Introduction

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
MICROHOME

MICROHOME is the sixth edition of an annual architecture competition launched as part of Buildner’s Small-Scale Architecture series, and in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS publications. As the affordable housing crisis continues to expand to cities around the globe, and as natural resources dwindle in the face of climate and economic crises, the competition seeks replicable ideas for living small, to better serve our changing world.

The MICROHOME competition series challenges participants to submit designs for an off- grid, modular structure to accommodate a hypothetical young professional couple. The only project requirement is that the total floor does not exceed 25m². Participants are encouraged to rethink spatial organization and incorporate unique aesthetics, new technologies and innovative materials. Projects can be set on any site, of any size, anywhere in the world.

Buildner collaborated with an international jury that included: Sevince Bayrak, an architect, writer and co-founder of SO?, an Istanbul-based studio working on architecture and urbanism; Sarah Broadstock is an architect at London-based Studio Bark; Anne Cecilie Haug, the director of staffing, senior architect, and member of the research and innovation team at Snøhetta; Gavin Hale-Brown, Principal of London-based Henley Hale-Brown, which recently received the Neave Brown Award for social housing; Norihisa Kawashima, founder and principal of Nori Architects in Japan; Francesca Perani, founder of Bergamo, Italy-based Francesca Perani Enterprise, and co-founder of activist project RebelArchitette; Todd Saunders, founder of Saunders Architecture located in Bergen, Norway; Patrik Schumacher, company director at Zaha Hadid Architects; and Lei Zheng, associate at Zaha Hadid Architects.

Buildner and its jury panel congratulate the winners and thank each of the participating teams for submitting proposals.

We sincerely thank our jury panel
for their time and expertise

Sevince Bayrak

SO?

Turkey

Sarah Broadstock

Architect at Studio Bark

United Kingdom

Gavin Hale-Brown

Principal of London-based Henley Hale-Brown

United Kingdom

Anne Cecilie Haug

Senior Architect, Snøhetta

Norway

Norihisa Kawashima

Founder and Principal of Nori Architects

Japan

Francesca Perani

Francesca Perani Enterprise

Italy

Patrik Schumacher

Director of Zaha Hadid Architects

UK

Lei Zheng

Zaha Hadid Architects

UK

Todd Saunders

founder of Saunders Architecture

Norway

Enter the next competition edition
MICROHOME

Design a new concept small-scale home and compete for €100,000 prize in the second Kingspan-Buildner competition

Kingspan Edition 2024/2025 ideas COMPETITION

1st Prize Winner +
Buildner Student Award

Project name

Building Bridges

Our group enjoys working on interesting projects and developing new ideas together. In our opinion, participating in architectural competitions provides an invaluable platform for anyone seeking to push their creative boundaries and showcase their skills in a competitive environment. It offers an opportunity to compete with individuals from around the world and draw inspiration from their achievements. In architectural competitions, being good is not sufficient; one must exert maximum effort to succeed. Competitions stimulate individuals to think outside the box and experiment with new approaches.

Read full interview
Authors
Malte Terboven
Luca Ligotti
Luisa Herzog
Lukas Kunze
Country
Germany
+172 points Buildner University Rankings
  • 9/10 Linework
  • 10/10 Quality of drawings
  • 10/10 Balance of color
  • 9/10 Layout
  • 9/10 Hierarchy
  • 8/10 Annotation
  • 8/10 Text
  • 10/10 Clarity of story
  • 10/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 10/10 Quality of overall presentation

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

MIKROSERAMBI

Authors
Isaac Lee
Melinda Kumala
Eu Juin Toh
Caleb Lew
Country
Singapore

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

Gathering House

Because of the architectural competitions we can challenge ourselves against various approaches to designing. They also give us an opportunity to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and real world practice. Overall this creates an exciting environment for us to experiment in and explore unconventional ideas which we really enjoy.

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Authors
Łukasz Danilczuk
Zuzanna Derska
Urszula Jędrzejak
Country
Poland
+72 points Buildner University Rankings
  • 9/10 Linework
  • 10/10 Quality of drawings
  • 9/10 Balance of color
  • 9/10 Layout
  • 9/10 Hierarchy
  • 8/10 Annotation
  • 9/10 Text
  • 10/10 Clarity of story
  • 9/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 9/10 Quality of overall presentation

Buildner Sustainability Award

Project name

Cocotl Home

Participating in contests entails constant activity and the cultivation of thoughts, designs, and the pursuit of new possibilities. Attempting to solve design challenges through contests accelerates the thought process and allows for greater creativity.

