticelli, Motomi Morii and Martin Lee from United States!
"Architecture competitions are an excellent provocation for creative exploration. They are a fun opportunity to explore new ideas and develop or challenge existing ones playfully."
"Competitions are opportunities for exploration and research that guide the architect to take a stand on a topic, contribute to rethink the ways in which humanity relates to the environment and how this can be improved/modified through architecture."
Honorable mention
The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #2 competition
Daniel Muñoz Ramírez from Chile!
"It became a fun and educational extracurricular activity ever since my student days when I, with a group of colleagues, entered our first big competition and won the third prize."
Honorable mention
The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #2 competition
Predrag Vujanovic from Sweden!
"Exercise our design skills and test what we have learned. Expand our horizons and communicate with professionals. Competitions are a great way to help us explore new ideas for design, and we keep brainstorming,even with countless revisions and self-denials, the process is not painful, we are immersed in it, it is more like a kind of enjoyment."
Honorable mention
The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #2 competition
Jiang Yifeng, Chen Kuanghua and Li Jiaqi from China!
"I participate in architectural competitions for the experience of giving form to my ideas."
"By participating in competitions, it is possible to compare the reality of different people and their perception of a problem and its corresponding solution. It's a challenge to develop as an architect or designer and make a name for yourself."
Honorable mention
The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #2 competition
Javier Barrios Rodríguez and Jesús Vera Zorita from Spain!
"Competitions are a little like fireworks. Shots in the dark that can result in something spectacular and unexpected. We see them as an opportunity to explore a topic, and quickly bring abstract thoughts and interests to fruition without some of the constraints other kinds of projects often have. They also give us room to create from our own raw sense of design."
Honorable mention
The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #2 competition
Paul Mccoy and Madison Green from United States!
"I love the themes and new directions which the competitions offer. They reflect the pressing problems of today, blending them with insights into future opportunities. It expands my horizons and pushes me to understand the role of an architect on a very large scale, globally."
"Competitions could be a fascinating glimpse of being passionate, creative, experimental, more serious, and be desperate on something that you really care about. You don’t have to struggle with bureaucracy, budget, or worry being political means."
3rd prize
The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #2 competition
Youngjae Shin and Byungdoo Youn from South Korea!
"Competitions generate provocative thinking from worldwide perspectives, being in this process challenges me to learn and think on a more complex level upon every entry. For me, it helps to develop deeper knowledge and a broader vision in projects that tackle prominent issues, which is not often in professional or academic work."
1st and Student award
The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #2 competition
An-Tai Lu from United States!
"Architecture should adapt contemporary trend and the user’s involvement. The competitions are the best chance to call the attentions to adaptive and parametric architecture, and let them see the future from our perspective. More importantly, participation in such competitions aims us to think universally and provides us with valuable experiences."
HONORABLE MENTION
Modular Home / Edition #2 competition
Nasim Mollazadeh Sorkhabi, Seyedmohammadali Banihashemiveijouyeh, Nasim Hossein Nedjad, Negin Shokry from Turkey!
"In the architecture contest, you encounter and challenge new things other than learning architecture at school. Team members review what they each learned in the design studio, apply and negotiate in a new way, and complete projects that could not be created alone. The whole process is not smooth and difficult, but there are definitely gains."
HONORABLE MENTION
Modular Home / Edition #2 competition
Beom Seok Ko, Joo Hye Lim, Shiwon Kim and Eun A Jeong from South Korea!
"We saw architecture competitions as opportunities to challenge ourselves and explore possibilities. We have been practicing and developing our architectural theories during our studies at the university. By participating in the competitions, we can apply these theories in different scenarios and test out the feasibility."
HONORABLE MENTION
Modular Home / Edition #2 competition
Chukang Liang, Zeke Zhang and Wanyue Peng from China!
"Because architecture competitions offer the possibility to explore, experiment and make questions that we do not ask ourselves in the daily profession practice."
HONORABLE MENTION
Modular Home / Edition #2 competition
Juan Cruz Catania, Agustina Verdura, Tomas Kranevitter and Manuel Pastoriza from Argentina!
"We believe we are still on time to change things by making conscious decisions. So we take architectural competitions as a chance to make a statement, to show and tell our story and share our philosophy. We want to promote our vision of sustainable housing as a manifest for joy, nature, crafts, aesthetics, community and future resilience."
3RD AND SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
Modular Home #2 competition
Dana Liepinsh and Lorena Del Moral Navero from Spain!
"Every architecture competition is an uncharted journey and challenge. Competition help us think in a wider variety of perspectives that we never did before."
"We participate in architecture competitions as they provide a positive environment to further develop architectural research while stimulating creativity to produce experimental, yet adequate design solutions."
HONORABLE MENTION
Milan Navigli Canal Challenge competition
Matteo Fraticelli, Motomi Morii and Martin Lee from United States!
"By taking part in design competition, we accept a challenge and opportunity to provide out of the box ideas for organisations looking for innovative solutions. Participation in architecture competition encourages us to push our limits, try on new ways of representing our ideas and break the norms of physical territoriality."
HONORABLE MENTION
Milan Navigli Canal Challenge competition
Vishal Shah, Prakruti Desai and Vishal Desai from India!
"We participate in architecture competitions mainly to share our architecture and urban ideas and to check the level of our work against the background of the works of other participants. We like to work on creative topics that competitions give and try to think outside the box to make our projects more and more original."
HONORABLE MENTION
Milan Navigli Canal Challenge competition
Daria Bal, Klaudia Elsner and Marta Sanigórska from Poland!
"We participate in architecture competitions because they provide a democratic instance for projects development. At the same time they give us the opportunity to learn, experiment and apply innovative solutions."
Clients Favourite
Milan Navigli Canal Challenge competition
Matías Salas Ramírez, Miled Lahoud and Francisca Lopez Gonzales from Italy!
"I think architecture competitions provide chance for me to explore new things and challenge myself."
"Here at Hortian Consultancy, we are constantly looking for opportunities to challenge ourselves, and to test ideas for its novelty and feasibility. By participating in architecture competition, we can also expand our view and perception on how different solutions are considered by different culture and society."
3rd and BUILDNER SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
Milan Navigli Canal Challenge competition
Xin Kai Tham, Ahrum Oh, Jason Ng and Jianyu Lou from Singapore!
"For us, architecture competitions are a challenge and an opportunity to understand different contexts, cultures, landscapes and societies. We develop them with the aim of acquiring experiences through the process of creating and conceptualizing ideas."
"We participate in competitions to get out of the comfort zone. Competitions are always good opportunities to learn about other places and to extend our knowledge. They are challenging ourselves with contemporary issues and new ideas all over the world."
1st prize
Milan Navigli Canal Challenge competition
Shuangyun Chen, Stefano Agliati, Raul Martinez Medina from Netherlands!
"It's a way of pushing ourselves to go beyond the limits of conventional design and think from new perspectives."
HONORABLE MENTION
CARAMEL SHORE TRAVELLER ROOMS competition
Javier Monasterio, Natalia Cuevas, Maria Eugui and Jonander Rodriguez from Spain!
"I want to share a different perspective from mine."
HONORABLE MENTION
CARAMEL SHORE TRAVELLER ROOMS competition
Jae Hwan Cha and Sung Min Lee from South Korea!
"Architecture competitions are a great opportunity to train our creativity, make a statement, and present original ideas. However, it is also an opportunity to go beyond the boundaries, a great way to pump up the level of our skills and expertise, to realize the flight of our imagination."
HONOURABLE MENTION
CARAMEL SHORE TRAVELLER ROOMS competition
Zlata Rybchenko and Kateryna Shumikhina from United Kingdom!
"Because of the possibility to develop ideas quickly. A good exercise to remind yourself that you do not always have to think about every screw. It is only about the effective transport of an idea."
"We enjoy participating in architecture competitions because they are always a challenge and at the same time allow us to experiment and learn new things."
HONOURABLE MENTION
CARAMEL SHORE TRAVELLER ROOMS competition
Andra Panait, Oana Doina Trusca, Adelina Jinga and Teodora Rotea from Romania!
"We participate because it encourages us to explore and share some new perspectives about contemporary architecture, as well as the possibility of materializing these new ideas and to approach to other cultures. It also presents the opportunity to see the diversity and plurality of ideas developed under the same requirements."
AAPPAREL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
CARAMEL SHORE TRAVELLER ROOMS competition
Lucas Yael Ibarra Lages, Cun Hernandez and Juliana Lareu from Germany!
"Architecture competitions allow us the freedom to experiment with new ideas and techniques outside a scholastic setting. This removes any pressure from what the result ends up being, as well as allows us to improve our own ability to iterate and refine our designs. It helps us build critical thinking skills and better our time management."
ARCHHIVE STUDENT AWARD
CARAMEL SHORE TRAVELLER ROOMS competition
Fabian Gottfried and Yihao Ni from Germany!
"Architecture competitions are a useful exercise, essential for me to keep my mind trained. But most of all because I enjoy the design process."
"Architecture competitions are a great way to explore personal interests, test strategies, and have more creative freedom."
"By participating in architecture competitions, we learn the methods and ways of finding architectural ideas. It`s always surprising to find many different solutions for one location."
1st and Clients favourite
CARAMEL SHORE TRAVELLER ROOMS competition
Grzegorz Mączka and Marta Mączka from Poland!
"We chose to participate in our first competition to test our skills, but also for fun. For us, studying architecture turned out to be a passion which we are lucky enough to carry out in our everyday life."
HONORABLE MENTION
Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop competition
Francesco Patetta, Simone Pasini, Alvise Morandi and Elisa Montani from Italy!
"The architectural firm GDA participates in competitions because it believes that it is the only instrument of excellence for creating quality architecture."
"Joining architecture competitions allow us to experiment with different design solutions, while challenging ourselves on stimulating and new topics, developing fresh insights, and defining a common path in our professional growth."
HONORABLE MENTION
Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop competition
Simone Marzorati and Silvio Lussana from Italy!
"Architecture competitions form an anonymous platform for designers to think beyond their current situation. Apart from the constraints of the brief – competitions allow you to explore alternative design processes, contexts, and typologies."
"We love challenging ourselves, especially when facing original, creative, and out-of-the-box proposals. Taking part in architecture competitions is not only a great chance to improve your skills and show the world your ideas, but it is also a smart move career-wise, as it can be the first step when trying to make a name for yourself in the industry."
HONORABLE MENTION
Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop competition
Jaime Argudín Fraile, Miguel Bermejo Morán and Teresa Cabezas Carreño from Spain!
"Architecture competitions are opportunities for us to test new ways of representation and design. As young architects, they also allow us to forge a work methodology and to sharpen our architectural discourse. Moreover, the competition subjects allow us to push concepts quite far, and to re-use the best of them in our work."
AAPPAREL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop competition
Clément Molinier and Philippe Paumelle from France!
"It is a way to challenge ourselves by competing with people from all over the world, whether they are students or professionals. Apart from learning new working methods that allow us to develop better as students and future architects."
"Competitions are a fantastic way to challenge ourselves, they spark our imagination, and also present a unique chance to test our ideas."
"We decide to participate in architecture competitions because we want to expand our horizons, think outside of the box, and fight creative burnout. We perceive competitions as a way of expressing and presenting our own ideas."
1st and clients favourite award
Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop competition
Weronika Plata and Wiktor Stankiewicz from Poland!
"To push ourselves to our limits, to experiment as well as to develop our imagination in concepts with different needs, which we may not have a chance to encounter in our professional career."
"Participating in architecture competitions is a great way to keep keen on design concept, make a strong statement of one’s own design philosophy, and present innovative solutions without many constraints."
"This is the first competition District. has entered, it was borne out of a desire to test ourselves outside of our typical client constraints and look at how we could approach a brief without a known end user. We see competitions as a great opportunity to test ideas and explore concepts."
HONORABLE MENTION
MICROHOME #5 competition
Michael Rees, Jemima Ashton-Harris, Barbara Witczak and Tom Kerr-Bell from United Kingdom!
"During the war in Ukraine, we faced new challenges related to construction requirements. We saw that the current system is imperfect. At that time, we found the microhome competition and decided that it was a great opportunity to try to show what the solution to these problems could be."
HONORABLE MENTION
MICROHOME #4 competition
Valeriia Sema, Dmytro Yahodin, Olga Kovalchuk and Maryna Machulina from Ukraine!
"To find out the answers I mentioned above, architects need to challenge themselves, to experiment with new strategies. Architecture competitions provide a platform for architects like me to show their understanding of these questions and discuss the durability of these experiments. That’s something practical architecture can never have."
"Competitions are a good way to train as a team and explore new ideas. They are also an opportunity to share your work with a larger community."
"Competitions are a different way of learning and exploring architecture. What I learn from my own project and from other projects can be my biggest motivation when not only the process, but also the results are released."
"I see architectural competitions as an opportunity to focus on the roots of the design process. Every project and every competition is individual, and therefore a new challenge to broaden my personal horizon."
"Participation in architecture competitions is an opportunity to promote and emphasize the value of interdisciplinary practice. Architecture competitions bring everyone together at the table, bring visibility and voice to diverse perspectives, and bring out the creative spark within each of us."
Honorable mention
THE MARKER DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Tessa Mccharles, Choi Ho, Evan Allan and Marie Etcheverry from Canada!
"Competitions are an amazing intellectual exercise which give us the opportunity to explore architecture in its pure form without any practical and mental boundaries. They give us the opportunity to talk with our inner self, to work on our decision-making, and fight our self-doubt. It is a battle against ourselves."
"For me, architecture competitions are the purest essence of our work. They are fields in which to try out our ideas, to stretch and broaden our way of thinking, to try something new, and to say something we are usually not in a position to say. Fields to explore and play. Pure joy! (If it results with a prize or realisation – even better, of course.)"
"We consider the format of architecture competitions to be a really good creative muscle workout. The time span is short, and the productivity is high, plus we get to work on unusual projects; it’s a win-win."
Archhive Student award winners
THE MARKER DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Cristina Bao Ye and Ignacio Urbistondo Alonso from Spain!
"As a recent graduate working in the industry, I participate in competitions to further develop my creative and design skill set. Competitions have also provided unique briefs and typologies that are intriguing as they aren’t as common in everyday practice. This has given me the freedom to explore new ideas, think outside the box, and not be afraid to be innovative. It is a way of fulfilling my creative passion for architecture as a young designer."
"Competitions are an opportunity to make a statement, to be critical, and to show an alternative to traditional methods and material. It is an opportunity to be educated and use new tools. It is a way to be involved with projects and topics that are not being practised in the daily routine; at the same time, working on a competition enriches other projects that run parallel."
1st prize winners
THE MARKER DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Hagar Abiri, Justyna Piasta, Zuzanna Światowy and Klara Krešo from Germany!
"Competitions/contests are not part of the architecture studies, I therefore wanted to take part in one as soon as possible to gain experience. Discovering (new) subjects, each one more varied than the others, while having the freedom to give an answer true to myself. And then to see how other participants responded is very enriching."
Honorable mention
Iceland Volcano Lookout Point competition
Arthur Vincent and Elliott Bellanger from France!
"Competing in architecture grants freedom, which would not be possible in other ways. It urges you to really try to find the strongest ideas that a site and environments stimulate. There are many other competitors, and it is necessary to find something unique, which is worthy to base the design upon. For us the thrill of this procedure is what made us compete in our first nationwide architectural competition."
Honorable mention
Iceland Volcano Lookout Point competition
Réka Szvath, Barnabás Rácz-Szabó and Nikolett Szemelveisz from Hungary!
"Competitions provide an opportunity for practitioners to speculate freely and dream outside of the constraints of client work – often in areas of practice and/or at scales of work that we have yet to explore in daily practice. Competitions also provide a means for emerging practitioners to demonstrate competency and garner recognition."
Honorable mention
Iceland Volcano Lookout Point competition
Michael Leckie, Jason Hall, Peter M Wenger and Melody Chen from Canada!
"Architecture competitions provide a great venue for experimentation and development of our skills as well as the opportunity to test our ideas among other individuals who have a similar motive. It is a means of learning how to communicate our work with the world."
Honorable mention
Iceland Volcano Lookout Point competition
Rania Gegiou and Dionysia Tsakiri from Greece!
"There is always a consistent struggle with decision-making and self-doubt that I continually experience. Participating in architecture competitions excitingly positions you to face that discomfort and come to a resolution."
"Participating in architectural competitions for me is a great way to gain experience in formulating and sharpening ideas and architectural concepts, practicing the skills necessary to translate my ideas and it is essentially what I love doing most: Problem-solving and inventing things."
"Participating in architectural competitions takes us out of the daily routine and gives us the opportunity to play in new fields that cannot be experienced much in the world of practical work. Moreover, we see competitions as an opportunity to interact with each other and explore our wildest ideas, with a chance to win. What could be more exciting than this?"
2nd prize
Iceland Volcano Lookout Point competition
Farshid Roozitalab, Sadegh Kaveh and Ahmadreza Dehghani from Iran!
"We don’t. This is our first."
1st prize
Iceland Volcano Lookout Point competition
Francisco Saraiva and David Matos from Portugal!
"I do enjoy remixing the Knowledge of interactive disciplines within my design. Construction, Mathematics, Mechanics, Computers, Shipbuilding, Science Fiction, Literature etc. Based on this, the process from conception to completion of a proposal could be so fascinating."
"Competing in architecture competitions is a way for us to cultivate new ideas and an excellent platform to express ourselves. We also enjoy the design process, it brings us great excitement and is a rewarding experience."
Honorable mention
Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge competition
Shrijan Pradhan, Mitchell Coenraads and Mikhail Singh from Australia!
"This was our first ever competition. We were excited about the challenges this particular competition offered, and the opportunity to participate in an international competition that addressed such a unique situation, site, and important topic."
Honorable mention
Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge competition
Irish Feryle Barruga and Elenie Joyce Pagtulingan from United States!
"It’s an opportunity for me to set aside my day-to-day routine and try out new thoughts that I didn’t get a chance to explore. And I believe that as architects, besides providing our professional service to the client, we have a social responsibility as designers to create environments that are not just for aesthetics but beyond."
Honorable mention
Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge competition
Mingshan Fang from United States!
"Competitions allows us to work with fewer boundaries. To first think with our hearts, find the big idea, and then work down from there to a more realistic project."
Honorable mention
Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge competition
Guillaume De Pontaud and Zoé Bouillet from France!
"We participate in architectural competitions to feed our desire to explore idseas without the bounds of a commercial or corporate setting and use the process as a speculative steppingstone towards a one day built destination. But most of all because we enjoy designing."
2nd prize
Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge competition
John Clayson and Andrei Dinu from United Kingdom!
"We believe that various architecture competitions are an opportunity to explore further a variety of different topics as well as to experience an adventure. It is a great chance to work in different settings with your team and learn new skills from each other."
1st, Green and Student prize
Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge competition
Aurelija Kniukštaitė, Jonė Virbickaitė and Kotryna Bajorinaitė from Lithuania!
"I cannot avoid feeling the pull to participate when a particularly challenging brief stimulates my interest and triggers the design process. Architecture competitions give me the chance to express my personal point of view regarding a specific topic, to challenge my creativity and technical skills without hard boundaries, strict budgets, or by having to get down to compromise; all situations that often recurs during work life. It is a liberating process that helps me to get in touch with myself."
"We find great benefit in competition work. Each allows for some level of experimentation that invigorates our ongoing design conversations. The freedom from typical project constraints and the excitement around a new challenge a design school studio like atmosphere. We use it as a vehicle to challenge ourselves, try new processes and techniques, research construction typologies and test software. We think of it as a development platform for design staff and a way to bolster our design culture."
Honorable mention
The Last Genocide Memorial competition
Alex Mcmillan, Fabiola Minerali, Lydia Richardson and Lucas Stott from United States!
"Architectural competitions proved to be one of the best methods for me to develop as an architect. The knowledge gained by constantly refining and tweaking ideas, and how to present them, proves to be useful in my academic and professional work every day. To this, competitions are a great way to collaborate and reach out to the architecture world. Ultimately, they are the most exciting and fun projects to be a part of!"
