Introduction
The first annual Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces competition challenged architects and designers from around the world to breathe new life into neglected and forgotten spaces. As an ideas competition, Re-Form offered complete freedom in site selection, encouraging bold reinterpretations of existing buildings under 250 m²—regardless of location, program, or typology. Whether reimagining an abandoned storefront in an urban neighborhood or transforming a crumbling warehouse in the countryside, participants were invited to explore how adaptive reuse can offer sustainable and socially meaningful alternatives to demolition and new construction.
This inaugural edition of Re-Form was met with an outstanding response, underscoring the growing global interest in sustainability-driven, community-focused reuse projects. Designers embraced the open framework of the brief to propose inventive interventions—some deeply contextual, others radically speculative—that demonstrate architecture’s power to turn overlooked structures into vibrant, functional spaces that serve contemporary needs.
The winning proposals represent a remarkable diversity of geographies, building types, and design approaches. The jury was particularly impressed by entries that challenged traditional notions of preservation, proposed new typologies for collective use, and addressed environmental concerns with precision and creativity. Re-Form confirms that the smallest of spaces, when thoughtfully reimagined, can become powerful agents of transformation within their urban or rural context.
Buildner is proud to share the results of this exciting first edition and celebrate the visionary designers behind the winning submissions.
We sincerely thank our jury panel
for their time and expertise
Jiafeng Li
Allied Works
United States
Paul Monaghan
Executive director and Head of Design Studio AHMM
United Kingdom
Julien De Smedt
JDS Architects
Denmark
Anne Cecilie Haug
Senior Architect, Snøhetta
Norway
Tom Schroeder
Patkau Architects
Canada
Haggai Dror
AggEquo
United States
Herwig Spiegl
AllesWirdGut
Austria
Enter the next competition edition
Choose a site—used, abandoned, or forgotten—anywhere in the world, and give it a new purpose
1st Prize Winner
Edge of presence
We participate in architectural competitions not merely as arenas of rivalry, but as spaces for research and creative resistance. In a world where construction is often dictated by economic and political forces, competitions offer a rare opportunity to express ideas that might otherwise remain unbuilt or unheard. For us, each competition is a theoretical exercise — a chance to test the relationship between concept, material, and ethics in architecture. Through this process, projects become instruments of thought — reflections on the earth, memory, and our role in redefining a shared future.
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Jury feedback summary
Set within a desolate brick kiln landscape on the periphery of a fractured society, this project proposes a deeply symbolic and restorative spatial intervention. It is organized through three conceptual layers: a hidden shelter embedded within the earth, a transitional zone of medicinal halophyte plants that thrive in harsh soil conditions, and a social presence layer expressed as a linear market for community use.
If there is an award for social sustainability, it should go to this project, addressing an important need in some parts of the world.
Anne Cecilie Haug / Buildner guest jury
Senior Architect, Snøhetta, Norway
This design seeks to transform a distressed landscape and fractured society into a protective, nurturing, and healing environment. The planting could benefit from greater diversity to encourage engagement rather than passive observation, but overall, this is a beautiful project.
Tom Schroeder / Buildner guest jury
Patkau Architects , Canada
This project conveys humanitarian warmth through a poetic and restrained approach. Rather than resorting to grand gestures, it demonstrates wisdom in working with subtle means—turning minimal interventions into powerful spatial and symbolic strategies. The design’s ability to engage with systemic crisis through architecture as a quiet act of care and dignity reflects both intelligence and compassion. Its delicate balance between visibility and concealment, presence and absence, transforms a site of trauma into a space of renewal. This sensitive yet incisive method embodies the principle of “doing much with little,” offering a profoundly humane response that resonates far beyond its physical boundaries.
Jiafeng Li / Buildner guest jury
Allied Works, United States
A compelling and well-articulated proposal with a clear narrative and strong visual communication. The integration of program and context is convincing, and the drawings effectively support the design story. Further exploration of material and sensory experience could make it even stronger.
Haggai Dror / Buildner guest jury
AggEquo, United States
The program is very fitting for this brief.