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Authors
Karina Schwartzman
Karen Poulain
Paola Williams
Diego Sierra
Country
Mexico
  • 8/10 Linework
  • 8/10 Quality of drawings
  • 9/10 Balance of color
  • 7/10 Layout
  • 9/10 Hierarchy
  • 8/10 Annotation
  • 7/10 Text
  • 9/10 Clarity of story
  • 8/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 8/10 Quality of overall presentation

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

SSoudou

Author
Emmanuel Batchily
Country
France
Project name

BIOPHILIC HOME

Authors
Carolina Palombo
María Belén Orona
Shahira Ale
Country
Uruguay
Project name

Yurt 2.0

Authors
Gerald Low
Chen Yixin
Chen Ziqian
Country
Australia
+72 points Buildner University Rankings
Project name

Pocket House

Authors
Caleb White
Emily Gruendel
Country
United States
Project name

Parasite House

Authors
Xavier Duque
María Mercedes Reinoso
Nicolás Viteri
Country
Ecuador
Project name

Beekeeper's House

Shortlisted projects

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MANAUARA BOATHOUSE

Camila miwa Arai
Aline Nakamura
Luisa Caminha

Centro Universitário Belas Artes , Fine Arts - Unit 3

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
Brazil

GLITCH

Vlad Chabai
Netherlands

Building Bridges

Malte Terboven
Luca Ligotti
Luisa Herzog
Lukas Kunze

The Trier University of Applied Sciences, Hochschule Trier

+172 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

SoftHand Home

Pengcheng Hu

Partyfriendship

China

MDU LA

Jamie Kleine
United States

ReNook Microhome

Jessica Hardin
United States

HALF KONTAING | Micro Rural Khmer House

Sam Bunlong
Cambodia

SSoudou

Emmanuel Batchily
France

The Somali Bantu

Isaac Duong
Ben Cheah
Canada

BRIDGE HOUSE

Philippos Photiadis
Andi Belulaj
Alex Chatzigiannis
Vicky Papaliakou
Greece

Pallet House

Klaudia Szczecińska

Poznan University of Technology , Politechnika Poznańska

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

Home of Hope

Santiago Caballero barrios
Valentina Castillo herrán
Mateo Cardona díaz
Paula andrea Ayala barajas

Universidad de los Andes – Colombia

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
Colombia

FireBug

John Mitchell
Jasper Chen
Joyce Wu
Brian Chang

University of British Columbia

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
Canada

Cocotl Home

Karina Schwartzman
Karen Poulain
Paola Williams
Diego Sierra
Mexico

NON HUMAN CENTRIC

Apichai Jarurattanakua
Chaiyaphot Thankhem
Patdhadon Pengphet
Gumpon Suwanprinya

QUAD&CO Co.,Ltd.

Thailand

SlumSpire

Pedro Gontijo

Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, The Mackenzie Presbyterian University

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
Brazil

Parasite House

Xavier Duque
María Mercedes Reinoso
Nicolás Viteri
Ecuador

Simplicity

Malin Persson
Sweden

Tatami

Sascha Blocksdorf
Germany

DRY FOREST HOUSE

Jessica Garcia huachez
Andrea Bautista Machado
Juan Arroyo Labán
Peru

Tsubo Niwa Home

Efklides Tzimapitis
Ian Sitilides

University of Colorado Denver

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

Gathering House

Łukasz Danilczuk
Zuzanna Derska
Urszula Jędrzejak

Warsaw University of Technology , Politechnika Warszawska

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

MIKROSERAMBI

Isaac Lee
Melinda Kumala
Eu Juin Toh
Caleb Lew
Singapore

YOKU KABIN

Ben Albury
Juan Felipe Castellanos
Nicole Tian

Amalgam Studio

United States

Yurt 2.0

Gerald Low
Chen Yixin
Chen Ziqian

The University of Melbourne

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
Australia

level UP

Natalie Hinkel
Jonas Schuh
Leander Abstein

Technical University of Kaiserslautern , Technische Universität Kaiserslautern

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

SLOW-WATER

Ben Ingle
Ross Robertson
United Kingdom

Alleyway House

Jaeseung Shin

Sejong University, 세종대학교

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
South Korea

VA.RI.able Home

Annalisa Valentino
Rosaria Iacovone

University of Naples Federico II, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
Italy

ROOFTOP UNITS

Alin Mutu

Accademia di Architettura, Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Switzerland

Pocket House

Caleb White
Emily Gruendel
United States

Porena Whare | Floating Home

Richard Foreman
Emily Nguyen
New Zealand

Beekeeper's House

Shuhao Wang
Jian Gao

ETSAM: Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (UPM)

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
Spain

Parapet House

David Hu
Kevin Cheung
United States

Hope at Home- A sustainable microhome for Syrian relief shelter

Tin wo Tsa
Tessa Tsui
Tega Ejovwo-Digba
Rajni Nessa

University of Edinburgh

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
United Kingdom

LOPP-HOUSE

Luca Ciravegna
Italy

Urban Superposition

Zhen Lei

University of Pennsylvania

+2 points Buildner University Rankings!
China

MICROLIVING

Robert Tranter

Formed Architecture

United States

MICRO (CLIMATE) HOME

Hugo Chartier
France