"I think architecture competitions are the best and faster way to challenge with people of other countries."
"We, after working in architectural filed in our country and participating in internal competition, we felt to be in challenges of international competitions and certainly we will be witness of the positive effect of this issue in our professional work."
Student prize
The Last Genocide Memorial competition
Hamid Khalili and Mohammad Mobin Mahdizadeh Kaffash from Iran!
"Architectural competitions are a good opportunity to improve various skills from an idea to its presentation. It is also interesting to see the approach of other teams and how diverse solutions can be within the same brief."
"We hope to utter our thoughts on the prospective developments of an architectural typology of office space in the post-pandemic era. Our proposal does not aim to give a decisive spatial solution but instead challenges the conventional office design and raises discussions toward the relationship between individual workplace and common space in the modern metropolis."
"As explained earlier, as an architect, we have been interested in otherized and capitalized spaces. In particular, our team thought that the existing way of working and domestic space intensifies the problems of the current capitalist society. We participated in this competition to think about how our society should change beyond how the relationship between two programs should change in the future."
Honorable mention
Office 2021 Design Challenge competition
Yeonghwa Choe and Hakyeong Jeon from South Korea!
"We participate in architecture competitions to test our ideas, skillsets and challenge our preconceived concepts of what has been done and how we can do it differently - it gives us the perfect platform to test daring / radical ideas."
Honorable mention
Office 2021 Design Challenge competition
Mond Qu, Sonny Do, Adrian Bonaventura and John Khory from Australia!
"We participate in architecture competitions in order to test out ideas, and concretise the goals of our future practice. Architecture competitions allow freedom from real-life constraints such as regulatory and budget demands, while also setting up an ideas-led brief to create the basis for the testing ground."
Honorable mention
Office 2021 Design Challenge competition
Yiling Shen and Yuchen Gao from Australia!
"Architecture competitions offer a productive setting for exploring design ideas by eliminating some of the limitations of the real world."
"Architecture competitions provide an experience outside your comfort zone, which makes you understand and improve your creative and technical ability to develop projects. In addition, it exercises creation processes and ways of communicating architecture that are beyond the professional routine."
3rd prize
Office 2021 Design Challenge competition
Julia Stopasolla Copat, Rafael Magno De Moraes, João Carlos Bernardino Júnior and Débora Mendes Nunes Jank from Brazil!
"Architectural competitions can take you out of your comfort zone and present challenges, locations and opportunities you may never have encountered normally. In response you can develop new skills and ideas previously unconceivable. These are be invaluable for broadening your understanding of architecture and be further developed over time."
2nd and Green prize
Office 2021 Design Challenge competition
Gareth Cotter and Maria Mera Vera from United Kingdom!
"It is not every day, an Architect get a chance to face an exciting design challenge. It is a learning experience. An opportunity to tackle and solve different societal issues by way of architecture. Get excited. Be stimulated. Discover things that could improve status quo. Get recognized. And possibly, share a meaningful contribution to society through your winning solution."
1st prize
Office 2021 Design Challenge competition
Gül koc GmbH interior design + construction services from Germany!
"Competitions are opportunities to engage with exciting briefs, to test and build upon your ideas more freely developing personal interests and approaches."
Honorable mention
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Zsuzsa Peter and Anna Gulinska from Austria!
"11 years. 35 competitions. 30 didn’t make it. 1 win. 3 honourable mentions. Now 1 up. Many years of controlled disappointments. Yet fondness is found where “fail” is at its most spectacular. “We could say that competitions are to everyday architecture what competitive sport is to everyday fitness training.” – Farshid Moussavi, writing on competitions in Architectural Review in 2013. A chance to go beyond what architecture is, but what architecture can be. The desk top at night. Clicks, saves; tools and trials. Restart."
"As young architects, architectural competitions give us opportunities to broaden ideas and it is a great exercise for us to use what we have learned in university to apply in real-life scenarios. It escalates our passion, raises our inspirations and makes us eager to attend more. Participating in competitions not only makes us learn more but also seeing other previous projects of other participants widen our perspectives towards architecture."
Honorable mention
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Kantinan Na Nakorn, Sasipim Sivaroroskul and Theethaj Pholampaisathit from Thailand!
"We see architecture competitions as a way of expanding our understanding of architecture. Competitions enable us to explore new cultures, places and develop new client relationships."
Honorable mention
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Jens Brinkmann, Emily Pearce, Chiara Sanguin and Nicole Salfatis Sadka from Germany!
"We participate in architecture competitions because Architecture is our passion. We love to solve problems that challenge us, and that makes us leave our comfort zone."
Honorable mention
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Nicolas Mayorga Trujillo and Nicolas Pineda Otalora from Colombia!
"Competitions provide an opportunity for practitioners to speculate freely and dream outside of the constraints of client work – often in areas of practice and/or at scales of work that we have yet to explore in daily practice. Competitions also provide a means for emerging practitioners to demonstrate competency and garner recognition."
Clients Favorite
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Leckie Studio Architecture + Design Team from Canada!
"Architecture competitions are a way to challenge ourselves with problems that are far from our surroundings. It is a way to gather knowledge about problems all around the world, get educated about different cultures, history and ways of life. We are constantly seeking intriguing briefs from all around the world in order to further augment our academic development."
Student Award
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Stanislav Milchev and Vasil Delev from Bulgaria!
"Participating in competitions is a way to test ourselves and deal with new and unknown themes. These are opportunities for competition and research, which allow us to get to know places, cultures and new ideas. Participation in competitions is also a way to interact with other designers, to understand how they have faced the same theme. We think this is very stimulating for our cultural and professional growth."
"Competitions allow you to answer a pure architectural question gaining knowledge and insight into many international cultures and contexts. All while allowing one to express their response to the question through architectural design."
2nd prize
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Hudson Parris and Matthew Cox from United States!
"Architecture competitions provide a unique platform to design and propose exciting innovative project, while testing theoretical ideas in a structured setting. Apart form any constraints imposed by the brief, competitions like this one, allow complete freedom to express new design styles, and typologies. The great thing also about participating in a competition is that if you are lucky enough to win, the client has already bought into your vision, therefore the next stage would be working together with the client to realize the design."
1st and Green award
Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition
Derin Kinacigil and Juan Franco from United Kingdom!
"We participate in architectural competitions as they provide us a platform to experiment with new ideas. We can express ourselves and work with different design issues that we don’t come across everyday. We also enjoy that we can experience working on projects in different parts of the world."
Honorable mention
Berlin Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Asli Aydin, Yining Cong, Karla Citlalli Contreras Marin and Liujun Chen from Turkey!
"This particular competition was part of our design course this fall semester. During the semester we analyzed and discussed architecture competitions from different angles in parallel with developing this submission."
Honorable mention
Berlin Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Kaylee Lamb, Alexander Johnsson, Palina Siarheyeva and Kristina Striewe from Sweden!
"It makes me think of a collective brainstorming session. We all want to learn from one another, n'est-ce-pas?"
"I think competition is a stage for the young architect. As an architecture student, I want to prove myself and measure my designing level through worldwide competition."
BB Green and BB Student prize
Berlin Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Hyosik Kim from South Korea!
"Competitions usually have fewer design restrictions than other types of architectural work. It gives you the liberty to look at things from a different angle and you have the chance to come up with unconventional solutions. We belief this practice is important to generate innovation and we enjoy being part of it."
2nd prize
Berlin Affordable Housing Challenge competition
Ana Richter de Arce and Jakob Fischer from Germany!
"We look for the stimulation that architectural creation brings. We enjoy challenging ourselves on subjects that we do not encounter in our daily practice. It is an excellent way of putting forward values that we share and that we hold dear."
HONORABLE MENTION
Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 competition
Adrian Dullin, Marine Charles and Amaury Lecerf from France!
"We like to feel challenged by a competition to think creatively and with less constraints than in everyday practice."
HONORABLE MENTION
Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 competition
Daniele Pepe and Barbara Wielebska from Netherlands!
"It is a great avenue for exploring new conceptual territory that our everyday design and architecture projects may not always afford us. It isn't so much about the accolades or monetary gains, as it is the ability to participate in the design process, the purity of creation and the idea of connecting with like minded individuals in this socially distanced world."
HONORABLE MENTION
Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 competition
Mark Pylypczak, Hamid Mohammadi and Tim MacKay from Canada!
"We believe that participating in design competitions is essential to building community. The creative process that takes form in a competition is unique and refreshing. It allows us to stretch various design muscles, engage in new design ideas, and innovate in areas outside of our usual practice."
HONORABLE MENTION
Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 competition
Dianna Montzka, Kyle Elliott and Lily Cox-Skall from United States!
"It is a place not only for people to find out about your work but also to create a community with other architects, designers and independent creatives. These events and platforms are a valuable source of information of what is happening all around the world and the local solutions given to global problems."
"We don’t do a lot of competitions. This Birdhome competition is actually the only one we have done in the past two years. We have applied for a very specific reason: one of the founder of Cutwork (Antonin Yuji Maeno) is a bird watcher since he is 8 years old, and has always dreamt of designing a bird home; this was the occasion."
HONORABLE MENTION
Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 competition
Antonin Yuji Maeno, Andrea Levorato and Simon Colombat from France!
"Architectural competitions allow you to expand your exposure to different scales and typologies of use. Competitions provide an opportunity to let your creative side out while working through new and unfamiliar challenges."
HONORABLE MENTION
Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 competition
Liam Fujita and Justin Lieberman from Canada!
"They are a good springboard and offer interesting opportunities to develop radical ideas and prospective thinking."
"The variety of design challenges, where participating in competitions is one of them, is for us a key element in the search for our own identity; this preserves the flow of creative energy."
1st prize
Legendary Bird Home / Edition 2 competition
Liliana Krzycka, Rafał Pieszko and Szymon Tobias from Poland!
"Architecture competitions like this allow me to think about projects that are grounded within tangible limitations and affordances. They are good opportunities to test out ideas and methods I have acquired during my studies."
"Making a project is just like making a puzzle with infinite solutions in the eyes of everyone, but just a few solutions in your eyes. A competition is also that, a puzzle to be solved, but it’s even more enjoyable because at the end you can see all those infinite answers that you dismissed or didn’t think about. Why do I participate in architecture competitions? To challenge myself and to learn from others."
HONORABLE MENTION
COLUMBARIUM - THE CHAMBER OF MEMORIES competition
Javier Roig Iglesias from Spain!
"The main reason why I participate in architectural competitions is , that allows me to try and reflect on new fundamental conceptual ideas, as well as to understand and refine my creative process by experimenting with different tools and methods. This is good opportunity to get to know yourself and to look at the surrounding whole."
"Competitions take on interesting, innovative and forward-thinking topics. They are often the only formula for expressing creativity without inhibition. The international character of the contests strongly motivates us for personal development and is always a valuable perspective-broadening experience."
HONORABLE MENTION
COLUMBARIUM - THE CHAMBER OF MEMORIES competition
Michalina Linkowska, Zuzanna Zdanowicz and Joanna Spychała from Poland!
"This was my first time I ever evolved into an international architectural competition. I was looking for something new after several years of working on multiple projects, sometimes at the same time."
3rd, BB Green and BB Student prize
COLUMBARIUM - THE CHAMBER OF MEMORIES competition
Matej Gurka, Karol Gregor and Andrea Bočková from Slovakia!
"Continue to challenge ourselves as designers. Exploration of details in design. Details can be small, but the details always matter."
2nd prize
COLUMBARIUM - THE CHAMBER OF MEMORIES competition
Mengru Wang and Rachel Reinhard from United States!
"We find it necessary to participate in architecture competitions as they offer a chance to exercise and challenge our design capability within a limited time frame. They can also provide a diverse and interesting array of briefs that are not normally on offer to us professionally."
1st and Clients Favourite Award
COLUMBARIUM - THE CHAMBER OF MEMORIES competition
Christopher Taylor from South Africa!
"I see architecture competitions as a great opportunity to focus on topics that really bother me."
"I participate in architecture competition for a number of reasons. Firstly, I enjoy the thinking process, the search for solutions to different challenges that the competitions provides. Secondly, they test and at the same time, they expand my view about design, helping me to evolve my practice."
"Within such a competitive field as architecture, engaging in competitions, challenges us at a professional and individual level. It is an opportunity to test new concepts and ideas and to foster our creativity. On one hand, it gives us the ability to learn from our mistakes and on the other hand to gain confidence with the several challenges we overcome."
HONORABLE MENTION
Home For The Blind competition
Mafalda Mota, Mariana Simões and Henrique Andrade from Portugal!
"We wanted to participate in architecture competitions because we think it is a great opportunity to challenge ourselves with new design problems outside of school. It allows us to truly exercise our creativity by testing the new concepts and ideas that we have. We are able to learn from the process by thinking through and solving the challenges. It’s a learning process for all of us."
HONORABLE MENTION
Home For The Blind competition
Sophia Liu, Yichen Zhang and SongYuan (Cindy) Wang from Canada!
"We wanted to gain more experience outside of the academic realm, but most importantly we wanted to test how we work as a team and gain more collaborative experience. We felt that architectural competitions force you to continuously make decisions that are tangible, which can get lost in academic projects. Those restrictions enable at the same time a different form of freedom and challenge for the creative process."
HONORABLE MENTION
Home For The Blind competition
Sari King, Vang Anh Tran, Ching-Han Chiang and Seonwoo Kim from Germany!
"To work with friends and learn from each other."
1st and ARCHHIVE Student prize
HOME FOR THE BLIND competition
Claire Hicks, Joshua Tan and Christina Zhang from United States!
"To strengthen teamwork between team members, increase exposure in this field, help develop strengths and talents. Topics of Architecture competitions held by Bee breeders involves a wide range of interesting architectural sectors, we strongly recommend every young architects should try to get involved."
Honorable mention
MICROHOME / Edition #3 (2021) competition
Ricky Wang, Deidre Zhang, Alem Abulizi and Jack Xie from Australia!
"Competitions are a great opportunity to engage our skills and broaden our perspectives through research. Specifically, the Microhome competition’s size limitation was compelling to us. Incorporating green technology and thinking critically about lifestyle and behaviour were exciting challenges as well."
Honorable mention
MICROHOME / Edition #3 (2021) competition
Chizumi Kano and Masayoshi Nozawa from United States!
"We participate in architecture competitions to consider how design can resolve social issues the world over. We participate in architecture competitions to exercise a creative freedom through which we can gain a better understanding of contemporary issues that the profession must deal with."
Honorable mention
MICROHOME / Edition #3 (2021) competition
Eric Bell and Diego Bazzani from United States!
"We want to challenge, hone our skills and gain experience from competitions."
Honorable mention
MICROHOME / Edition #3 (2021) competition
Doan Bang Giang and Truong Minh Quan from Vietnam!
"Since the projects ATO is working on are constricted due to client’s budget and regulations, participating in competitions is a way to keep being innovative. They are the opportunity to keep on working on conceptual approaches and being more sensitive and poetic. The idea is, little by little, to merge the conceptual approach and the real-life constraints."
"For us, this is an opportunity to challenge ourselves. It is a way to express some ideas you are insecure about; it is easier to let go and create without holding back. This is not always possible in your work or study projects."
BB Green award
MICROHOME / Edition #3 (2021) competition
Aleksandra Zhuikova, Sofia Velichanskaia and Elizaveta Gradusova from Italy!
"We participate in architecture competitions because they offer rich topics and stimulate people's infinite imagination and creativity of architecture."
3rd prize winners
MICROHOME / Edition #3 (2021) competition
Emanuele Cavaglion, Baixue Fang and Xiaoxu Liang from Italy!
"To challenge and develop myself professionally."
"Architecture competitions give us a lot of adrenaline. We can face our weaknesses and love sharing our time together, taking up ambitious activities. After the deadline we always have a feeling that we could explore the issue more, which leaves us even more motivated and curious."
1st and BB Student award winners
MICROHOME / Edition #3 (2021) competition
Michalina Linkowska, Wiktoria Ciszak and Karolina Kozłowska from Poland!
"We believe that competitions are a way to measure and create a dialogue with worldwide professionals. We believe that it is important to show our reflections on architecture, our way of approaching it, and the meaning it has for us."
Honorable mention
Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel competition
Diogo Lopes, Sara Pertile, Simone Antonelli and Susan Isawi from Portugal!
"Competitions offer us a chance to think about new design challenges, like Monte D’Oiro's winery, to express new ideas and to share that thinking with a larger group that might not be in our daily architectural milieu."
Honorable mention
Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel competition
Matthew Baird, Ines Gulbenkian, Will James and Robert Estrin from United States!
"I can always find interesting challenges thanks to the variety of project types and contexts in architecture competitions."
"We participate in competitions because we have fun with it, and we really enjoy the process of creating architecture. The opportunities and freedom to design are unlimited, and having the opportunity of being recognized afterwards makes it more exciting!"
Honorable mention
Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel competition
Alberto Ibáñez Puértolas, Mario Vera Sáez, Daniel De Buen Velicias and David De Buen Velicias from Spain!
"Why participate in architecture competitions? Competitions help us develop our position towards architecture and potentially also give us some public exposure. This really helps in the process of setting up a company. In the best case, obviously, the project also gets built."
Honorable mention
Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel competition
Jorik Bais and Alexandra Heijink from Germany!
"Apart from obvious reasons, I become interested in a particular topic or brief. In the case of the Monte D’oiro Hotel, it was a challenge to continue the previous studies of wine architecture in the low-density suburban environment. Whenever I see an objective that interests me, I start thinking. If I can’t stop thinking, I participate."
Client Favorite
Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel Client competition
Anton Burdein and Diana Burdein from Germany!
"Competitions are great for experiences. You always learn from them. It's a great way to get exposed to new topics and materials, and thereby expand your horizons."
"Architectural contests provide the opportunity to design and propose novel ideas; they place no restrictions on creativity and allow for complete freedom of expression in terms of design. They also present the architect with a special kind of client: an absent one. What better challenge for an architect?"
1st prize winners
MONTE D'OIRO WINE HOTEL competition
Alexandru Ioan Patrichi, Claudia Galvan Zuluága and Iñaki Omar Millán from Belgium!
"We can think outside the box and try different kinds of concepts and experiments. Thinking conceptually, applying new ideas, and developing sketches into actual buildings and concepts – in some small measure, it is a feeling of the divine, because you are allowing something that was not there to be created. It appears later in its context, providing meaning and experience."
Honorable mention
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
Misak Terzibasiyan, Taura Aurylaitė, Amir Feizinezhadgheshlaghi and Danai Dafnouli from Netherlands!
"It's a good practice for improving ourselves and gaining experience, while having a little fun in a short period."
Honorable mention
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
Hüseyin Melih Baktır, Nebile Ece Onulay and Çağla Kıran from Turkey!
"We participate in architecture competitions for the thrill of it. Even if the odds of winning are slim, it’s a great experience to give something your whole attention and engage the whole process of envisioning a piece of architecture. This is something that can become quite rare or difficult to achieve in professional practice. The arena of the competition lets you tune out the noise of the world."
Honorable mention
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
David Gallo, Franklin Min and Shivani Bakhru from Finland!
"With every new competition I decide to participate in, I am really interested in penetrating new horizons. It is a great way of entering new sectors and learning about countries where I may not have worked yet. It is clear that by their merit-based nature, competitions push architects to cross new creative thresholds. I consider it a great exercise in delivering ambitious ideas while also aligning with realistically achievable results."
"Participating in competitions is a great learning opportunity. Different tasks can develop creativity, skills, and knowledge. Often, there are aspects of the architecture tasks that are unfamiliar to us, which gives us the opportunity to learn something new. It’s also a great way to learn some soft skills, such as time management, teamwork, creative thinking, conflict resolution, and others. Competitions motivate us to strive to become better at what we do, competing with architects from all over the world."
Honorable mention
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
Plamena Draganova and Tsvetelina Gadzhelova from Bulgaria!
"Architecture competitions are a beautiful training exercise for professional practice. This allows us to deal with different topics, programs, and contexts. The pragmatic answer in an architecture competition can become more peremptory and archetypal."
