Modular Home
Design Challenge

This competition tasked participants with submitting innovative design proposals for a modular home that could be constructed in any form, or layout, in any location. The first annual Modular Home Design Challenge competition is part of Bee Breeders’ Small Scale Architecture Appreciation Movement showcasing small projects that contain big ideas, as well as its Affordable Housing series run in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS. This competition was launched in tandem with the - Modular Architecture Essay Competition - winners from both events will be included in an upcoming print book on the topic of modular architecture.

Modular architecture is one of the most dynamic components of design, offering versatile solutions for efficient, sustainable spaces and building practices. Repeatable or flexible modules can yield customisable and well-designed solutions to projects without incurring excessive costs. Factory prefabrication, efficient use of materials, reduced transport requirements, and ease of site installation all have the potential to reduce the embodied energy of a project.

Bee Breeders worked with an international jury of innovative architects and modular design specialists: Ben van Berkel, founder and principal of UNStudio; Chris Precht, architect and co-founder of Studio Precht; Mathew Aitchison, CEO of Building 4.0 Cooperative Research Centre (CRC); Camino Alonso, Carlos Alonso and Ignacio Lechón, co-founders of Madrid-based ÁBATON Arquitectura; Sarah Broadstock, architect at London-based Studio Bark; Enrico De Lotto and George Kolliopoulos, co-founders of Milan-based Mandalaki and designers of the Monocabin Prefab project; Inés Olavarrieta, architect and designer at Madrid-based selgascano; Ivan Rupnik, architect, scholar, consultant, and Associate Professor of Architecture at Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design and founder of MOD X, a platform for international exchanges related to the volumetric modular industry, and Ewelina Woźniak-Szpakiewicz, Chief Executive Officer at DMDmodular Ltd, based in Poland. Bee Breeders received an excellent range of submissions from around the world, each testing its own modular techniques or studying potential forms and variations such modular designs might yield. Those selected by the jury were chosen for being especially responsive to their chosen environments, for their innovative use of materials, or for their constructability and potential for realisation.

Bee Breeders and its jury panel would like to thank all the designers that participated in this competition.