Paul Monaghan / Buildner guest jury
Executive director and Head of Design Studio AHMM, United Kingdom
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
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This is a moving and methodically composed proposal that employs spatial subtlety to articulate a profound message about resilience, dignity, and renewal in the aftermath of social and environmental trauma. The clarity of narrative—both verbal and visual—is exceptional, leveraging minimal form and material to elicit emotional resonance. Its layered approach to programming is conceptually strong, although the planting palette could be diversified to invite more active engagement.
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8/10 Linework
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9/10 Quality of drawings
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8/10 Balance of color
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9/10 Layout
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8/10 Hierarchy
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7/10 Annotation
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9/10 Text
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10/10 Clarity of story
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8/10 Clarity of diagrams
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9/10 Quality of overall presentation
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2nd Prize Winner +
Buildner Student Award
Buildner Student Award
SINKTOPIA
We participate in competitions to embrace new challenges. Each architectural competition presents diverse themes that raise fresh questions, allowing us to look at architecture from new perspectives. This process helps us grow and develop further.
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Jury feedback summary
Set in the context of South Korea’s vulnerable semi-basement dwellings—often stigmatized, flood-prone, and socially marginalized—this proposal reimagines the lowest levels of urban habitation as sites of environmental innovation and social renewal. Titled Sinktopia, the project introduces an architectural retrofit that transforms a standard banjiha unit into a water-harvesting, food-producing, community-serving node.
This project transforms the vulnerability of banjiha housing into an opportunity for resilience by integrating water management into the urban system. It smartly reframes a social issue as an infrastructural asset, though further exploration of residents’ everyday lives would make the vision even stronger.
Jiafeng Li / Buildner guest jury
Allied Works, United States
A strong and well-structured proposal with clear design logic and effective presentation. The project demonstrates sensitivity to context and program, while the graphics communicate the core ideas convincingly. Further development of spatial qualities and user experience would enhance its overall impact.
Haggai Dror / Buildner guest jury
AggEquo, United States
This proposal elegantly excels in achieving sustainable, social, economic, and aesthetic objectives. It transforms subterranean housing into a celebrated hydrological and ecological environmental success, engaging at both architectural and urban scales. I submit this project for the sustainability award and so much more.
Tom Schroeder / Buildner guest jury
Patkau Architects , Canada
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
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This is an incisive and highly resolved submission that tackles a complex socio-environmental issue through precision, empathy, and architectural ingenuity. Its layered presentation bridges technical and human narratives, from detailed infrastructure systems to intimate vignettes of everyday life. The integration of stormwater harvesting with spatial reprogramming is both technically rigorous and symbolically rich, suggesting a paradigm shift in how subgrade urban space can be utilized.
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9/10 Linework
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9/10 Quality of drawings
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8/10 Balance of color
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9/10 Layout
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9/10 Hierarchy
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9/10 Annotation
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9/10 Text
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10/10 Clarity of story
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9/10 Clarity of diagrams
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9/10 Quality of overall presentation
3rd Prize Winner
It started with grain
Competitions provide us with freedom to think boldly, to test ideas that may not yet have a place in everyday commissions. They are laboratories where creativity meets discipline, and where young voices can be heard on an international stage. For us, it is also a way of learning – by pushing our limits, by comparing our work with others, and by engaging in current discourses shaping architecture globally.
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Jury feedback summary
This project reclaims and reinterprets a post-industrial relic—a grain silo in Poland. Titled 'It Started with Grain', the proposal transforms a derelict grain tower into a vertical public pavilion, evoking the symbolic and literal significance of grain as a foundational element of civilization. The intervention operates as both a spatial archive and a cultural commentary, inviting visitors to ascend through layers of history and meaning.
A highly original and unusual program supplemented by a mixture of strong cartoons and images.
Paul Monaghan / Buildner guest jury
Executive director and Head of Design Studio AHMM, United Kingdom
A thoughtful proposal with a clear narrative and sensitive response to context. The presentation communicates the design intent well, with effective use of diagrams and perspectives. It would benefit from a stronger emphasis on spatial atmosphere and user experience to match the strength of the technical and conceptual aspects.