"We participate in competitions when we feel that we can submit something smart, unique, and beautiful, and when we like the competition subject."
Green prize winners
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
Naro Goller, Burak Camgöz and Alexander Lehmann from Germany!
"Competitions are great platforms to test out our skills and ideas as young architects. They provide a “middle space” between academia and practice, where the unavoidably competitive nature of the profession is channelled positively into a collective intellectual output."
Student prize winners
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
Yolande Wang and Zekun Qin from United Kingdom!
"By participating in architectural competitions, we learn the methods and ways of finding architectural ideas. It`s always surprising to find many different solutions for one location."
"Architecture competitions are a great way of collaborating with like-minded people on projects that reflect your values and provide an opportunity to implement them into real-world use. Having great and inspiring ideas is one thing, but competitions provide realistic boundaries, further shaping and honing whatever you have in mind. Additionally, they present a real need and purpose, and nothing is more satisfying than a realised project that may be of benefit to others."
2nd prize winners
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
Marcel Dawid, Anita Wiśniewska and Brian Dam from Poland!
"In our public university there is a strong tradition (75 years and running) of a housing competition, sponsored by the students every year, which has stuck and carried over with us. To us, competitions offer the challenge and opportunity to break free of academic and/or commercial restrictions which we may encounter day to day."
1st prize winners
ROMANTIC CABIN FOR TWO competition
Maria Lucia Arce, Lucas Cardona and Gonzalo Camargo from Uruguay!
"The subject of death and life was interesting."
Honorable mention
HOSPICE - HOME FOR TERMINALLY ILL competition
Hyogeun Shin, Soowon Lee and Jaehyeon Kim from South Korea!
"Participating in the competition allowed us to stay connected after moving to different cities. The competition also allowed us to direct an architecture project on our own, which benefited us greatly as recent graduates."
Honorable mention
HOSPICE - HOME FOR TERMINALLY ILL competition
Cherry Yang, Yunchao Le, Benjamin Han and Reishan Mcintosh from United States!
"I participate in architecture competitions to be able to train my critical thinking and creativity. Facing different programs and topics is a way to explore the great field of architecture and creativity. It is also a way of doing architecture without the constraints of real-life buildings. Being able to create one’s own utopia through competition proposals is where creativity is challenged at its most."
"We participate in competitions to strengthen our own opinions and ideas. We are curious to see how the methodology and our self-imposed set of rules will crystallize into a clear design. It is a great opportunity to question your design process detached from the educational context. By being free from supervision, preconceived ideas, or expectations, we feel closer to the nature of architecture. Plus. it is an opportunity to exchange ideas among friends."
Honorable mention
HOSPICE - HOME FOR TERMINALLY ILL competition
Mona Thoma, Jakob Albrecht and Edda Meinertz from Germany!
"It is a good possibility to give a thought-provoking impulse with your own ideas and considerations for idea competitions that focus on certain topics."
"I participate in architecture competitions to step outside my comfort zone. Although I am typically a practical thinker, architecture competitions allow me the freedom to remove myself from the basis of reality to create more radical designs."
"Participating in architecture competitions is the most opportune moment to push ourselves to the limit and explore our creativity. As we can escape the daily dynamics and limits of the profession and choose the people we have affinity to and debate architecture with, it’s a moment of complete freedom to think and create projects that reflect what we think about life in society."
2nd prize winners
HOSPICE - HOME FOR TERMINALLY ILL competition
Renata Cirati Gomes, Beatriz Carvalho and Fabiana Perazolo from Brazil!
"In our opinion, architectural competitions are the best method of selecting a project. Customers can see different approaches to a design task, and so have the opportunity to fully understand what they can get. For designers, they are an opportunity for healthy competition with other participants, strengthening teamwork and stimulating creativity. Participation in the competition is also an opportunity to approach interesting and inspiring topics."
1st and Green prize winners
HOSPICE - HOME FOR TERMINALLY ILL competition
Damian Poklewski-Koziełł, Marcin Gierbienis, Justyna Kopacz and Aleksander Kwaśniak from Poland!
"We view competitions as a means to challenge ourselves, our views, our ideas. One of the main goals is to develop trust as a team in pushing ourselves as far as possible in order to achieve our goals."
1st prize winners
MODULAR HOME DESIGN CHALLENGE 2021 competition
Gabriel Chivu, Laura Mazâlu, Stefan Mircea and Thomas Herrera from Romania!
"In Taiwan, the high-density population has shaped the problems of unaffordable housing prices and insufficient space, making "extension home" a unique building type. From this premise, the modular house must be constructed most economically, but also solving the problem of lacking living spaces. Therefore, we believe that this competition is an opportunity for us to respond to our growing environment and show our views on architecture."
Honorable mention
MODULAR HOME DESIGN CHALLENGE 2021 competition
Chi-Chia Tsao, Zhi Ray Wang, Cheng Yen Tsai and Hung Yu Chu from Taiwan!
"Architecture competitions are an opportunity to put into practice the knowledge that arises from academic research."
Honorable mention
MODULAR HOME DESIGN CHALLENGE 2021 competition
Federico Borges Pérez and Agustín Lagreca Herrmann from Uruguay!
"As we are at the very beginning of our architectural journey, we wanted to face a real competition task on our own. We want to provoke discussions on topics important to us in architecture and society. Thanks to competitions, we can reach a larger group of recipients."
Green prize winners
MODULAR HOME DESIGN CHALLENGE 2021 competition
Julia Ciężar, Matylda Wolska and Alicja Bakalarska from Poland!
"Architecture competitions allow one to share architectural designs with a broader audience while contributing to a larger discourse. The experience and process throughout empowers creative thinking and provides opportunities to learn from each other. Although it can be a challenge, it is a way to apply the knowledge we have acquired and let ourselves explore our interests. Lastly, it is always rewarding if you win a prize!"
2nd and Student prize winners
MODULAR HOME DESIGN CHALLENGE 2021 competition
Jessica Michelle Rithika Anand, Tiffany Chen and Angelina Zhang from United States!
"I participate in architecture competitions to exercise creativity, to have the opportunity to see my project realized, and obtain international recognition."
"Architecture competitions seek out non-traditional solutions, ‘out of the box’ ideas. These sparkling ideas won’t just pop up in the mind, they are the result of a process, researching, reading, talking, thinking, sketching, producing, and constantly questioning own thoughts. This stimulates the imagination and the creative mind. Besides that, it is a lot of fun searching for these solutions when you’re passionate with the craft."
Honorable mention
BERLIN TECHNO BOOTH competition
Fabian De Vriendt, Arnout Stevens and Mathias Spiessens from Belgium!
"The competition allows us to weave new collaborative networks, in which outside the more conventional margins of the architectural profession a place of freedom is created to analyse and create various solutions in certain contexts. We believe that each competition can nurture our own concerns and expand knowledge in those research fields in which we want to deepen it."
Honorable mention
BERLIN TECHNO BOOTH competition
Jessica Castellanos Espinosa and Andrés Forero Pinzón from Colombia!
"We participate in competitions because we consider them a powerful tool for the development of ideas, either conceptual or concrete stuff. We feel able to explore spatial possibilities that may be difficult to achieve in specific commissions. We are also interested in thinking globally. We find it extremely attractive to get involved with problems from other latitudes."
Honorable mention
BERLIN TECHNO BOOTH competition
Joel Perez, Guido Picasso, Ignacio Cuenca and Manuel Bianchi from Argentina!
"I enjoy the creative freedom that competitions give, as well as the diverse range of settings and scenarios that competitions can expose me to."
"It was our first collective participation in an architecture competition and, to be honest, we were only looking for a reason to work together on a project."
3rd prize winners
BERLIN TECHNO BOOTH competition
Anna Morawek, Jannis Block and Laura Kettler from Germany!
"Participating in architectural competitions is an opportunity to look back at our practice and philosophy. It showcases our work and the way we think. As students, we can escape from scholar or corporate projects. It gives us the freedom to venture into our very own obsessions. "
"Actively participating in competitions helps to broaden the mind and understand architecture from different perspectives. As students, it is particularly important because we easily stick to thinking in one way which is taught at school."
1st and Student prize winners
BERLIN TECHNO BOOTH competition
Zhifei Liang, Hantao Li and Yingqi Li from United Kingdom!
"Architecture competitions are opportunities that allow free expression that leads you to resolve a specific and usually uncommon conflict. They are the perfect medium to experiment and explore new limits, that is, to innovate and open your mind towards the architecture of which you would be really proud. For this reason, we participate in competitions in which we value our way of understanding architecture."
honorable mention winners
SPIRALA COMMUNITY HOME competition
Alberto Pabón Medina and Marina Sánchez Guzmán from Spain!
"Architecture competitions are good opportunities to test ourselves and push our limits. Not only working as a group, but also time management skills – these are crucial achievements that architecture competitions contribute to a team."
Honorable mention WINNERS
SPIRALA COMMUNITY HOME competition
Berkay Öztürk, Merve Taşdelen and Ayça Metin from Turkey!
"We decided to enroll to this competition being fascinated with the idea behind the Spirala community. We felt connected to their values and wanted to show our support and help translate their ideas into architecture."
Honorable mention WINNERS
SPIRALA COMMUNITY HOME competition
Ani Zakaryan and Aigerim Syzdykova from Denmark!
"For us, it is a learning process. We think the best way to know something is by doing it. And we think that participating in architecture competitions is a good starting point for us."
"Considering various historical and geographical factors and their relationships with architecture and cities; we are practicing design and research with the objective of clarifying the fundamental mechanisms of an excellent building environment."
CLIENTS FAVORITE AND BB GREEN AWARD WINNERS
SPIRALA COMMUNITY HOME competition
Ryo Murata, Mizuho Ueyama, Tomohiro Koizumi and Renata Baksai from Japan!
"We see time spent on competitions as freedom where our creativity can express itself with no limitations. At the same time, it is an opportunity to break the daily routine and think about new architectural concepts and strategies."
3RD PRIZE WINNERS
SPIRALA COMMUNITY HOME competition
Leonardo Raviola, Joao Carriço and Ruben Guerreiro from Portugal!
"Architecture competitions are a public space to discuss ideas and communicate creative architectural processes to society. For my office, it’s the way our work becomes part of a global community."
2ND PRIZE WINNERS
SPIRALA COMMUNITY HOME competition
Manuel Collado Arpia, Dustin Hernandez Jover and Berta Calle Martos from Spain!
"Architectural competitions are great opportunities for architects to experience being able to go beyond the limits of their routine life. Competitions are ideal for testing their design abilities on universal, international design platforms and providing an environment for independent design claims."
"It’s a lot of fun."
"Architecture competitions are a place to iterate, collaborate, and produce with a self-driven rigor not often found outside of school. Competing keeps us on our toes."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS
Tiny Kiwi Meditation Cabin competition
Oonagh Davis and Elias Bennett from United States!
"Escaping. We seek out architecture competitions because sometimes we are so bored of our jobs. Escaping for us means to find the other way, our way, to express our inner thirst for honest work in this field, to take another attempt to design for certain problems and topics."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS
Tiny Kiwi Meditation Cabin competition
Iqbal Ziaul Haq, Nur Saddia Maulinda, Bahrumsyah Bila Sahil and Rahman Akbar Sayekti from Indonesia!
"Participating in a competition allows me to question myself again and again, and to not forget that architecture cannot have the same answer everywhere to the same questions. It allows me to re-think my positions, to connect with different contexts and learn about them. Architectural competitions are a way to keep learning about our world, and about architecture."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
Tiny Kiwi Meditation Cabin competition
Gabriel Foulquier-Gazagnes from France!
"Architecture competitions have various themes and limited preferences. The design that I create through the storytelling and penetrating concepts awaken potential creativity. Projects that emerge through many concerns and discussions help the further growth of participants and demonstrate their potential for development."
"We want to practice beyond our limits, have fun, and tell stories by using architecture and design. Competitions open the door to new unconventional projects and possibilities."
3RD PRIZE WINNERS
TINY KIWI MEDITATION CABIN competition
Lukáš Valenčin and Zuzana Capková from Slovakia!
"Competitions, like school, allow for the freedom to “play”, test ideas, take risks, to be unusual. Besides the benefit of exploring ideas and representational methods beyond the sometimes-banal day-to-day tasks of the profession, competitions allow me the opportunity to demonstrate who I am as an architectural designer, from the selection of competition briefs and sites to the choice of materials and organizational strategies, to the final panel layouts."
"It is an opportunity to challenge yourself and to stimulate creativity, especially because you can explore different concepts and scenarios. It is a passion project that fills you up with energy even if you're already overworked. There is a presence of the unknown, and the only thing guiding you is your sense. And there is that sweet beginning of a new project and all the possibilities it brings."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Lucia Kalogjera and Maja Genc Kalogjera from Croatia!
"I believe competitions are about finding one’s voice and place within the discipline. I participate in competitions to continue to develop my own way of thinking and practicing architecture."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Pedro Henrique Figueiredo Magalhaes from Netherlands!
"An architectural competition is an extraordinary opportunity to take a step back and challenge our capacities to deliver a new project. Even though some ideas are deeply anchored in our conceptual reflex, we have to go beyond and reshuffle the dice. It is an exciting time to open ourselves to new subjects, new landscapes, and new practices. What we particularly enjoy is debating our ideas to turn them into a vision which would eventually become a built project."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Gabriela Rolka, Jonathan Bourhis and François Barcelo Chatellier from France!
"The three of us are very passionate about our job and love discussing architecture, creating concepts and spaces, and communicating our ideas trough drawings and illustrations. So, participating in competitions also means simply having a good time with colleagues and friends. Second of all, we aim to take part in a wider, maybe even international, discussion about what architecture can give to spaces and people. Competitions offer a great chance for young academics or small firms to show their work."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Lukas Mühle, Victoria Konuk and Timm Traxler from Germany!
"We participate in architecture competitions because we believe that, in this way, we can deepen different topics that can allow us to learn and grow professionally so that one day we can start an architectural firm together."
HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Ugo Felici Giunchi, Nathalie Esposito and Assia Cirillo from Germany!
"We participate in architecture competitions because it is an opportunity to learn and experiment with new ideas. We enjoy how architecture’s creative process combines research and design to familiarize oneself with a different environment and culture. Since this competition took place during a time when travel was limited, this competition allowed our group to direct our creative energy into an expression that allowed for exploration of a new place, which further expanded our knowledge of the world."
CLIENTS FAVORITE WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Yanja Tumurbaatar, Sara Lolarga and Mini Cheon from Canada!
"Transitioning from school to the real industry is challenging in that execution takes over the projects. While we are deeply immersed in the practical, we wish to maintain our keenness and acuity on conceptual design and design theories through participation in architecture competitions."
STUDENT AWARD WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Xinwei Chen and Maple Lin from United States!
"Architecture competitions can help to develop new ways of thinking and compare your work with other professionals. They also provide useful insights for the creative presentation of your project."
2ND PRIZE WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Evgenii Varlygin and Anastasiia Soshnikova from Russian Federation!
"Architecture competitions are an opportunity to test and explore ideas that would otherwise likely remain in a drawer, never to be formed into something potentially useful. This way, competitions invite innovation."
1ST AND GREEN AWARD WINNERS
SLEEPING PODS ON A CLIFF competition
Marco Moretto and Maciej Abramczyk from Netherlands!
"They help us grow and see the wider world."
HONORABLE MENTION
SKYHIVE 2021 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Dayang Wang, Jiwei Lang and Yue Sun from China!
"Architecture competitions offer a platform for us to ask the question 'what if'. It allows us to test out possibilities that are often constrained in professional practice."
HONORABLE MENTION
SKYHIVE 2021 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Yuezhi Cai, Haoxuan Liang, Jianan Zhuang and Xiaoxiao Li from Australia!
"Architecture can exist in many different contexts, and while the predominant one that we have worked in has mostly been academic, with some industry experience, it is always beneficial to push in new directions. Competitions such as SKYHIVE provide us with an opportunity to work outside traditional requirements, while also with constraints that challenge us to be innovative in creating solutions."
HONORABLE MENTION
SKYHIVE 2021 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Katherine Lo, Jeralyn Tseng, Loc H Nguyen and Ho Ming Chau from United States!
"Architecture competitions give me the opportunity to be my own client."
"Competitions can help improve my computer drawing ability and creativity at the fastest speed, and teamwork allows me to learn a lot from my teammates."
HONORABLE MENTION
SKYHIVE 2021 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Wang Rujin and Zhang Yu from Hungary!
"Architectural competitions allow me to challenge myself. They offer unusual tasks and uncommon contexts, which I have to solve and propose the proper solution for in my projects. Therefore, it develops me as a flexible architect able to cope with different tasks and issues. Another thing is that international competitions give the best opportunities to declare myself and promote my ideas and philosophy among the worldwide architectural community."
3rd prize winner
SKYHIVE 2021 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Vladislav Dudyrev from Russian Federation!
"Architecture competitions are great platforms that allow everyone to challenge their ideologies and thoughts on architecture and what architecture can do without the academic or practical constraints can sometimes greatly influence the design."
"Participating in architecture competitions gives us the chance to explore our creativity, think outside the box, and develop different design approaches and project methodologies."
1st prize, Green and Student Award winners
SKYHIVE 2021 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Adriane Pacheco, Letícia Armond, Sara Vasconcellos and Mauro Franco from Brazil!
"I usually do not participate in architectural competitions, but when I saw the call for entry on the website of The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial, I was really impressed. The assignment offered a work approach on the edge between the field of art installation and architecture, which fits the type of work that excites me."
"As junior architects in the beginning of our careers, we are starting to understand the bureaucratic world around architecture. As such, the creative and conceptual line that defines this type of competition is the motivation we need to keep investing in the quality of the architecture we produce daily."
HONOURABLE MENTION
THE LAST NUCLEAR BOMB MEMORIAL competition
Jessica Martins, Catarina Pereira and Inês Lopes from Portugal!
"Architecture competitions of this nature allow anyone to challenge and provide a fresh approach to existing design dogmas. It is an incredible chance to step away from the conventional means of execution and present a different perspective to a broader audience. It helps to facilitate change in the profession through exposure and discussion, as well as one’s own professional growth. Competitions are a great venue for experimentation, and a laboratory to unpack and test design philosophies."
HONOURABLE MENTION
THE LAST NUCLEAR BOMB MEMORIAL competition
Chang Yuan Max Hsu from United States!
"Competitions fine-tune your design skills and help constantly question current interests. Also, they challenge you to solve problems that on any other occasion would be difficult to solve."
"As recently graduated architects, participating in architecture competitions is important because it allows us to keep imagining possibilities and stretching the limits of architecture, without barriers and restrictions; something that can be limited in the professional field once there are budgets and clients involved. We believe it is important for our creative development to continue exploring ideas that challenge us and promote a strong dialogue."
2nd and BB green award winners
THE LAST NUCLEAR BOMB MEMORIAL competition
Patxi Jauregui, Ana Elizalde, Mónica Muñoz and Yael González from Mexico!
"I love all aspects of architecture competitions and the design process; research, discovery, the a-ha moments, iterations, editing, and presentation. Hopefully, the result is innovative, I have learned something from the experience, I can share what I learned, and continue to evolve in this ever-changing world."
Honourable mention
TORONTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Domenico Francesco Lio from United States!
"It’s important for us to participate in design competitions because they provide us with a creative outlet outside of the studio, where we can take part in tackling real-world problems in ways not limited to the confines of traditional rules and boundaries."
Honourable mention
TORONTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Kaili Sun and Carmen Kam from Canada!
"It is a good chance to train critical thinking and creativity. It’s also a way, besides real practice, to explore and deepen topics that interest us. It helps us to develop a system of thinking and methodology. Working in teams, it is also important to sharpen our ideas via debating and implement them in design. Finally, to present the project is another practice of communication. The whole process gives us a nice opportunity to formulate our argument in answering an architectural question."
Honourable mention
TORONTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Yunshih Canazzi-Chen and Antoine Canazzi-Chen from Netherlands!
"Because it’s fun. And because it reminds me of being in architecture school, a time I will always cherish. Idea competitions such as this one also provide venues for the unfettered exploration of ideas, and allow architects an idealized opportunity to imagine the way the world ought to be, instead of how it is."
"Besides having a deep respect for the tradition of competitions in the field of architecture, we believe this kind of experience provides a perfect venue for showcasing ideas that can be heard by a large audience, having the potential to impact the architectural culture as a whole. We also firmly believe that each competition we have participated in represents a step towards a learning curve, affecting our practice and teaching deeply."
3rd prize winners
TORONTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Ana Luisa Rolim, Isabella Trindade, Beatriz Bueno and Larissa Falavigna from Brazil!
"Competitions are invaluable opportunities to research and test ideas that may not be possible to investigate within the confines of a project brief developed in an office or educational environment. Entering a competition deepens the knowledge of place, typology, and tectonic of architecture. Designers are asked to communicate an idea visually in a concise and compelling fashion. Through failures and successes, competitions are skill builders and thought-provoking bombs for those who participate."
2nd prize winners
TORONTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Giovanni Fruttaldo, Kimberly Carlisle and Noah Lemus from United States!
"We seek out very specific opportunities that allow us to test our latest thoughts and push our theoretical propositions forward. This competition was in line with our current research and spoke to topics that we feel are important for architects to explore. As this one was right in our backyard, we used it to test some new ideas we've been developing."
1st prize winners
TORONTO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Tristan Van Leur and Samantha Eby from Canada!
"The reason why we join competitions is that they provide us with a platform to spark our passion and create works freely. Due to various reasons, architects are often facing multiple restrictions in routine work. However, in this competition we can think more about current social issues and problems and pay more attention to the context of our designs. Through improving the design philosophy and updating the traditional design style, we strive to pursue optimum solutions."
1st prize winners
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Dian Luo, Xiang Liu and Guisong Zhang from China!
"We participate in architecture competitions in order to build up and diversify our design portfolio, challenge ourselves, and obtain new skills."
2nd prize winners
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Doruk Alpsar and Amina Meslem from United Arab Emirates!
"Architecture competitions have a key role in the development of young architects. They stimulate creativity among individuals or teams regardless of their professional experience and background. One the one hand competitions offer fascinating and complex projects to work on. On the other, they allow more freedom in the design process than in real-life projects."
3rd and Green Award winners
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Vassil Vandov and Gergana Georgieva from Bulgaria!
"Architecture competitions gave us the opportunity to gain experience and grow up professionally. We think that besides the practice that we gain from these competitions, participating in them is a good way of observing how others perceive a task and respond to the same challenge. We are always looking for different types of competitions on various subjects to gain the upper mentioned experience and get out of our comfort zone."
BB STUDENT AWARD WINNERS
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Claudiu Zidarescu, Irena Dunda, Teodora Maria Escu and Delia Teodora Răpsigan from Romania!
"For fun and for the experience of crossing borders – literally and mentally."
CLIENTS FAVORITE PRIZE
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Eliska Turanska, Jana Stofan Stykova and Katarina Stachonova from Slovakia!
"This was the first competition I participated in. I entered so that I could regain some autonomy over the type of design practice I wish to engage in. I was able to apply a system of thinking that (compared to other work I’ve done in school or practice) originated from a higher level of personal interest and thus, I hope, generated a compelling result."
"Having the need to evolve in design and to develop our way of thinking, we are constantly looking for new “equations” to solve. This is the reason we take part in architectural competitions: to constantly reframe the field of interest, to travel mentally to new places where the restrictions and freedoms we have may be different."
Honourable mention winners
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Minas Kosmidis Architects from Greece!
"We see architecture competitions as an opportunity to explore the role of architecture beyond our otherwise very limited social circle and context, having to learn about other cultures and contextual characteristics while responding to them. We take each competition as a learning opportunity and build an archive of knowledge out of it to be more holistic designers."
Honourable mention winners
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Haipng (Heffrence) Teow and Lapzhen Wong from Malaysia!
"Like many during the pandemic, our graduate prospects were disrupted, and we used competitions to continue our development as designers. As designers early in our architectural careers, competitions allow us the opportunity to not only lead projects but refine our ethos and experiment with its application."
Honourable mention winners
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Wilber Ilett and Tim Hatch from United Kingdom!
"We participate in architectural competitions because we want to act together to realize a common vision on an architecture that respects and links its local surrounding, environment and people."
Honourable mention winners
OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE competition
Fiorentino De Martino and Laura Kranich from Germany!
"Architecture competitions are a great way to challenge my creative skills. It is also an opportunity for me to design a broad variety of programs. What excites me the most is being able to design different buildings, scales, programs, etc."
"We think architecture competitions are the purest way for us to reflect upon our work without our self-biased eyes, because we need more than a pair of eyes to value how the architecture works. Architecture competitions also allow us to express our sense of creativity and explore different ways to create an architectural design."
Honourable mention winners
CAMBODIA REMOTE HIDEOUT HUTS competition
Salmahira Lazuardi, Abdul Aziz and Alief Brahmarizky Roseno from Indonesia!
"This is the first time we participate in an international architecture competition. We got really attracted to this particular project, because we saw it as an opportunity to work in a project that required the kind of knowledge we’ve acquired during our career as architects, which we usually don’t get a chance to use working as freelancers. Also, we saw it as a way to show our work to a bigger audience and make our little contribution to the world."
Clients Favourite prize
CAMBODIA REMOTE HIDEOUT HUTS competition
Kevin Sánchez, Andrea Márquez, Mairim Aguilar and Jesús Curiel from Venezuela!
"Competitions are a great opportunity to exercise creative freedom and regain a sense of autonomy and ownership over our work. As working professionals, diverse competition projects are a great luxury. They allows us to try our hands in projects with unique challenges and social missions that we don’t normally get to experience. Lastly, if we win, it is a great way to get our name “out there” and potentially have our project built."
Green prize winners
CAMBODIA REMOTE HIDEOUT HUTS competition
Lea Stagno and Toru Okada from United States!
"This competition led our team through an exciting and rigorous design exercise. Architecture competitions are conducive to remote learning and helped us remain engaged during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we explored design problems outside of the traditional architectural setting and within a unique cultural context."
3rd and Student prize winners
CAMBODIA REMOTE HIDEOUT HUTS competition
Josephine Simon and Anne Whitsel from United States!
"We are both working and attending school which can get overwhelming and limiting at times. Choosing our competitions allows us to escape our pragmatic daily routine, is a way to exercise our minds, and acts as a platform to test our ideas. Competitions are also challenges that give us the opportunity to work on different scales and discover diverse locations."
2nd prize winners
CAMBODIA REMOTE HIDEOUT HUTS competition
Bachir Benkirane and Megi Davitidze from Morocco!
"Through competitions you are able to express yourself in a very raw and creative way – straight from your soul. An idea is growing without all the noise of daily (work-)life. Viewed upside down, it’s also a way of finding yourself by researching topics you identify with."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND CAVE TOWER competition
Martynas Degutis, Michael Samson and Justus Würtenberger from Germany!
"Competitions provide an avenue for the exploration of ideas, often beyond the constraints of conventional project commissions. To grow as a designer, we believe, this exploration is critical. The competition process also enables our studio to explore new project opportunities which otherwise we would not have access to."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND CAVE TOWER competition
Jad Silvester, Penny Fuller, Bruce Feng and Alexandra Hopkins from Australia!
"We think that competitions are a stimulating exercise for creativity, a way of responding to the needs of people and the environment in total freedom. To measure oneself with uncommon themes, in different environmental contexts where one can express one's own art."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND CAVE TOWER competition
Giacomo Cozzi and Andrea Maltinti from Italy!
"Competitions represent the means to be able to intervene directly in the public sphere through projects capable of dealing with architecture as a tool for the community. They remain the main means of being able to condition the image of the landscape without private superstructures, following a common vision of architecture."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND CAVE TOWER competition
Antonio Salvi, Francesco Polci, Filippo Pecorai and Antonello Boschi from Italy!
"Architecture competitions give me the opportunity to test ideas/concepts and allow for a creative and playful design."
"When you are young, a competition helps you find a narrative, present an idea, and get familiar with silly deadlines. As you get older, a competition is a good way to break routine. Competitions offer a rare opportunity to showcase and experiment with ideas and architectural expression without restrictions. You challenge your skills and learn new things."
Green prize winners
ICELAND CAVE TOWER competition
Vaia Vakouli and Orestis Gkouvas from United Kingdom!
"For us, taking part in architectural vision competition is a big chance for experimentation with space and structure, an opportunity to celebrate the design process and to face unusual topics. It develops us as professionals and motivates us to search for new ways of thinking about architecture."
3rd prize winners
ICELAND CAVE TOWER competition
Kamila Szatanowska and Paulina Rogalska from Poland!
"We think that taking part in competitions is a very interesting experience that broadens our horizons. It provides us with an opportunity to work in a group setting and prepares us for our future careers. Participation in competitions enables us to present our design vision to a larger audience and compare it with the ideas of other participants."
2nd and Student prize winners
ICELAND CAVE TOWER competition
Aleksandra Bieszka , Aleksandra Mucha and Maria Pielach from Poland!
"Competitions help to engage and think about projects with less constraints, which allows to create new fundamental concepts and values."
"Competitions are a chance to interpret new problems, programs, habitats, and people, broadening your horizons and enabling personal growth both as an architect and as a person."
"We see the competition as a challenge, forcing us to get out of our comfort zone. It’s an interesting exercise where we have to experiment and materialize ambitious ideas, thus pushing our boundaries of creativity and freedom. Furthermore, it is a great opportunity to experiment with new graphic representation techniques to communicate about architecture."
Honourable mention winners
YOGA HOUSE ON A CLIFF competition
Amos Bok, Raphaël Luchs and Florian Mahieu from Belgium!
"Architectural competitions undoubtedly are the ultimate testing ground for our creative competence and problem-solving skills. As vital as they are for the architectural field in general, they represent a form of intellectual playground for developing our innovative thinking. Beyond the individual benefits of personal and professional growth and work fulfilment, architectural competitions facilitate the most democratic system for designing our environment."
Honourable mention winners
YOGA HOUSE ON A CLIFF competition
Monika Angelevska, Zoran Petrovski and Kostantin Trpenoski from Macedonia!
"The greater dynamism of the competition platforms has been contributing, in a very positive way, to publicize new teams, approaches, and different work processes that end up contributing to the plurality of contemporary architecture practice all over the world. For all these reasons, participation in architecture contests proves to be very challenging, as it makes it possible to materialize ideas freely and spontaneously, which often does not happen in the professional context."
Honourable mention winners
YOGA HOUSE ON A CLIFF competition
Ana Isabel Santos, João Varela and Paulo Dias from Portugal!
"It is the opportunity to try new ideas and to set ourselves design challenges that we are not used to on a daily basis. Contests are the means of expressing our creativity, finding tools and knowledge that we can later apply in our professional practice."
Honourable mention winners
YOGA HOUSE ON A CLIFF competition
Rafael Cruz, Gabriel Molina, Sebastián García and Sebastián Moreno from Colombia!
"In our particular case, architecture competitions allow us to reflect and explore our theoretical concepts about design, as well as to understand and perfect our creative process."
Green prize winner
YOGA HOUSE ON A CLIFF competition
Bernardo Aguilar León, Eder Eulogio Lescano and Lorenzo Barghini from Peru!
"This competition allowed me to apply the skills I acquired during my studies and the knowledge I gained from personal research to a real building task. It was highly instructive to design a building in the framework of structural, practical, and environmental boundaries."
"The participation in architecture competitions gives us the opportunity to share our voice in architecture through drawings and design, hoping to resonate with a certain audience. It is also an engaging way to maintain the excitement, creative freedom, and professional motivation for the development of individual extracurricular design projects and collaborations."
3rd prize winners
YOGA HOUSE ON A CLIFF competition
Amanda Dolgā and Cheung Lun Jeremy Son from United Kingdom!
"Unlike in school, the process of an architecture project is long. It can take up to a year or even a decade to complete a single project. And it takes more time to solve practical problems than to actually do the plan. The competition allows us to think of new ideas and test them out in various projects in different countries that are not usually encountered. Competitions give you the opportunity to think of new things and it will motivate you to work on them."
"To explore possibilities and apply my thoughts of architecture through different competition themes. Taking part in competitions allows me to step away from reality; it is a chance to explore your creativity and exhibit the most interesting works."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Ziyu Zhao and Yongyi Liang from Sweden!
"Our work within the agency also flourishes in a theoretical and prospective reflection of architecture and the project process. Participation in competitions offers a privileged time to refocus and provoke reflection on subjects that interest us through conceptual and immediate responses. We integrate this time into an internal research process, more global and transversal than the usual pragmatic practice of an agency."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Claire Roy and Adélie Collard from France!
"Outside our academic and professional lives, we are constantly debating various architectural ideas. Sitting in a bar with a couple of beers, smoking cigarettes, and sketching on paper napkins – it is usually the moment when the best ideas come to the table, and we look for the right competitions to showcase them."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Diogo André Gonçalves Ferreira, Juan Manuel Jaramillo Londoño and Sanad Wir from Italy!
"We really enjoy the freedom inscribed in architecture competitions. We try to always challenge ourselves to go further than the most obvious answer to the questions asked. For us, it is an opportunity to test the congruency in the process of elaboration of our ideas, hence testing the integrity of our work."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Alexa Burkle and Santiago Esquivel from Mexico!
"We are particularly attentive and sensitive to issues of architectural design, urban regeneration, and social innovation. In participating in architecture competitions, we see an important opportunity for growth and greater acquisition of professional skills through an experiential process that stimulates creativity and innovation in a competitive environment."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Marco Rosati and Lorenzo Rinaldi Ngiam from Italy!
"We both think that architecture competitions are a good way to exercise flexibility in design after years of working on commercial projects away from school. Commercial projects tend to be driven by stakeholder interests, and that draws away from a very pure and even wild form of design. Architecture competitions stretch the imagination, allowing for us to do stuff that we are unable to do in everyday projects."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Karlotte Kang and Kia Hong Ngiam from Singapore!
"We believe competitions are a platform for us to express our thoughts on social issues with architecture. It is a great way to explore and refine our architecture ethos through different architecture competitions."
Green prize winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Ryan Wai Yin Tung, Jacky Ho Yin Cheung and Long Kwan from Hong Kong!
"After graduating, opportunities to express and develop personal philosophies and ideas without constraints are rare for a young designer. Entering competitions has allowed me to do exactly this."
3rd prize winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Thiam Yi Donovan Ong from Australia!
"Participating in competitions is not an easy task, whether you are a professional or a student. It takes time to prepare a good project for any competition, and, quite frankly, it is not easy to win them. So, surely, they could start to feel like a wasted effort and a drain of intelligence, as Rem has put it. But at the same time, architectural competitions provide a platform for both the student and the professional to deliberate on a dissimilar typology, which can be beneficial in a number of different ways."
2nd prize winners
PAVILION OF HUMANITY: FIRST CONTACT competition
Shahram Arashzad and Fatemeh Kazemi from United States!
"Architecture competitions are adventures in which we can present our ideas to a worldwide platform. It is indeed a stimulating environment that challenges our mentality and point of view and pushes the boundaries of design."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Aiste Rakauskaite, Kiana Mousavi and Savanne Van Harrewijen from Netherlands!
"We participate in architecture competitions in hopes of pushing the boundaries of design. These competitions are a canvas for new opportunities. In these briefs, there are no right or wrong answers."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Tommy Nam and Eujean Cheong from United States!
"I like to challenge myself, and during every competition I learn something new. It is a very intense process, but I wouldn’t change it for anything else. At the end of the competition, I love to go through my sketches and steps to see the path that I have taken and what I can improve in the future."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Zuzanna Słabik from Poland!
"Competitions provide a framework to explore how we see the world. A brief is the key that opens up and constrains our imagination."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Ibrahim Muasher, Gergana Popova and Simon Taylor from United Kingdom!
"Architecture competitions provide me with the rare opportunity for complete freedom of design, the chance to do what I feel is right without limitations."
Honourable mention winner
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Ben Mc Quaid from Ireland!
"This is the second time I participate in a worldwide contest, and the reason why I do it is because I can explore different lines of design, constructive methods, users, materials, and everything outside of the conventional."
Honourable mention winner
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Mauricio Bastidas Azotla from Mexico!
"We participate in architecture vision competitions because, as young architects, we can develop our skills on an international stage. It is an excellent opportunity to discipline ourselves and push forward our design limits."
Green prize winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Ali Bugra Cebeci and Oguz Kemal Basar from Italy!
"We love to challenge ourselves and to test our ideas in the global context."
3rd and Student prize winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Jinlong Li, Sen Yan, Xibao Ren and Huichao Luo from Australia!
"We participate in competitions to seek more opportunities to learn about the world of architecture. We see it as a chance to refine and practice the skills we have and through this find our purpose and identity in the way we think and design."
2nd prize winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Andrew Kurniawan, Georgia Huang and Leonardo Vincent from Australia!
"Because it represents an occasion to explore extreme contexts and unique scenarios."
1st prize winners
MICROHOME 2020 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Giovanni Cavaglion, Emanuele Cavaglion, Xiaoxu Liang and Pu Wang from Italy!
"For us, participating in architecture competitions represents a promise of being able to explore architectural ideas in their pure sense. We can work through ideas without being distracted by the conservative restraints and limitations that our projects typically encounter."
Honourable mention winners
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Luc Harel, Manos Mavridis and Phil Snowdon from Australia!
"Our main reason of participation is that it offers a thinking breakthrough for the way we perceive day-to-day architecture. Another reason is to also convey our design intention and content through an open architecture medium."
Honourable mention winners
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Lap Zhen Wong and Erik Ung Hieng Yek from Malaysia!
"Architectural competitions are a breeding ground for new ideas and new talent; they smash preconceptions, break down barriers, and produce award-winning designs. I participate in architectural competitions to immerse into a creative process, guided by a set of difficult challenges, and to bring to life a solution and response that did not exist before."
Honourable mention winner
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Tarek Abou Dib from Australia!
"We participate in architecture competitions to test our ideas and skillsets and challenge our preconceived concepts of what has been done and how we can do it differently – it gives us the perfect platform to test daring/radical ideas."
Honourable mention winners
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Mond Qu, Sonny Do and Yeqian Shi from Australia!
"I love how there can be a huge variety of unique designs in response to the same issue. I also love the idea of tackling a real-world issue whilst remaining free to explore conceptual ideas."
Honourable mention winner
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Alex Stein from Australia!
"Architecture competitions are the right medium to challenge our preconceptions of what is around us and push us to imagine the future we want to live in. Competitions are a great way to develop our thinking and ideas, creating a starting point to make these visions become a reality."
Green prize winner
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Matthieu Bégoghina from Australia!
"We would like to be exposed to more designs and opportunities which we rarely encounter in our daily work. Our work is more about high-rise buildings, so thinking about a socially related project would exercise our way of thinking in more complex things. Also, acting as not just a designer in a team helped us develop a deeper understanding about the operation of a project. We recapped after we submitted the competition board and summarized which aspects we can improve in and how we will plan the next one."
3rd prize winners
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Tingting Peng and Sijia Liu from United States!
"An architecture competition allows us to think outside of the box and test different solutions to respond to current challenges, such as fast-growing cities and increasing housing demands."
2nd prize winners
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Maria Gabriela Vaca Sanchez and Sandra Maria Estrada Rosas from Netherlands!
"The development of real architectural projects comes with a myriad of restrictions. I choose to participate in architectural competitions as a means of eliminating some of these limitations and opening the door to new paradigms and possibilities within my designs. This allows me to push my interests far beyond their typical barriers and produce topical projects that can inspire real world works."
1st and Student prize winner
MELBOURNE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Evan Langendorfer from Australia!
"Competitions allow me to explore broader architectural concepts beyond the limitations of the office routine. They help to rekindle the inspiration necessary to maintain healthy creativity."