Haggai Dror / Buildner guest jury
AggEquo, United States
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
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9/10 Linework
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9/10 Quality of drawings
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8/10 Balance of color
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9/10 Layout
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8/10 Hierarchy
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9/10 Annotation
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8/10 Text
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9/10 Clarity of story
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8/10 Clarity of diagrams
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9/10 Quality of overall presentation
Buildner Sustainability Award
Phototropism Chimney
Competitions give us the chance to share our ideas and test our methodology in a wider context. They are both an opportunity to communicate and a way to grow as architects.
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Jury feedback summary
Phototropism Chimney envisions the transformation of a disused warehouse in Lagonegro into a hybridized space of residence, co-working, and communal gathering. Anchored by the metaphor of phototropism—plants' orientation toward light—the design channels light and energy through a central vertical chimney, organizing space around solar orientation and thermal performance.
This project demonstrates strong feasibility, addressing sustainability through a clear architectural strategy that integrates ventilation and daylighting systems as the organizing framework. The design effectively translates environmental performance into spatial order, articulating different functions with clarity and coherence. The adaptive reuse of the warehouse is convincing in its materiality and environmental response. However, the selection of new functions could be supported by a more thorough analysis of programmatic needs and contextual dynamics, which would further strengthen the project’s persuasiveness and long-term impact.
Jiafeng Li / Buildner guest jury
Allied Works, United States
For keeping most of the structure and using the new additions to their full potential, not only for aesthetics but even more to solve energy and ventilation issues.
Anne Cecilie Haug / Buildner guest jury
Senior Architect, Snøhetta, Norway
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
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This is a technically proficient and environmentally articulate proposal that blends analytical rigor with architectural sensitivity. The light chimney device is not only functionally intelligent but symbolically fitting, reinforcing the project's narrative of renewal and solar orientation. The reuse strategy is solid, and the diagrams are especially effective in communicating performance-based decisions.
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9/10 Linework
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9/10 Quality of drawings
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7/10 Balance of color
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8/10 Layout
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8/10 Hierarchy
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9/10 Annotation
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8/10 Text
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8/10 Clarity of story
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9/10 Clarity of diagrams
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8/10 Quality of overall presentation
Honorable mentions
Shortlisted projects
Guest Station
United States The Portico as a Non- Functional Space, The New Mask with a Corridor
Heritage in bloom
Behind the wall
ART CENTER / Guild arts
CAP - Citizen Activation Platform
Phototropism Chimney
Fuel to Feel
Bangkok Water Tower Museum
Ripe Time
Nodes On:Line
Waterfront heritage
TASTING THE PAST
Framing Soje
No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk Bars
Yanai Community Hub
URBAN ISLAND
SINKTOPIA
Garden Concourse
The Locust Fixery
Soilware-A Circular Dining Museum for Tableware & Cutlery
A Lock Keeper's House
RE: STATION
ACT 3
re-Bond
Can Ricart Public Library
Bird Pylon
Marine A Reserve
Proposed San Francisco Office Building Reuse
Nest of Clouds
Earthen Sanheyuan Regeneration
LUMINA
Edge of presence
Rust to Rhythm: The Factory Reborn
It started with grain
New Mix
Community Centre: do we need to consume more or build communities?
Communal AC
REDUX
Life After Urbanization: A City Shape by Shrinkage
This is a visually compelling and intellectually resonant proposal that uses architecture as both a narrative and experiential device. The transformation of the grain tower is grounded in symbolic depth yet supported by thoughtful spatial articulation and technical clarity. Read more The layered storytelling—interweaving historical, agricultural, and architectural threads—strengthens the project's identity, and the presentation adopts an editorial tone that aligns well with the conceptual content. While the dense diagrammatic framing may benefit from slightly more breathing space in places, the overall synthesis of research, drawing craft, and emotional tone is powerful. It’s a deeply reflective and site-specific design that turns forgotten infrastructure into a vessel of cultural memory and environmental awareness.