Honourable mention winners
MONTE D'OIRO WINE TASTING ROOM competition
Nicholas Brown from the United States!
"By participating in architectural competitions, we allow ourselves to investigate an interest that may include a specific program, scale, or construction that is not commonly explored in academia. Additionally, it is a medium that enables us to render ideas with a potential physical outcome – spaces that people will be able to inhabit and experience."
Honourable mention winners
MONTE D'OIRO WINE TASTING ROOM competition
Alejandro Saldarriaga and Isaac Tejeira from Colombia!
"In practice, I have to fight the laws and regulations of the community, face a limited budget, and suffer emotional sentiment by the owner. I left the real world for a moment and participated in the competition to ask myself questions. This is like participating in an F1 match. I wanted to get out of the city streets where I had to commute, and run the autobahn at unlimited speed."
"In this kind of environment, there is much more freedom and creativity involved, and it is overall a good exercise. On the other hand, one could always decide to base the design on more pragmatic decisions, as we intended to do in the proposal submitted. This duality makes vision competitions unique."
Honourable mention winners
MONTE D'OIRO WINE TASTING ROOM competition
Barbara Mazza and Claudio Cortese from Belgium!
"We see competitions as challenges that can put our team work, our knowledge and our commitment to an idea up to the task. This kind of competitions can test our passion and love for architecture and brings a reality check due to the client’s specifications."
2nd prize winners
MONTE D'OIRO WINE TASTING ROOM competition
Belén Moreno Pedrejón, Oriana Álvarez Braiz and Luis Miguel De Jesús Dos Ramos from Spain!
"I like to think of myself as a creative person and I need to create things. Participating in architecture vision competitions allows me to explore the productive side of my personality. It’s inspiring and stimulating."
"Being that both of us are recent graduates who are starting our professional careers, we both struggle at times to gain the level of authority desired in design projects at work. We see architecture vision competitions as frameworks for us to structure and explore ideas, while simultaneously creating a platform for us to advance our skill sets and hone our design sensibilities."
Honourable mention winners
KURGI OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Frank Gibase and Grey Peterson from the United States!
"The most important reason why I participate in architecture competitions is to keep being creative. I can experiment however I want with less constraint than in professional practice."
"Architecture competitions give us the chance to explore forms, contexts, materials, or languages different from those that we encounter in our day-to-day work. They keep us looking for new ideas and maintaining a fresh design approach."
Honourable mention winners
KURGI OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Aurelio Piña and Juan Rodriguez from Mexico!
"I participated in competitions both with design teams and by myself, and I believe that in both cases I had the opportunity to grow. When you work in a team, ideas originate from the union of different sensibilities and you learn from the confrontation with other members of the group, whereas working alone you have the chance to look inside yourself and to understand what really interests you."
"By exploring architecture with actual construction plans in mind and outputting those ideas, we grow."
Honourable mention winners
KURGI OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Koki Masumi and Makoto Wada from Japan!
"As a small practice, architecture vision competitions give us the opportunity to test new ideas and flex our creative skills on projects outside of our norm. Approaching projects such as this with freedom and experimentation allows us to develop new skills and mediums for project delivery. This has been seen to inspire the team to develop new skills and knowledge that can be adapted into live projects ongoing within the practice."
Green prize winners
KURGI OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Steven Hedley, Carl Herron and Callum Fysh from the United Kingdom!
"Participating in a competition is a good way to motivate ourselves, especially during the time of the pandemic, when the whole industry slows down and employment comes to a standing point – a competition is what keeps our spirits up and our minds active."
Student prize winners
KURGI OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Beixi Zhu and Xi Luo from the United States!
"Our daily working environment requires us to provide very practical design solutions for clients. Architecture vision competitions give us the opportunity to think outside of the box and stimulate our creativity with diverse ideas and project locations that challenge our comfort zone."
"In my opinion, it is always very important for an architect to look for solutions to new problems of different scales. Look for your own approach and carefully study the context, delicately add new objects, woven into the prevailing culture and locality."
2nd and Client’s Favorite winner
KURGI OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Arseniy Rabotnov from the Russian Federation!
"Participation in competitions, as well as in exhibitions and publications, for us has become a way to develop our practice and be in dialogue with others."
1st prize winners
KURGI OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Daniel Norell, Einar Rodhe and Agnes Mührer from Sweden!
"Architecture competitions offer a chance to develop proposals based on a diversity of briefs that allow for wide speculation on architectural ideas. Whilst they are grounded in contemporary issues, they allow for the freedom to engage in a far more conceptual way. This ability to design with fewer constraints offers an opportunity to enhance our creative thinking skills and demonstrate our abilities to a wider audience."
"We think it’s interesting to see the variety of answers and proposals that result from the same brief."
Honourable mention winners
RE-STOCK LONDON HOUSING competition
Gustava Grüntuch and Jakob Fischer from Germany!
"This has been my first competition entry. Having had my work placement in Copenhagen cancelled due to COVID-19, I decided to take part in an architectural competition to challenge myself and practice the design skills I have learnt at university. It was also an opportunity to explore my own interests and explore ideas which may not be possible within the restrictions of a university project brief."
Honourable mention winners
RE-STOCK LONDON HOUSING competition
Ingrid Bjerkan from the United Kingdom!
"The housing shortage is one of the most important global social issues of today, and it was interesting to me to see how we could respond to it through the language of space. Architecture vision competitions provide a great opportunity and platform to see and learn a lot from other great works and ideas."
"We are interested in experimenting with different architectural approaches and aestheticism throughout the design process of our projects, and we think we would grow as designers that have wider exposure in this creative field."
2nd prize winners
RE-STOCK LONDON HOUSING competition
Melody Chu and Deedee Chung from the United States!
"Because we want to have a lot of different and interesting experiences related to architecture."
Honourable mention winners
MEGA DUNES ECO LODGES - ABU DHABI competition
Jingyeong Park and Yejin Kim from Korea!
"In recent years at LTU, many design courses provide projects that are based off of real time competitions. Though the outcome of the course is not to submit for the competition, it’s really great because it gives students the opportunity to participate if they wish."
Honourable mention winners
MEGA DUNES ECO LODGES - ABU DHABI competition
Brandon Haarer, Fiorela Lesaj, Adam Dean and Solomon Reynolds from the United States!
"Competitions are a great way to share your architectural vision and develop innovative avant-garde ideas with an essence."
Honourable mention winners
MEGA DUNES ECO LODGES - ABU DHABI competition
Uri Lewis and Yasha Lewis from Mexico!
"Competitions are a great way to challenge the norms of the industry and design freely again without the formal restrictions that we have become a little too familiar with."
Honourable mention winners
MEGA DUNES ECO LODGES - ABU DHABI competition
Thomas Harrington and Irwin Ho from Australia!
"Competitions are an integral part of the studio’s focus on research and development (R&D); they provide an opportunity to test, combine and iterate contemporary ideas and technologies that become part of our growing tool kit."
3rd prize winners
MEGA DUNES ECO LODGES - ABU DHABI competition
Ahmad Nouraldeen, Luca Fraccalvieri, Jana Semaan and Lama Barhoumi from Lebanon!
"Because they allow us put theoretical visions into practice and push the boundaries of architecture. Moreover, a competition is always a way to learn more and more about yourself and your way to design."
1st prize winners
MEGA DUNES ECO LODGES - ABU DHABI competition
Giuseppe Ricupero, Egidio Cutillo, Stefania Schirò and Enrico Capanni from Italy!
"We believe that competitions are the most liberating and creative form of architectural design. It is a great way to challenge ourselves by trying to bring new ideas and develop our thoughts in the field of architecture."
Honourable mention winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTER competition
Yonatan Buchhandler and Valerio Nelli from the United Kingdom!
"To add to and enrich our university experience, we take part in competitions going beyond the world of student academic work and daily routine with the aim of developing creative ideas."
Honourable mention winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTER competition
Alicja Nowak, Maciej Rodak and Yaroslav Panasevych from Poland!
"We decided to join THE ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTRE - contest at beebreeders.com because we like the idea of designing a unique environment. Additionally, the elegant appearance of flamingos and their choreographic movements inspired us to design an interactive pavilion."
Honourable mention winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTER competition
Sebastian Feldmann, Thomas Filke, Leon Brohmann and Philipp Brummer from Germany!
"This is a chance to create an interesting concept not defined by money. And besides, this is a good opportunity to present our solutions to the many problems with which the world today is measured."
Student prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTER competition
Kinga Gawlik and Piotr Rajewski from Poland!
"We believe regenerative architecture and sustainable design will be a key aspect in the formation of future generations of architects and users of architecture."
3rd prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTER competition
Laurent Herbiet and Giordana Rojas from Mexico!
"We see architectural competition as an excellent opportunity to broaden our perspective. It offers us the chance to experience and learn from different cultures, to evolve our ideas, to gain a better understanding of the relationship between humans and architecture."
2nd prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTER competition
Wenqi Huang and Yi Yan from the United States!
"We have been participating in competitions that we consider challenging and that focus on content as well as architectural design."
1st prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO VISITOR CENTER competition
Petr Janda, Anna Podroužková and Kateřina Tšponová from the Czech Republic!
"We believe it is one of the best ways to keep professional creativity alive. by allowing the participants to push their limits. Thanks to these competitions, we as designers are able to widen our capability of thinking and discover new methods. These competitions allow us to push the creative limit with innovative ideas."
Honourable mention winners
VALE DE MOSES MEDITATION CABINS competition
Oguzhan Zeytinoglu, Jasmine Auernig, Ece Atil and Gizem Dokuzoguz from Austria!
"For us, taking part in architectural vision competitions is a big chance for experimentation with space and structure, an opportunity to celebrate the design process and to face unusual topics. It develops us as professionals and motivates us to search for new ways of thinking about architecture."
Honourable mention winners
VALE DE MOSES MEDITATION CABINS competition
Kamila Szatanowska and Paulina Rogalska from Poland!
"It’s been a long time that we’ve known each others and wanted to work together, but could not find the occasion. We also prefer working on competitions where there is an opportunity to build, not only create ideas."
Honourable mention winners
VALE DE MOSES MEDITATION CABINS competition
Pauline Tondreau and Manon Saint Ghislain from Belgium!
"Architecture competitions are a way to express our creativity and let our imagination run free. These competitions allow us to develop our architectural design skills and project representation. Furthermore, these are an endless source of inspiration which enable us to begin our professional career. In a very competitive architectural world, this is also a way to have more visibility."
Student prize winners
VALE DE MOSES MEDITATION CABINS competition
Yann Beuzit and Vincent Lecler from France!
"We would like to examine new ideas, experience different design conditions, and expand our opportunities, which is not always possible."
3rd prize winners
VALE DE MOSES MEDITATION CABINS competition
Duc Ngo and Piotr Pasierbinski from Japan!
"We participate in architecture competitions as a means for unconstrained design exploration. These competitions allow us to dive into our own interests in architecture, space, and construction without the usual limitations of a standard project structure."
2nd prize winners
VALE DE MOSES MEDITATION CABINS competition
Ying Qi Chen and Fui Srivikorn from the United States!
"The projects proposed in the competitions are incredibly diverse, which allow us to open up new horizons in the practice of the profession. Indeed, on one hand, we are confronted with other realities by discovering different cultures, geographies, local practices and challenges, which open our eyes to the foreign world. On the other hand, participating in competitions fosters a positive and proactive attitude that stimulates creativity in addition to enriching our knowledge."
"San Francisco Affordable Housing Challenge reminded me of my graduate thesis project in GSD. The competition provided a great opportunity to revisit and polish the idea, and share it with others."
Honourable mention winner
SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Jee Hyung Park from the United States!
"Thinking about a vision for a specific part makes me grow by studying unknown cultures, studies and situations. Also, my vision could make the globe change. No one knows what will create change and which idea could change our future. Therefore, I consider the problems that are going on and try to create a solution. This small effort could help and change someone’s life or some place’s problems."
Honourable mention winners
SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Hyeonseok Kim, Heegon Kim and Donghwa Kim from Korea!
"To keep our edge. Speculative design helps architects and urbanists to question “norms.” Together, through the crucible of vision competitions, we can explore break-throughs ideas for not just for architecture and design, but also for policy, place, and living."
Honourable mention winners
SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
John Shapiro, Jason Vigneri-Beane and Marcel Negret from the United States!
"Architecture is about constant learning and development. Competitions allow me to test and explore new ideas, responding to different briefs for sites around the world. As experiments, they’re useful as a way to evaluate my own thinking about a site, program and form; more importantly, though, they serve as a forum to explore and evaluate the ideas of other talented designers."
Honourable mention winner
SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Thomas Melville from the United States!
"We both enjoy participating in architecture vision competitions and have be doing it together for the last couple of years. We believe these competitions are the perfect platform to be critical of normative frameworks, to dream about unforeseen possibilities, and to explore radical visions that can inform our profession."
3rd prize winners
SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Monica Lamela Blazquez and Sofia Betancur Velasquez from Spain!
"We are restless architecture students who are on a quest to learn and we welcome the opportunity to use a platform that supports innovative ideas which influence the future. Competitions are carte blanche for dreams."
2nd and Student prize winners
SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Arseny Pekurovsky, Chon Fai Kuok, and Megan Gahlman from the United States!
"Architecture competitions are a representation of freedom where you get to explore your creative ability. An ability which should be exercised on a regular basis and used in practice. Designers face unique challenges in architectural competitions that might be uncommon in the area they practice, which helps an individual to learn the skill of adapting to change."
1st prize winners
SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Martin Pretorius and Raphael Trischler from South Africa!
"BOLDR participates in competitions in order to elevate the profession, communicate ideas, and inspire our own practice."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Mike Sudolsky, Patrick Tria and Lemuel Urbano from the United States!
"I participate in architecture competitions to synthesize new ideas and push the boundaries of architecture. It is a great opportunity to enhance my computational and graphic skills."
Honourable mention winner
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Alejandra Rojas from the United States!
"Offtec, as a young society, decides to participate in architecture vision competitions to prove itself constantly and to compare with the major architectural groups at international level, increasing the quality of proposals."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Flavian Basile, Mariarosaria Savoia, Marika Maio and Flavio Maio from Italy!
"We have just started participating in architectural competitions. We believe that, by working on these projects, we are able to communicate our designs, and hopefully it will help us to grow more in experience and someday create what we could call our own architectural firm."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Sergio Esquinca, Daniel Ramirez, Alhakam Alaedh and Adrian Salinas from the United States!
"For me, as an architect, it is an amazing opportunity to express my thoughts and ideas without facing frames and restrictions. I love to offer my vision of solving certain problems, to experiment and create projects on the verge of reality. The spirit of competition, which I believe should live in the heart of every architect, is a driving force for me."
Honourable mention winner
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Gennadi Kraev from the Russian Federation!
"Architecture competitions are one of the best ways to express the most innovative ideas. And knowing that a lot of people will participate anonymously gives even more stimulus to think of more driven and revolutionary projects."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Piero Lissoni, Joao Silva, Fulvio Capsoni and Davide Apolloni from Italy!
"Participating in an architecture vision competition provides us with the chance to collaborate with peer students. We are more motivated by working as a team instead of working alone. This type of competition also evaluates our knowledge and practical skills in the field of design and architecture and broadens our vision by competing with talented people around the world."
Green prize winners
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Yiguan Liu, Julie Yang, Willy Zhou and Grace Qian from Canada!
"Architecture competitions are thought experiments for designers. They’re great prompts to hone your skills, define ideas and collaborate with friends. The exposure they offer is also an attractive benefit."
"The main reason I enter architecture vision competitions is to increase the reach and publicity of my projects. As a young designer, it can be hard to publicize your own work, especially at the beginning. Therefore, competitions can offer a fast track, as the design is often published across many platforms, meaning the audience it reaches is far greater."
1st and Student prize winner
SKYHIVE 2020 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Daniel Hambly from the United Kingdom!
"Every once in a while, it’s good to pause and to put all your skills and knowledge to the test. It’s always beneficial to examine how much you have improved and to define or redefine your weaknesses. Plus, it’s fun. I treat it as a hobby."
"This is my first architecture competition. I was previously working on a personal project of my own related to bird feeders. I felt that the ideas I was generating there could be implemented into the design of a birdhouse as well. The competition was a great opportunity to share my ideas and push myself to learn and apply new skills."
"It’s a great opportunity to exercise our creativity!"
Honourable mention winners
LEGENDARY BIRD HOME 2020 competition
Ryo Ishikawa and Mars Sambo from Japan!
"Architecture competitions are an important outlet for architects and students, they provide a platform where people can express their ideas to like-minded individuals without the constraints of budget or pragmatism. Competitions are important within our field because they allow us to pursue our endeavor to define the zeitgeist of the 21st century."
"I think participating in the competition can be unrestrictive, to open the mind as much as possible, to inspire the heart with the most essential ideas. It should be a pleasure to present these ideas to the public."
"As a practical architect I often get caught up on the idea/routine that I should only apply my abilities to the built environment and tend to forget that I can offer more. Architecture competitions allow architects to keep a bridge between practical architecture and the realm of academia to create unique proposals."
"We believe in the importance of competition in the field of architecture to push beyond boundaries of creativity; and architecture vision competitions provide a platform to achieve these goals."
2nd prize winners
LEGENDARY BIRD HOME 2020 competition
Kenyo Jacob Musa, Ifta Khairul Ridan and Thai Cao Nguyen from Canada!
"Architecture competitions seek out non-traditional solutions. It allows the creative process to thrive and to stimulate the imagination. Besides this freedom, it is a good opportunity to take up new challenges with different people. Learning from their way of thinking allows the sharpening your own vision. And most of all, it’s fun!"
1st prize winners
LEGENDARY BIRD HOME 2020 competition
Fabian De Vriendt, Arnout Stevens and Mathias Spiessens from Belgium!
"It is a lot of fun solving vision competitions and it is a huge challenge for us. As students we do not have enough time to gain experience during our studies apart from during one semester when we have to do at mandatory 6-month internship. Therefore, we do try to participate in international architecture competitions to gain more practice."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Natalia Kędziorek, Bartosz Karasiński and Dawid Krzeszowiec from Poland!
"It gives you the chance to develop new ideas."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Ignacio Perez, Pablo Menéndez and Héctor Termenón from Spain!
"Competitions like this spark our imagination and creativity as well as create opportunities to tackle original topics that go beyond university standards. They give a chance to face actual problems of places that we didn’t know earlier, broadening our horizons in the process."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Agnieszka Baszak, Paweł Danielak and Bartłomiej Bruzda from Poland!
"Recently, we have been interested in participating in competitions for small projects that allow our team to take a break from the daily studio pressures and focus on unique design problems from around the globe. Resolving complex contextual and programmatic issues pushes creativity and generates robust discussion."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Tony Jemmott, Ruairi Roberts, James Cameron and Chris Wardle from Australia!
"We always participate in this kind of competitions to test and improve our abilities. In this case, unique visions are always a final product of long talks, tons of sketches, different attempts and sometimes failures. There is probably more knowledge to be gained out of conclusions when feedback surprises us then when everything is correct."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Michał Gawron, Łukasz Gąska and Marta Sowińska-Gąska from Poland!
"I often do competitions when what I’m practicing day to day becomes stagnant, repetitive or too easy. A competition is an opportunity to sharpen the blade, explore and experiment with a different typology and to challenge myself to test my ideas amongst others with a similar drive."
"Competitions for us are a great way to develop our creativity and express our vision of architecture. We participate in vision competitions when we find extra time in our office work, as it gives us the opportunity to think in design issues more than in our daily work."
Green prize winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Sergi Pérez Muñoz and Belén Rodríguez Vázquez from Spain!
"Participating in architectural competitions gives you a unique chance to express your ideas and challenge yourself against an exciting brief. In addition, it also provides an opportunity to learn how to create and present a coherent narrative around your idea."
"We seek to compose architectural quality, with a philantrophic intention, which we believe makes a difference for the people engaging with it. The architecture competition can make this possible."
2nd and Student prize winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Christian Kamp and Adrian Hildrum from Denmark!
"Competition is a great way to challenge ourselves, test ideas and get a better understanding of our design approach."
1st prize winners
ICELAND VOLCANO MUSEUM competition
Balint Iszak and Csenge Gyorgyi from New Zealand!
"Architecture competitions become our media to share our ideas and thoughts which sometimes we can’t deliver on our real projects. This way also improves our creative mind to always find new ideas and possibilities. Participating in architectural competition also challenges our idea in a bigger world that we can see where we/our idea/our architecture practice stand."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME2019 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Garry Novianto and Rudy Hermanto from Indonesia!
"We participate in architecture competitions because if we only design what people already have or already want, nothing new will emerge, and we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME2019 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Michael Salka, Julianna Carmona, Elisabet Fabrega and Kevin Matar from Spain!
"Architecture competitions provide the opportunity to think freely and conceptually, without the constraints of professional practice. We participate in these competitions because we see them as opportunities to research new topics, experiment with design, and challenge ourselves."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME2019 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Jolanda Devalle and Alison Zuccaro from United States!
"Vision competitions provide a platform that allows total exploration of ideas and concepts that at the very least provide further elaboration on the ever-evolving definition of what architecture is, and how its meaning may be interpreted and implemented in both the near and far futures."
Honourable mention winners
MICROHOME2019 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Brendan Cooney, Parto Jahangiri, Minh Quang Do and Arvin Nadimi from Sweden!
"I participate in competitions because they offer the possibility to design with new and innovative forms of architecture. They also push you to think outside of the box and do research into how you can make your vision possible. Competitions also give you the opportunity to design spaces that can be different from what you usually design."
Green prize winner
MICROHOME2019 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Eric Weber from United States!
"I participate in architecture vision competitions mainly to challenge myself. I see it as a tool for learning and an opportunity to be creative and experiment with new ideas. Architecture vision competitions offer a freedom of expression that is otherwise restricted when you work for an office or a client."
"We believe that participation in architecture competitions can create many great opportunities, especially for students. The basic and fair answer stands behind our personalities and is linked with our passion about architecture and the chance to challenge yourself. Architectural competitions are a great chance to improve many of your skills, to widen your knowledge and express your creativity. You can also learn how to work as part of a team and how to use your unique qualities to complete one project."
2nd and Student prize winners
MICROHOME2019 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Bilyana Apostolova and Slavena Todorova from Bulgaria!
"Participating in architecture competitions is a way for us to take a step back from our day-to-day work and experiment with different ideas on design challenges that we may not otherwise come across. The process of working on a competition is rigorous and demanding, and helps us to keep an open mind, aiding our design and critical-thinking skills as they apply to real world projects."
1st prize winners
MICROHOME2019 - SMALL LIVING, HUGE IMPACT! competition
Jerry Liu and Jesse Basran from Canada!
"It’s a chance to do different projects from what we are used to, and to be able to build our architecture in different cities and countries. Also, the media generated around the project is very important to the office’s growth."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND THERMAL SPRINGS GUEST HOUSE competition
Marcelo Moura, Marina Dipre, Alberto Botafogo and Victoria Greenman from Brazil!
"Competitions are a great way to design an interesting project and to gain new insights from designers around the world. I love to design, and the existence of many competitions allows me the freedom to choose to work on projects that interest me."
"We believe that in order to maintain the agency of the architect in society, that when entering a competition, since many entries remain unbuilt, that it further drives the progression of incoming architecture students, as well as helping maintain the public’s knowledge of where architecture is going. By pursuing competitions with the hopes of the possible construction of the results, our partnership gathers more authorship in the architectural realm."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND THERMAL SPRINGS GUEST HOUSE competition
Nicholas Houser and James Hardt from United States!
"We participate because we believe it is important to develop research through design on a regular basis."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND THERMAL SPRINGS GUEST HOUSE competition
Mattias Dahlberg and Annapaola Busnardo from Sweden!
"It allows us to experiment and try out new concepts and ideas. This type of competition gives us creative freedom – not being limited by loads of rules. We aim for new designs that are “out of the box“, in order to push current limits and boundaries of architecture."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND THERMAL SPRINGS GUEST HOUSE competition
David Erik Bernatek and Adam Repaský from Czech Republic!
"Competitions allow us to develop a collective thinking and re-question the boundaries of the discipline."
Green prize winners
ICELAND THERMAL SPRINGS GUEST HOUSE competition
Sergi Viñals Musquera and Anna Mirapeix Gresa from Spain!
"It's a stimulation. It keeps my mind constantly alert and open. It also allows me to confront new topics and specific contexts. It is an opportunity to be able to express myself freely and to perfect my architectural style."
"I want to challenge myself because competitions allow one to think out of the box and to increase one’s potential. I also believe that the competition will bring the opportunity to grow ideas and develop human resources and skills. Competitions encourage a dynamic working environment as the working team will do brainstorming to come up with the best design."
2nd prize winner
ICELAND THERMAL SPRINGS GUEST HOUSE competition
Nuttapol Techopitch of Looklen Architects in Thailand!
"Competitions are a great way to explore and test in an uninhibited context that allows for new creative freedoms and playfulness."
"I enjoy the dynamism of leaning toward ideas or toward reality. I find clarity from the ideas that inform the aspects of reality I want to represent."
Honourable mention winner
ICELAND BLACK LAVA FIELDS VISITOR CENTER competition
Catalina Edey from Australia!
"It’s as important to have a vision as it is for people to know where to go before driving their car onto the road. Vision in architecture is critical to design and building better for people and generations from now on. It pushes the boundary that defines us and our world, which can be better and will be better."
Honourable mention winner
ICELAND BLACK LAVA FIELDS VISITOR CENTER competition
Xinyi Wang from Australia!
"Creative thinking is one of the best things that we can do without even moving a finger. And this is the key to what architecture vision competitions are about. Not to mention that they make me want to acquire more knowledge in a fun way!"
Honourable mention winner
ICELAND BLACK LAVA FIELDS VISITOR CENTER competition
Davor Robitschko from Hungary!
"The focus was on being creative together again. A small task which felt refreshing outside of daily jobs."
Honourable mention winners
ICELAND BLACK LAVA FIELDS VISITOR CENTER competition
Anna Laura Hölz and Stefan Pflips from Germany!
"Participating in an architecture competition allows the participating architects and students to share, discuss and compare views and ideas internationally. This supports the spreading of knowledge and expertise outside of the home, university or workplace."
Student prize winners
ICELAND BLACK LAVA FIELDS VISITOR CENTER competition
Annika Möbs Johanna Spies von Büllesheim from Germany!
"Competitions help us to develop our conceptual thinking, creativity and to explore our architectural boundaries. We believe it is a great opportunity to show to the world what we think and what we love to do."
2nd prize winners
ICELAND BLACK LAVA FIELDS VISITOR CENTER competition
Luís Henrique Alcântara and Vladimir Alcântara from Brazil!
"I like the opportunity to test ideas and techniques in a very specific way. It is the challenge and fantasy that is the driving force."
1st prize winner
ICELAND BLACK LAVA FIELDS VISITOR CENTER competition
Mikkel Vadstrup Schmidt from Denmark!
"Participating in ideas competitions is, for us, a way to question how our society works and to seek solutions to improve people's lives, or to respond to current problematics that are less obvious to be implemented in the professional world. The architecture competition makes it possible to develop radical ideas that can lead to changes."
Honourable mention winners
PARIS AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Aubéry De Bretteville and Sophie Ponthieu from France!
"Architecture competitions provide the opportunity to put forward a polemic or radical idea that prompts thought, debate and discussion which may often be a catalyst for change. Without the constraints of conservatism (and sometimes budget), we enjoy a level of freedom to question and often mock the ideas that we assume are a given."
"I am currently in the transition from the academic world to the architectural industry. Participating in competitions allows me to continue indulge in learning and thinking like a student. This competition is especially personal because it was based on my final year student project. It gave me a chance to rework the project and synthesize what was essential to carry it further."
Honourable mention winner
PARIS AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Mujung Ryan Chiu from the United States!
"As a series proposing an architectural design that satisfies local people's specific desire, we tried to apply our philosophy to the affordable housing challenge competition in Paris. We conducted in-depth research and discussion on the position of those who actually needed affordable housing in Paris. In other words, we envisioned a new space that would satisfy their innate fantasy by utilizing Paris underutilized rooftop and we would like to consider how a new pattern of life could be realized there."
Honourable mention winners
PARIS AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Jaewon Lee, Suk Lee and Woowon Chung from United States!
"For us, each competition is an opportunity to carry out research work and to question ourselves on society and the city. It is an opportunity to work on innovative themes that go beyond traditional consultations/building competitions."
Honourable mention winners
PARIS AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Yoan La Selva, Adrien La Selva, Damien Fraulob and Sisley Carnus from France!
"I believe participating in architecture competitions should be an integral part of architecture, it's an exercise in the most important topics that we face or will face as a society and thus should be the ones that get the most attention and work."
"What I find most beneficial about architecture competitions is the interchange of ideas. Not only do you get to exercise your way of thinking, you also get an insight into how other people approached the same problem."
1st and Student prize winner
PARIS AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Neno Videnovic from United States!
"Architecture competitions invite involvement in a range of projects that would not naturally occur when working on commissions. Most often they invite you to engage in something new and can serve to generate growth in your own work and thinking. I like to participate in competitions so I can feel engaged in the work of other designers around the globe after spending time, focus, and energy on a design. Plus you are your own boss."
Honourable mention winners
ARCHHIVE BOOKS' PORTABLE READING ROOMS competition
Nick Safley, Ben Cyvas and Vince Noce from United States!
"Architecture competitions are a unique platform on which to design and represent experimentally. The fun of it is that design for competitions need not exist in exact reality. They are a chance to take risks and to work with different people in different ways. Ultimately, embracing this freedom allows for discovery and inspiration that provides invaluable insight for larger scale, commissioned design work."
Honourable mention winners
ARCHHIVE BOOKS' PORTABLE READING ROOMS competition
Ashley Lepre, Philip Chaney, Lodrys Gomez and Scott Pakulski from United States!
"We participate in competitions to confront our work, our vision and to propose answers that we hope to be relevant to current issues. In addition, participating in competitions allows us to express ourselves freely, without any judgement and with an experienced jury."
Honourable mention winners
ARCHHIVE BOOKS' PORTABLE READING ROOMS competition
Sixtine Bodard and Antoine Bouffard-Hanss from France!
"Architecture competitions give us an opportunity to test our creativity and come up with something that is close to pure fiction. It is an experience we enjoy returning to after a long, dull day of constraints. As a startup, we also find architecture competitions an efficient way to build up our experience while revamping our portfolio."
Green prize winners
ARCHHIVE BOOKS' PORTABLE READING ROOMS competition
Joanna Abi Nader and Ragheed Abi Hassan from Lebanon!
"It has a novel topic and inspires my thoughts, allowing me to learn how other people think about the same problem, which is a very interesting and meaningful experience."
3rd and Student prize winner
ARCHHIVE BOOKS' PORTABLE READING ROOMS competition
Wenhao Nie from China!
"I have had different reasons for participating in architecture vision competitions. Exploring other ways of approaching a project with a diversified team, discussing specific themes that are often neglected by my school, investigating other scales. However, there is always a common reason, to think outside the box."
"We believe that participating in a competition is an extremely stimulating opportunity to express pure ideas and to experiment a multidisciplinary design by researching and involving different perspectives within the creative flow of architecture."
1st prize winners
ARCHHIVE BOOKS' PORTABLE READING ROOMS competition
Lorenzo Sizzi and Müge Yürüten from Italy.
"We felt that this would be a good opportunity for us to explore and experiment with ideas that break conventional notions of architecture and the built environment. Participating in architectural ideas competitions allows our ideas to be heard and this could hopefully spark a critical debate among people of various disciplines regarding our interests to achieve a consensus in designing great cities."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE 2019 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Michael Tan, Haseef Rafiei, Khaled Salem and Ng Jia Han from Malaysia!
"As students of architecture, we spend a long time engaged in theoretical discussions which are essential in developing the mind. Much of this development is left behind as soon as one graduates and enters the workforce. I believe that architecture competitions are a way to consistently challenge one’s perception of reality. This allows the mind to develop beyond the regimentation of monotony and extend into the discourse that promotes change in the practice."
Honourable mention winner
SKYHIVE 2019 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Jonathan L. Ong from United States!
"We see vision competitions as the best way to question the status quo of architecture. It is a great opportunity to criticize its weaknesses, turn up the volume on its threats and freely express our own perceiving of possible improvement. With this approach we always develop ourselves as well."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE 2019 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Kajetan Witkowski and Tomasz Żygo from Poland!
"We believe that this kind of gesture makes reality better. Architects who work in the field have limited time to think about diverse ideas. Participating in architecture vision competitions does have a lot of value in terms of studying and learning different perspectives, getting away from the frame of reality, and also providing examples for others."
Green prize winners
SKYHIVE 2019 SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
San Yoon and Minjae Koo from Korea!
"Within our experiences, we found that competitions are incredibly useful creative exercises to imagine and produce a project. It also allows us to learn more about particular cultures and local materials. All in all, we believe competitions to be an opportunity to broaden our horizons as architects."
Honourable mention winners
TEAMAKERS GUEST HOUSE competition
Filip Remplakowski, Ben Lee, Anisah Bhayat and Daven Masri from United Kingdom!
"Architecture can sometimes present times of mundanity, especially when one gets into the execution part of a building. The challenge that such competitions create, aids in keeping the problem solving mind alert. So we think of them as brain training for architects."
Honourable mention winners
TEAMAKERS GUEST HOUSE competition
Matthew Gatt, Daniel Attard and James Dingli from Malta!
"Most of the time I work on real projects, for this type of competition can be really refreshing for the mind. I like to participate in architectural competitions from time to time, especially when an exciting subject comes up. The freedom of creativity are given, the ideas can be fully realized."
"I participate because it gives me the possibility to improve my personal skills and knowledge every step of the way. It allows me to be creative through the thinking steps and also to work rigorously on every step of the project."
"Participating in this competition is, for us, a way to improve and cultivate our curiosity and creativity, as architects or designers, we have to maintain those precious skill."
Honourable mention winners
TEAMAKERS GUEST HOUSE competition
Lisa Gaudin and Sophie Charier from France!
"By participating in a design competition, it stimulates and develops the creative mind. And it connects how we perceive and want to be involved in architecture. A design competition like this is where the most special and unusual results are achieved."
Green prize winners
TEAMAKERS GUEST HOUSE competition
Martin van der Vijver, Baktash Ibrahimi and Bas van Oosterom from Netherlands!
"These competitions help us to practice and – most importantly – to develop our conceptual thinking, to explore our architecture’s boundaries. They allow us to follow freely our creativity and to find inspiration. They are also good opportunities to test the strength and the efficiency of our team."
3rd prize winners
TEAMAKERS GUEST HOUSE competition
Julia Losonczi, András Gyökér and Adham Shakaki from Hungary!
"Architecture competitions give participants the opportunity to act and design on architectural and social issues, attempting to solve real problems. We believe it is a good way to push ideas and abilities beyond the standard architectural practice, therefore increasing the freedom of thinking widely."
2nd and Student prize winners
TEAMAKERS GUEST HOUSE competition
Virginia Pozzi and Alessandro Minotti from Italy!
"Architecture competitions are a great way for me to test my design skills and help me understand my own design vision. It is also a unique platform that allows young architects to express themselves."
"Architecture competitions of this nature allow anyone to challenge, and provide a fresh approach to existing design dogmas. It is an incredible chance to step away from the conventional means of execution, and present a different perspective to a broader audience. It helps to facilitate the change in the profession through exposure and discussion, as well as one’s own professional growth. We believe competitions are a great venue for experimentation, and a laboratory to unpack and test design philosophies."
Honourable mention winners
ROME COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Chang Yuan Max Hsu and Jeremy Leonard from United States!
"Participation in the competition is always an incentive to search for new ideas, concepts, it is a challenge, first of all for yourself, a reason to get out of the comfort zone. It is also an opportunity to think about more global challenges, to go beyond student design. "
Honourable mention winners
ROME COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Daria Studneva and Julia Studneva from Belarus!
"Office Provisional participates in vision competitions because they provide artificial deadlines for work that we might otherwise not produce. We believe that vision competitions offer a space free from too many constraints where some of the most excitingly fantastical ideas can emerge."
Honourable mention winners
ROME COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Jacob Comerci and Eli Braff Back from the United States!
"We think they are useful and important tools to explore the issues we face as a society in our everyday lives. "
Honourable mention winners
ROME COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Gustav Svanberg, Isak Jannert and Anna McDermott from Sweden!
"Architecture competitions are a good way to get out into the architectural world, it’s an opportunity to grow and explore the different edges of architecture. Ideas are flowing freely and nothing is filtered."
Honourable mention winners
ROME COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Kajsa Henriksson, Paul Weedle and Tara Fartash-Naini from Sweden!
"We participate in architecture competitions because we can explore creativity, create remarkable designs and study unusual themes. In this specific competition we were especially interested about the site, the city of Rome, a historical and cultural environment where Camilla and Rafaela had lived."
Green prize winners
ROME COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Ana Marta Lins, Camilla Rodrigues, Isabel Magalhães and Rafaela Barcelos from Brazil!
"These competitions give a voice to what is most needed in our built environment. It creates a platform upon which to develop new narratives in hand with provocative designs."
"To participate in an architecture vision competition is an important step from the imaginative stage to the professional. When participating, one is pushed into thorough research, clear communication as well as questioning and refining the material produced."
1st and Student prize winners
ROME COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Karin Frykholm, Lisa Fransson and Rron Bexheti from Sweden!
"I am a bridge engineer. I am trained in the mechanics and engineering of structural engineer system, but I have not received the orthodox study of architecture. I try to study bridge architectural aesthetics through self-study, investigation and project practice. I want to discuss and communicate with architects all over the world through this competition, and express a reasonable and beautiful understanding of bridge scheme as a bridge engineer through my work."
"Competitions are a great way to design an interesting project and to gain new insights from designers around the world. I love to design, and the existence of many competitions allows me the freedom to choose to work on projects that interest me."
"Architectural competitions are a great chance to test certain ideas. They are great opportunities as well to launch your career and establish yourself on global markets."
"Competitions are about exercising your muscles and trying to beat your peers. There really is no better way to hone your skills than to be shut away in a room with collaborators discussing brazen ideas and acting on them. A completed competition entry will often exemplify the soul of an architectural idea untarnished by the decision committees of the real world."
Honourable mention winners
GAUJA NATIONAL PARK FOOTBRIDGE competition
Bryce Suite and Rūta Daubure from United KIngdom!
"Competitions allow us to explore emerging research through concrete design exercises, elevating our design process and scientific inquiries through their overlap. They also give us an opportunity to playfully exercise our design skills and develop effective methods of collaboration and communication."
Honourable mention winners
GAUJA NATIONAL PARK FOOTBRIDGE competition
Paul Mayencourt and Mohamed Ismail from United States!
"Architecture competitions offer a chance at some kind of success but also help bolster my portfolio and keep me stimulated. I like to believe they improve my employability."
Student and Green prize winner
GAUJA NATIONAL PARK FOOTBRIDGE competition
Inness Yeoman from United Kingdom!
"Gauja National Park Footbridge architecture competition perfectly matched our philosophy. We also work in industrial design and have developed the organic design bark for the Italian firm Alessi, and also for our office house "casa boucquillon" bathed in the heart of Tuscan nature. We could not have imagined a better integration into nature this organic motif that represents the tree bark in Gauja National Park."
3rd prize winners
GAUJA NATIONAL PARK FOOTBRIDGE competition
Michel Boucquillon and Donia Maaoui from Italy!
"Competitions allow us to focus on the experimental, for me it is a challenge revolving around re-questioning boundaries and norms of the discipline."
"As a test and as a means to train instincts and refine intuition."
"Participating in vision competitions is a great opportunity to step out of our daily practices to reinvent our conceptual skills."
Honourable mention winners
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Olivier Lord, Dany Durand-Courchesne and Karen Piché from Canada!
"Competitions, such as this one, allow us to push our limits and expand our boundaries. In all fields of design, when working for clients, ideas can get lost in translation or dismissed all together. It comes with the territory. With competitions, we gain a therapeutic sense of freedom to create on our own terms."
Honourable mention winners
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Andrienne Francis and Patrice Parker from United States!
"There’s something about a deadline that makes you create things you wouldn’t normally start do. This type of work should be a constant in the work of architects, as they enhance their creativity and quick problem-solving."
Honourable mention winner
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Daniel Movilă from Romania!
"Architecture competitions are a great way of testing concepts and strategies freely. Within the framework given by the brief, one has the opportunity of constructing a narrative that is true to their beliefs and to test it."
Honourable mention winners
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Alexandra Berdan and Ancuta Costandache from Romania!
"This is the first competition I’ve taken part in. I considered this experience as a chance to put myself out there, no matter the result, while unleashing my creativity. I find these competitions a great way to have a nice confrontation with other experts while having fun."
Honourable mention winner
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Davide Franchi from Italy!
"For us, it is a unique opportunity to participate in those fields that are not fully developed inside the bureau, or in that typologies that are not required at the moment by the client but will be definitely in demand in future."
3rd prize winners
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Darya Khrenova, Ekaterina Zakharova and Ilyas Belyaev from Russian Federation!
"We love a challenge and see the innovative and conceptual briefs of architecture vision competitions as an opportunity to be forward-thinking and experimental in our designs. We find participating in these competitions is also a great way to contribute to the design culture on an international scale and connects us with designers worldwide."
2nd prize winners
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Rachel Fay and Liv Green from Australia!
"Competitions are a free space to challenge yourself as a creative and to challenge the cohesion of your team. It’s also an occasion to think freely and to define what matters to you and what architect you’d like to be."
1st prize winners
URBAN ZOO COWORKING DESIGN CHALLENGE competition
Marianne Ventre and Anthony Spennato from France!
"The challenge, the exposure and the experience. The challenge is to get together and create something that is engaging and appreciated by our peers and architectural enthusiasts alike."
Honourable mention winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Pierre Sfeir, Sayed Al Meshqab, Zainab Khalil and Darwin Cavaneyro from France!
"I like professional challenges, participation in architectural competitions gives me an opportunity to create different interesting projects. The necessity to get involved in the cultural, geographical, climatic and other aspects of designing competitive objects in different parts of the world - is the best way to develop the professional level."
Honourable mention winner
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Julia Shemchuk from Ukraine!
"The firm regularly participates in competitions to inspire their creative staff, foster collaboration, improve their design process, and celebrate their diversity and passion for design."
Honourable mention winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Bryce Jarman, Kael Samake, Stephen Travers and Megan Baker from Canada!
"In real projects, there are a lot of factors that limit the designer, such as municipal plans, governmental procedures, clientele’s budget, etc. You have little chance to implement what you imagine. In this respect, competitions are a platform which set the designers free. In this ambiance, the designer could show his own style easily and force his limitations."
Green prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Emrah Kuşener, Kadir Öztürk and Gamze Sümer from Turkey!
"Two points. Firstly, it is a rare opportunity for me to think in different ways from the normal work in school. Secondly, I am pretty interested in designing the flamingo observation tower."
"Conceptual architecture, even if not built, expresses the direction of our society and how we envision our future. Participating in conceptual architecture competitions offers the opportunity to escape from the strict limitations that a real commission carries and allow for exploring freely new ideas. Furthermore, they often give architects the opportunity to expand their experience and portfolio on non-conventional projects that extend internationally beyond the regions of a country."
3rd prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Panagiotis Dimakidis and Rafail Gkaidatzis from Netherlands!
"We treat competitions as the vehicle for testing lines of research currently being developed within the studio. We target specific subjects that help us expand our portfolios and where we can implement our research in complex geometries and sustainable design."
2nd prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Rolando Rodriguez-Leal, Natalia Wrzask, Jose Luis Mulás and Paola Barrenechea from United KIngdom!
"As young architects/ designers, architecture vision competitions provide a good platform and opportunity for us to speculate and test different design ideas and present to a worldwide audience."
1st prize winners
ABU DHABI FLAMINGO OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Bryan Fan and Shelley Xu from Australia!
"I feel it is important to think about not only the proposals which would accept in your own country, but also try to create architecture which is strong enough for various people to be convinced, and the competition is a chance to practice."
"In competitions, we have more freedom to really show our own way of thinking and our ideas. It is a perfect opportunity to let our imagination go, and to do research about cultures, architecture, materials, and so much more."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILOSTA POET HUTS competition
Renáta Orova and Tamás Hamburger from Hungary!
"We participate in different architecture vision competitions to continue to work on and improve our skills while sometimes doing less conceptual work at our daytime jobs. We probably want to be challenged a bit and feel the adrenaline of a short-term project. Moreover, vision competitions allow us to imagine a poetic vision for a project and gives us the opportunity to develop more theoretical ideas, which is mostly neglected in traditional competitions."
Honourable mention winners
PAVILOSTA POET HUTS competition
Grégoire Hubert, Eloïse Rudolph and Agathe Sautet from France!
"They are a challenge that lets you work beyond your own abilities and they give an opportunity to design in an often unique environment. They force you to explore different concepts and cultures and simply are an amazing experience in themselves."
"Competitions are a way to push my ideas and abilities beyond what I would in practice. They are driven by concepts and vision, providing the freedom to experiment. They are refreshing, motivating and remind me why I started studying architecture."
"We were longing to do a smaller scale project on our own, test our creativity and take advantage of knowledge gained in the past years. Taking part in this competition was a great opportunity for us to explore a new typology, context and approach."
"Our aim is to enter at least two open competitions a year with different programs and scales. It is a way for us to practice agile thinking, a chance to play, a way of developing a collective thinking and of connecting to a larger international architecture community. We always enter with the goal of winning."
2nd prize winners
PAVILOSTA POET HUTS competition
Karl Zetterholm, Linnéa Holmberg and María Torrent from Sweden!
"Practice. It is also an excellent opportunity to re-evaluate yourself and compare your ideas with architects from all over the world with a much larger variety of design strategies and ideas than you could ever find in a single university or work environment."
1st and Student prize winner
PAVILOSTA POET HUTS competition
Daniel Brigginshaw from United Kingdom!
"Participating in the competition has allowed me to pursue a brief which I was passionate about, this made the design process extremely rewarding as I was able to draw upon many areas of interest to formulate my design. The work produced in these competitions is a good way to explore new ideas in a public forum which may go on to inspire others in their own design work."
Honourable mention winner
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
Joseph Watkins from United Kingdom!
"A shared vision, and a burning desire to design, and build what the architecture vision competitions are asking for from participants. For instance, Mandira has wanted to design and build a meditation cabin for a very long time. A prospective client with a site, a program of requirements with room for change, and a deadline challenges her out of her comfort zone to do it."
Honourable mention winner
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
Mandira Sareen from United States!
"I wanted to push myself to the limits of my design abilities, and have a chance to experiment with some design ideas I have had for a long time."
Honourable mention winner
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
Nicholas Horvath from United States!
"Participating in an architecture competition is a great way to stay current and have fun along the way. "
Honourable mention winners
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
Panos Tharouniatis, Panagiotis Lampronikos and Min Duan from United States!
"Competitions are an opportunity for architects to speculate and to develop themselves. Competitions are to architecture as peer review is to other fields; a competition can be a testing ground for design ideas before they are implemented."
Honourable mention winners
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
Zachary Bundy, Nicholas Shekerjian and Elena Rocchi from United States!
"NÓS participates in competitions to experiment new processes of design, representation and collaboration in a global contemporary setting."
"This is an opportunity to share your views with the world."
Green prize winners
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
Andrii Koval and Olha Laktionova from Ukraine!
"For now there is nothing we wish more than to get the possibility to share our enthusiasm, experiences and ideas for the new dimension of art and architecture."
3rd prize winners
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
Karolina Kiełpińska, Marta Lisiakiewicz, Emilia Oworuszko and Aleksandra Białkowska from Poland!
"I feel that architectural competitions are important in improving your creativity, and also a good way to improve your skills in using different software and making visual presentations. In general, it is a good way to present your new ideas about the topical issues on architecture to a broader public."
"Architecture competitions challenge you to rethink specific topics. They provide the freedom for testing alternative ideas."
1st prize winners
SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS competition
David Florez and Stefani Zlateva from Austria!
"We believe that architecture competitions help to explore new alternatives to existing problems, and even sometimes pose new questions/dilemmas for future explorations. We feel privileged/ hopeful to be a building block for future, even greater ideas."
Honourable mention winners
EUROPEAN VELO STOPS competition
Christian Steixner and Boutros Bou-Nahra from United States!
"We believe that there is no better way to improve our skills and awareness of architecture outside of our job than to enter great competitions like this. It not only allows us to see other approaches to one single topic but also gives us a chance to work purely on our terms without any limit to creativity, which we find extremely stimulating as thriving architecture students."
Honourable mention winners
EUROPEAN VELO STOPS competition
Thanat Prathnadi and Joana Vilaça from Portugal!
"Competition briefs that challenge new thinking are a compelling way to reconsider many age old social issues that need fresh eyes. A simple question posed to a room of creatives will bring an abundance of different responses, all correct in their own interpretation."
Honourable mention winners
EUROPEAN VELO STOPS competition
Nick Butterfield, Tom Butterfield, Will Butterfield and Angela Butterfield from United Kingdom!
"Vision competitions give us the opportunity to be more experimental than we would be in the office. These competitions often have very interesting and inspiring tasks that you wouldn’t typically receive from a client, that raise current global issues and challenge our way of thinking."
Honourable mention winners
EUROPEAN VELO STOPS competition
Elin Schnipper and Benjamin Alstrup Velure from Sweden!
"We see architectural competitions as opportunities to showcase our philosophy. By truly including nature and society in the question, projects can only be improved."
Honourable mention winners
EUROPEAN VELO STOPS competition
Ahmed Arhda, Alexandre Bellanger, Julien Blatteau and Zaur Huseyn-Zada from France!
"We would like explore and enrich our experience among different types of projects and test our efficiency within a limited of time. And we discovered, the sky is our limit."
"Competitions are usually a great opportunity to develop new ideas, to dream big or small, and to develop yourself as an architect. It has always been important to me to participate. I treat myself with a competition praline once in a while. It makes me happy! It is a different way of thinking, like ”outside the box”. It is not just about to solve the task."
"We see the architecture competition as a fertile ground for us to exercise our design muscles – to think through program materiality, construction, and other issues, outside traditional contexts. Architectural design takes a long time. However, in the realm of competitions, our creative spirit can manifest much quicker. The competition challenges us to test ideas and rethink convention."
"It is a really good option to start your career and to exercise designing and team-working. In most cases the topics are very interesting and most of the time there are no limits for your ideas and thoughts. So you can do (nearly) whatever you like and try the concept of your dreams. And of course because we like doing it."
Honourable mention winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Germán Goldschmidt and Eldar Hajdarevic from Austria!
"The competition was a good way to test how the team worked together. It is also a challenge to engage with a subject rarely encountered in everyday practice."
Honourable mention winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Adrian Hill, Milena Patru and Florina Pop from United Kingdom!
"For us, taking part in architectural vision competition is a big chance for experimentation with space and structure, an opportunity to celebrate the design process and to face unusual topics."
Honourable mention winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Kamila Szatanowska, Paulina Rogalska, Michał Morzy and Jakub Nanowski from Poland!
"We understand that the true value of an architectural project comes from the discussion between different opinions of the subject. Likewise, we believe that being participants of this exchange of different points of view enriches the professional formation of those who dare to do so."
Honourable mention winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Federico Rodriguez Fragela and Elías Martínez Ojeda from Uruguay!
"It provides an opportunity to explore theoretical ideas in practical terms."
Honourable mention winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Lawrence Kim / A+U LAB from Korea!
"We take part in architecture vision competitions because it brings new challenges, fresh ideas, conceptual thinking and mainly great fun for us."
Honourable mention winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Aleš Javůrek and Jiří Bužek from Czech Republic!
"We always wanted to work together and then this competition came up. The matter was interesting so we thought we should give it a try. Additionally it was a great opportunity to practice the design process. Learning by doing, right?"
Green prize winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Jinsoo Kim and Dalya Ortak from Germany!
"We decided to participate in this contest to test our abilities as young architects."
Student prize winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Aleksandra Kubiak and Marta Buchner from Poland!
"I participate in architecture competitions to compete with talented enthusiasts from all over the world. This particular mindset challenges your ability to develop conceptual approaches and strengthen your ability to communicate your proposal."
"Architecture competitions give us an excuse and an opportunity to explore different ideas and concepts that we can later incorporate in our everyday practice."
2nd prize winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Lucía Rehermann, Renzo Bonina, Christian Flores and Rodrigo Zagarzazú from Uruguay!
"As most of our works are built, the focus is on the functionality of the execution, rather than the vision. In our day-to-day practice, we miss having the freedom to have a complete control over the vision. Competitions are a chance to show that we care about it and we want to show what our vision is."
1st prize winners
GREAT KEMERI BOG VISITOR CENTER competition
Jan Tomas Ciesla, Miroslav Krátký and Iva Potůčková from Czech Republic!
"We think that participating in architecture vision competitions is a chance for young architects pay attention to social issues, a chance for us to contribute something valuable back to the society."
Honourable mention winners
SYDNEY AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Cuong Hoang, Hiep Che, Giang Vu and Duong Dang from Australia!
"We view architecture competitions as an important tool in strengthening our own design thoughts and conceptual progression. We also find it essential as a learning tool to look at how other architects face, and resolve the same problems."
Honourable mention winners
SYDNEY AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Brent Winburn and Lachlan Joseph from Australia!
"For us participation in architecture vision competitions is a great opportunity to develop our skills and broaden our perspective. Most importantly we treat this as a new experience and we wouldn’t be able to have this sitting around doing nothing."
3rd prize winners
SYDNEY AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Olga Filipowska and Tomasz Twaróg from Poland!
"We sincerely hope that through the power of architecture, we can eliminate the imbalances and inequalities among the urban classes and find a dignified way of living for the low-income groups."
2nd and Student prize winners
SYDNEY AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Xu Jiatong, Gao Yinyuan and Shi Ying from China!
"Through the NIKA Creative Lab, we are always looking for ways to cultivate new ideas in a collaborative ‘lab’ environment. Vision competitions are the perfect place to test and build a conceptual model of organic design ideas that can influence research and real projects in future."
1st prize winners
SYDNEY AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Tae Jung, Pauline Sipin, Hazel Ventura and Diana Lopez from United States!
"To participate in a competition of ideas, it means to elude the function and the structure to favour a language closer to the architectonic dogma. With utopia as a connecting line, it allows us to develop a discourse which is not dependent on time, allowing us to discuss pure shapes and spaces."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Francesco Maria Fratini and Marco Padovani from Italy!
"To test the aforementioned principle."
Honourable mention winners
SKYHIVE SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Bastiaan Muilwijk and Paul Ouwerkerk from Netherlands!
"When we decided to join the SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge, our first participation in an architecture vision competition, we were fascinated by the idea to open our minds to a new design topic."
Green prize winners
SKYHIVE SKYSCRAPER CHALLENGE competition
Alessandro Buffi and Gian Maria Angelini from Italy!
"Buildner is a platform that allow us to exercise our design skills and explore unconventional situations, that is why we have the opportunity to experiment and address the projects with ideas that might not be feasible in real life."
"This was my first design competition. I love the freedom to push the boundaries of design and to explore futuristic concepts of form, space and technology. The majority of us will lose that vision when leaving school and entering the workforce, but these competitions allow us to rekindle why we wanted to be an architect in the first place."
"Design competitions are great opportunities for young architects to offer answers to building programmes they would not otherwise have access to. This is a unique opportunity to question programmatic and contextual issues that are often complex. The variety of proposals put forward by the various candidates also allows them to see their own approach to the project in perspective, and learn from it."
"Participating in a competition means team building. It’s pizza nights, out of the box thinking, improving your skills on making concepts, visualizing and storytelling. It’s a chance to get involved in other types of projects, different from those you work on every day."
Honourable mention winners
AMBER ROAD TREKKING CABINS competition
Jos Burger, Wouter Keijzer and Bas Schrooten from Netherlands!
"Competitions are usually a great opportunity to develop new ideas, to dream big or small, and to develop yourself as an architect."
"I participate in architecture vision competitions to gain a broader awareness and exposure that goes beyond the physical realm I’m naturally bound to."
Honourable mention winner
AMBER ROAD TREKKING CABINS competition
Alessandro Pupillo from United States!
"Architecture vision competitions allows participants to push the limits of their ideas. It educates designers to deal with different ecological and social problems through architecture. It is a learning process of framing complications and devising good solutions. Experience from competitions help us grow as designers, in the words of Frank Lloyd Wright "talent is good, practice is better, passion is best.”"
Honourable mention winners
AMBER ROAD TREKKING CABINS competition
Shahrzad Nasiri and Ben Chang from Canada!
"We are interested in public opinion - we see it as an exchange, competition and a challenge. We are always open for discussion and are ready to share our vision and experience with others."
Green prize winners
AMBER ROAD TREKKING CABINS competition
Roman Leonidov, Pavel Sorokovov and Fiantseva Svetlana from Russian Federation!
"First and foremost, architectural competitions are fun, and they provide a great opportunity to explore new ideas and perfect presentation ideas."
3rd prize winners
AMBER ROAD TREKKING CABINS competition
Rob Brown, Carly Martin and Jincheng Jiang from Australia!
"Vision competitions bring us to simple, yet strong ideas. This particular one provoked us to answer questions such as: what is a shelter nowadays? What is the minimal area for living? What does it mean to share a space with others?"
2nd and Student prize winners
AMBER ROAD TREKKING CABINS competition
Łukasz Pałczyński, Antoni Prokop and Jan Szeliga from Poland!
"White is interested in any platform where we can affect positive change through architecture. Architecture idea and vision competitions provide a unique opportunity to explore concepts between building and landscape in a more speculative context, and they can be a very effective way to allow younger architects and interns the chance to immediately impact the design process."
1st prize winners
AMBER ROAD TREKKING CABINS competition
Scott Grbavac, Andreea Cutieru and Santiago Carlos Peña Fiorda from Denmark!
"I like to challenge myself in architecture and try to get out of my comfort zone and architectural competitions gives you this kind of opportunity. It is a way to pick a different architectural program or object, and try something you really wanted to do but you just never did before."
"We participate in architectural competitions because we want to exchange experience and knowledge which we've gained on our education and professional paths in a challenging way. We spend free time with a common passion, we do not only enjoy our time but also develop crucial skills like creative thinking."
Honourable mention winners
PAPE BIRD OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Weronika Kogut and Karolina Toporkiewicz from Poland!
"While working at an office you are limited in your design decisions by all sorts of factors. Competitions allow you to work freely."
Honourable mention winners
PAPE BIRD OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Christian Schunke and Anna Bugoslavska from Germany!
"These competitions offer a safe playground for our ideas, visions to fly freely. A place where we can try our creativity and brains to put together a powerful concept. A liberation of the constraints and time consuming day-to-day tasks. They offer possibility to challenge yourself, compete with others, familiarise yourself with different sites and communities, analyse other points of view on the same subject, while working together with your colleagues."
Honourable mention winners
PAPE BIRD OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Bogi Kovács, Anna Gassner and Zsolt Krausz from Hungary!
"Currently, all of our ongoing projects are in Canada and to be specific in the Greater Toronto area; so we are trying to explore new contexts."
Green prize winners
PAPE BIRD OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Reza Aliabadi and Arman Ghafouri - Azar from Canada!
"In order to gain experience as students. Also we like to have an area where we can express our interest in parametric design techniques."
Student prize winners
PAPE BIRD OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Alicem Öztürk and Konuralp Senol from Turkey!
"I enjoy the creative freedom that these competitions allow. While daily practice is incredibly rewarding, competitions such as this offer a chance to exercise my mind and explore design problems that I might not otherwise have the opportunity to delve into. They provide me the opportunity to research and explore a place and context that I may not otherwise have explored. I enjoy that. And I enjoy seeing other solutions to the same problem."
"Participating in competitions is a perfect opportunity to face this challenge, developing new ideas, evolving personal perspectives, acquiring new capacities and tools. To achieve this, each new project must be faced with accuracy, curiosity and the will to surprise and be surprised."
1st prize winners
PAPE BIRD OBSERVATION TOWER competition
Manuel Pareja Abascal and Berta Risueño Muzás from Spain!
"Competitions are the means to challenge norms of corporate architectural production. It is a possibility for young architects to find our positions and communicate through well-articulated projects."
Honourable mention winner
MODERN COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
James Mak from United Kingdom!
"Architecture competitions give an opportunity to speculate on design and test the limits of what architecture can do for society. These competitions stress the importance of conceptual design and research that challenges the profession to create more dialogue."
Honourable mention winners
MODERN COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
George Guida, Tatjana Crossley and Carolina Gismondi from United Kingdom!
"Participating in architecture vision competitions is an opportunity for us to challenge our own understandings of architecture, and to speak our own thoughts out loud. It's a journey through which we give our best, hopefully to contribute on the subject, and at the same time, it gives back to us. We improve ourselves, and we get even more motivated and passionate to prepare for the next journey."
Honourable mention winners
MODERN COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Sixin Liang, Su Wu and Taifu Zheng from Italy!
"Besides having a deep respect for the tradition of competitions in the architecture field, I think this kind of experience provides a perfect venue for showcasing ideas that can get heard by a large audience, having the potential to impact the architectural culture as a whole. I also firmly believe that each competition I have submitted to date somehow represents at least a step towards a learning curve, affecting my practice and teaching deeply."
Honourable mention winners
MODERN COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Ana Rolim, Larissa Falavigna, Maria Júlia Jaborandy and Hugo Santiago from Brazil!
"I participate in architecture competitions to challenge myself as a designer and thinker. On another level, I do so in order to join conversations about what is possible through architecture and learn from the international architectural community."
Honourable mention winner
MODERN COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Tien Chen from United States!
"I like interesting challenges that I cannot often encounter in school. Schools are training us for the professional world, so we will have a very certain theme and specific requirements which can be constraining sometimes. Competitions give me more freedom and control to think about architecture problems and it is fun."
"Participation in architectural competitions allows me and my colleagues in the studio to apply our own ideas and practice author's methods in the process of solving various architectural problems.This can be both small design tasks, and large conceptual works, for example, the concept of territory development. Participating in contests brings up such important qualities for the architect, such as the ability to quickly switch from one task to another and the ability to complete work on time."
2nd and Student prize winner
MODERN COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Gabdrakhmanova Ilsiyar from Russian Federation!
"Architecture competitions are important to challenge our architecture to be more than practical and they give us a better view on the builded society in the future."
1st and Green prize winners
MODERN COLLECTIVE LIVING CHALLENGE competition
Misak Terzibasiyan, Athanasia Kalaitzidou and Luigi Simone from Netherlands!
"Architecture competitions of this nature allow anyone to challenge and provide a fresh approach to a design dogma. It is an incredible chance to step away from conventional means of execution, and channel a different point of view to a broader audience. It facilitates the change in the profession through exposure and discussion, as well as one's professional growth."
Honourable mention winners
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Chang Yuan Max Hsu, Hadeel Ayed Mohammad and Veronika Volkova from United States!
"We consider architecture vision competitions as a tool to express ourselves in a unique way, because the format allows us to reach beyond what we see. These competitions not only give us a route to explore our creative potentials but they’re also a getaway to a more exciting field of understanding."
Honourable mention winners
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Hasan Murad Adalı, Burak Çıkırıkçı, Mine Aydemir and Buse Öztürk from Turkey!
"Architecture competitions are the opportunity for our practice to completely unhitch our design thinking from standard worldly constraints. Competitions are the chance to take a pure functional or architectural thought and extrude, develop and test it in isolation from forces of the market place, community expectation and client requirements. Competitions are the playgrounds of an architect’s mind."
Honourable mention winners
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Kash Moghaddam, Sofiya Yunovidova, Sam Boyce and Andrew Luong from Australia!
"To participate. To exercise our creativity. To explore our creative identity in a space that is free of the constraints that we usually have to contend with."
Honourable mention winners
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Adam Brown, Kirsty Hewitt and Kirsty Butler from Australia!
"We want to share our vision of a better life for people and our ideas to make it happen. We are interested in creating architecture that is driven by social causes, context-related, environmentally sustainable, and have positive influences on people’s lives. Competitions are where we have the freedom to implement what we believe without too many constraints. Besides, it give us the opportunities to expand our professional network and potential collaboration."
Honourable mention winners
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Kevin Pham and Alex Hoang from Australia!
"We participate in architecture vision completions to have a say in shaping the society. We appreciate the democratic nature of competitions and the platform it offers to express ourselves and make us better architects. Our designs are informed by research and the concerns of the context. However, we enjoy the flexibility vision competitions offer in flexing the creative muscle."
Festival state award
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Luke Carter, Mukesh Vanjani and Dain McClure-Thomas from Australia!
"Because I have found them a great opportunity to express the way to make architecture on a human scale, through the vindication of previous concepts. When I had some freedom to design, but at the same time respecting certain parameters of design, i had the opportunity to design from the other side of the world for a place that has been recognized worldwide for having great potential in every field, and was the gateway to the new look of architecture."
Student prize winner
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Banny Fabian Sandoval Salinas from Chile!
"We participated in this competition thanks to the openness of the brief and our common interest in the theme: creativity. It gave us the opportunity to test the tools we have learned during our degrees in the real world without the restrictions of a university assignment."
3rd prize winners
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Kathrine Vand, Emil Trabjerg Jensen and Sebastian Appel from Denmark!
"For young architects, architecture vision competitions are a great opportunity to work on programs and scales that the first commissions of a young company can't reach. These competitions are good exercises, to experiment but also to be aware of the reality of the demand. It's also a way to choose projects that really inspire us and develop a creative process with more liberty than your usual client."
2nd prize winners
ADELAIDE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB competition
Judith Busson Taridec and François Cattoni from France!
"Mainly to keep our creativity going and to challenge ourselves. It’s also a way to learn about and investigate different subjects. We view these competitions as a way to improve ourselves and to widen our knowledge. It is also a great experience to work in a team and add to everyone's experience and background to the proposal."
Honourable mention winners
Construction Container Facelift competition
Larissa De Rosso and Ana Bretes from United Kingdom!
"I have a passion for design and a burning desire to tackle and contribute to real-life problems and global challenges."
"Because it can provide me with a good stage to show my ideas about architecture."
"The majority of our firm’s work is production-oriented with little design input. We decided to do design competitions to allow the creative juices to flow and expose ourselves to a project that we would not find within our client base."
2nd and Green prize winners
Construction Container Facelift competition
Martin Dion, Devin Marie Cressman, Aram Piligian and Jeff Simmons from United States!
"Global competitions provide me with a brainstorming challenge to inspire creativity and offer a chance to find answers to real-life market requirements, offering a platform to showcase my innovative ideas."
"I believe the architectural vision competition to be a valid and important process of furthering the architect’s roles in the progress of creating and implementing new methods of living, working and travelling and imagining the future scenarios of our cities."
Honourable mention winner
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
William Maddinson from United Kingdom!
"We participate in architecture vision competitions as part of our ongoing research for new housing typologies. These competitions give us a site and context to visualise our ideas, put them to test and help us better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each iteration."
Honourable mention winners
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Jeffrey Lam and Douglas Leung from Hong Kong!
"Architecture vision competitions allow us to consider the built environment abstractly in order to address global issues concerning the design of cities and the state of the built environment separately from our practice as a professional service. We also use the competition format to test ideas, techniques, and various modes of representation - formal explorations, new software, image making and graphic representation."
Honourable mention winners
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Melissa Shin and Amanda Shin from United States!
"Entering architectural vision competitions is an interesting and collective way for the design community to come together around real problems. We understand competitions as a testing ground for new ideas and as a method to challenge preconceptions about our world. We decided to enter this competition in particular because the housing crisis is a very palpable, very complex issue. Living in London and especially working in architecture, we see every day the tension the housing crisis causes in the city."
Honourable mention winners
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Amrita Raja and Katharine Storr from United Kingdom!
"It was actually the first time I participated in an architectural vision competition, and wanted to use it as a space to test ideas within my research. It formed part of the collective research of the design unit I am studying with @bartlettu13 and for @somosaldea."
Honourable mention winner
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Robert Newcombe from United Kingdom!
"Vision competitions give a freedom to develop or rethink our ideas. It gives opportunities to take another position and point of view which changes how we see things in a new way and boosts our creativity. But our motivation is not only intrinsic, at the same time we want to share our knowledge and our research by participating in vision competitions."
Green prize winners
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
David Saand, Simone de Bergh, Björn Vestlund and Jay Williams from Sweden!
"Social housing as a typology is a complex work of architecture intended to be inhabited by a diverse population. The answers given to this typology are unfortunately based on simplified assumptions, repeated standards and uninspired architecture. Our interest in this competition was to create a vision beyond today’s monotonous development, which this competition allowed for."
3rd prize winners
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Medina Dzonlic and Daniel Andersson from Denmark!
"Vision competitions are an important element to test research ideas and thoughts and even to develop research by design activity in a more protected environment: when doing exploratory research to be realistic is much more relevant than to be real. And vision competitions have exactly this kind of connotation. Moreover, it is also very important to confront what you are doing in your practice and research with what many other peers are doing."
2nd prize winners
LONDON AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE competition
Massimo Bricocoli, Gennaro Postiglione, Stefania Sabatinelli, Nicola Sirugo from Italy!
"Instead of living my own dream, I wish I could have the opportunity to present my schemes to the public, to people who are from different professions and different backgrounds, and to people who might really need that scheme to help them sort through the issues they have now. I wish I could have the opportunity to hear the voice from them, to receive all the comments and criticism from them, which is extremely essential to any architecture proposals. We are building for people."
"We live in a society that is becoming over-regulated. A vision competition gives us the opportunity to embrace our creativity. Also, it is an opportunity to take over the challenge of dealing with a very unique site and brief."
Honourable mention winners
Kemeri National Park Observation Tower competition
Joana Correia and Guillaume Boitier from France!
"By taking part in architecture vision competitions, we are aiming to refresh our design mind as the design approach would be completely different from daily work."
Honourable mention winners
Kemeri National Park Observation Tower competition
Masato Endo, Shigeru Yoshino, Tomohiko Watabe and Natsumi Nihei from Japan!
"We participate in architecture vision competitions because we want to measure our ideas against international competitors, and to get international public recognition."
Honourable mention winners
Kemeri National Park Observation Tower competition
Himawan Prakoso, Arief Singgih Wibowo, Nur Arsad Eko Pramono and Ardyana Fahmiadi from Indonesia!
"We were interested in the unique site situation and program. We believed it was a chance to create new culture by design for this project."
Honourable mention winners
Kemeri National Park Observation Tower competition
Katsuya Fukushima, Hiroko Tominaga Benjamin and Sykes Thompson from Japan!
"After having successfully completed student projects together we decided to bring our work to the next level."
Honourable mention winners
Kemeri National Park Observation Tower competition
Alex Kirschstein and Clemens Berresheim from Germany!
"The site was very interesting at the first time too. And a good idea for the concept which came at the very beginning gave us the motivation to participate."
3rd prize and Student prize
Kemeri National Park Observation Tower competition
Fanni Zita Salamin and Hunor Albert Szántó from Hungary!
"Participating in architecture vision competitions gives us a chance to explore further in various international projects. It also enhances our knowledge in assimilating and learning the new culture and development. Simultaneously, it’s an opportunity to explore and express the new concepts that we have not attempted on our daily basis projects."
2nd prize winner
https://architecturecompetitions.com/kemeritower/ competition
Nathira Haja from Malaysia!
"I participate in architecture vision competitions because I like thinking about a concept, planning and formulating with building components, and discovering possibilities for specific sites. Since I love nature, I try to pick competitions which allow me to show the impact of nature on architecture design and vice versa. I perceive such competitions as an important input in a professional career and a priceless contribution to my personal growth."
"As young architects, we believe that vision competitions allow us to express our ideas and realize our designs in a non-constrained manner. Moreover, we believe that it kick-starts our careers and gives us exposure in the design and architecture world. Seeing other entries for the same competition allows us also to learn and grow by seeing other points of views and solutions designed for the same project."
Honourable mention winners
Pape Nature Park Gateway competition
Alessia Falcini and Christelle Maalouf from Italy!
"We saw Pape Nature Park Gateway competition as a way to consider the relationships between the natural environment and human intervention through symbolism, function and form. Participating in such a competition helps us reflect on issues that are crucial in the broader context, yet something we typically do not encounter in our daily lives in the metropolis."
Honourable mention winners
Pape Nature Park Gateway competition
Kaon Ko, Hiroki Kondo, Yuki Matsubara and Satoshi Hotsumi from Japan!
"I enrolled this competition for the following purposes: to practice how to output my study and how to express my ideas ; as part of a laboratory curriculum to acquire architectural communication skills; to acquire worldwide perspective and ability; specifically, I am interested in generation of architecture in the place where the primitive environment of the earth remains, such as the horizon of landscapes in Northern Europe. In BUILDNER there are many competitions for such sites."
"Modern cultural and economic conditions in Ukraine shape a development far from the samples of modern architecture. Participation in competitions allows us to be involved in the new history of architecture and to be in the context of its development."
3rd prize winners
Pape Nature Park Gateway competition
Bogdan Bondarenko, Kostiantyn Bondarenko, Olena Kashpur and Marharyta Motylevska from Ukraine!
"I enjoy the creative freedom that these competitions allow. While daily practice is incredibly rewarding, competitions such as this offer a chance to exercise my mind and explore design problems that I might not otherwise have the opportunity to delve into. They provide me the opportunity to research and explore a place and context that I may not otherwise have explored. I enjoy that. And I enjoy seeing other solutions to the same problem."
"I enrolled in this competition as I had to work on my final thesis and I found this competition interesting to use."
"We seek out interesting architectural competitions as a way to hone our craft for the everyday world. They present an amusing and low-stakes opportunity to test out new ideas, or to explore new project typologies that we haven’t had a chance to jump into professionally. Perhaps most importantly they offer a fun excuse to practice how we illustrate and explain our ideas – both graphically and verbally – which is critically important for the success of a small firm."
Honourable mention winners
IRISH CULT MUSIC VENUE competition
Marty Sandberg and Cristina Gallo McCausland from United States!
"Architecture competitions allow a unique opportunity to explore the capability of architecture, somewhat removed from the pressures of regular work. I have chosen to participate because I felt the urge to extend the ideas and interests that were aroused from my studies. This specific competition was appealing to me because it combines my interests of architecture and music, in a country I love."
"Competitions offer designers an opportunity to investigate design challenges with a different set of constraints. We feel that competitions allow us to think in new ways, examine our process and explore alternative means of graphic communication. We spent a lot of time prior to entering the competition arguing about everything under the moon. The competition was a way to take our two different personalities and see what cohesive idea could come out of it. It was a great way to put arguments on paper."
Honourable mention winners
IRISH CULT MUSIC VENUE competition
Andi Reeder and Kirk Malanchuk from United States!
"Most of the time we are working with so many demands; it can be a wonderfully collaborative experience, but it can pull us away from our original intentions as architects. Competitions are an opportunity to step away from external demands and rediscover what is important to us. Ideally this resonates with others, and we see how others responded to the exact same parameters."
3rd prize winners
IRISH CULT MUSIC VENUE competition
Lisa Mullikin and Kevin Stevens from United States!
"We participated in this competition because it gave us a chance to exercise our muscles on a different project type and in a different context. Cultural venues are a building typology that interests us deeply because of the clear connection between people, place, events history and identity. It’s a tremendously exciting thing to be a part of and the competition gave us just that opportunity."
1st prize winners
IRISH CULT MUSIC VENUE competition
Ian O’Brien, Enrique García Blázquez and Oliver James from United Kingdom!
"Because we are young and ambitious people (☺), we wanted to test ourselves at an international level as well. Dealing with such interesting topics has a very refreshing effect on the everyday-work and on our community as well."
Honourable mention winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Norbert Pánovits, Orsolya Méhes and Zsuzsanna Köninger-Péter from Hungary!
"An architecture vision competition allows us to develop our ideas outside of the framework that reality usually places around a project. Of course we are also driven by the opportunity to realize our ideas, but a competition provides freedom, both in research, design development, detailing and presentation techniques."
Honourable mention winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Giovanni Simioni, Maximilian Rietschel, Lewis Williams and Damiano Toffanin from Denmark!
"The competition is a means to rid yourself of the constraints of every day design, and explore your own creativity dynamically. It is also an interesting way to learn about the world."
Honourable mention winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Tyler Mcbeth, Veronika Smetanina and Benjamin Dossett from Japan!
"All of my design processes begin with extensive research, so I consider architectural competitions as a great learning opportunity. Through this project for example, I discovered an array of fascinating facts about Iceland and its history, whilst also learning about state of the art construction materials and building technologies. In addition, architectural competitions give me full freedom of imagination that is sometimes restricted in practice due to budget, planning and client’s preferences."
Honourable mention winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Madina Zhazylbekova from Kazakhstan!
"Each competition is an opportunity to grow. Competing and confronting with other equally prepared firm/individuals pushes us to improve, experimenting and going beyond our limits, within the architectural field."
Honourable mention winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Daniele Conticchio, Aurora Del Sette, Beatrice Bella and Vincenzo Copogna from Italy!
"Architecture competitions of this nature allow anyone to challenge, and provide a fresh approach to existing design dogmas. It is an incredible chance to step away from the conventional means of execution, and present a different perspective to a broader audience. It helps to facilitate the change in the profession through exposure and discussion, as well as one's own professional growth."
Green prize winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Chang Yuan Max Hsu and Hadeel Ayed Mohammad from United States!
"I participate in architecture vision competitions because they allow me to use my original ideas in architectural designs. I am sure that developing my imagination has improved the quality of my daily work in the office."
"Architecture vision competitions allow artists to explore the possibilities of the framework to its latest extent, something that is sometimes difficult when third party interests are involved. We consider these opportunities unequalled chances to present our conversation with context as a pure manifestation as a designer could expect."
3rd prize winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Catarina Oom de Sousa, Carla Romagosa Girós and Eftalia Proios Torras from Spain!
"I participate in this type of competition because the architectural program and the location is unique. The challenge to be met is even bigger when you know that there are many young talents who participate. Moreover, it goes about a competition that enjoys great international visibility. Beyond all this, the personal challenge is to excel while having fun."
"For us, taking part in architectural vision competitions is a big chance for experimentation with space and structure, an opportunity to celebrate the design process and to face unusual topics."
1st prize winners
Iceland Northern Lights Rooms competition
Kamila Szatanowska and Paulina Rogalska from Poland!
"I understand competitions as a mental exercise, in which you ask, think and reflect on the search for universal solutions to specific isolated problems."
Honourable mention winners
NEMRUT VOLCANO EYES competition
Holger Patricio Cuadrado Torres, Edwin Patricio Moreno Estrada, Jimmy Paul Sinchire Capa and José Armando Paucar Ríos from Ecuador!
"For us as students and working architects, participating in this vision competition was a way to step out of the boundaries of the day-to-day profession, and helped us broaden our horizons on how to take on projects. With this we concluded that every assignment, also within the profession, should be approached in this way. Keep a fresh mind on what architecture can mean or express."
Honourable mention winners
NEMRUT VOLCANO EYES competition
Marilu de Bies and Simon Wijrdeman from Netherlands!
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