This competition is part of a strategic partnership between Buildner and ArchDaily that aims to explore "The Contemporary Home".

Learn more

Introduction

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Re:Form - 
New Life 
for Old Spaces

Choose a site—used, abandoned, or forgotten—anywhere in the world, and give it a new purpose! In a world facing urgent environmental and spatial challenges, the most sustainable solutions may come not from new construction, but from reimagining what already exists. Re:Form #3 invites architects, designers, and innovators to embrace the challenge of adaptive reuse, working within spaces under 250 square meters to give them renewed purpose and relevance.

Participants are free to choose any existing structure—whether currently in use, abandoned, or neglected—anywhere in the world. From unused storefronts and aging sheds to underutilized garages or portions of larger buildings, each project should demonstrate the potential to transform a limited footprint into something innovative and impactful.

This edition celebrates the ingenuity needed to balance sustainability, functionality, and design within an existing space. How can we rethink these structures to serve new purposes, meet contemporary needs, and positively impact their communities? Re:Form is a call to bring fresh perspectives to old spaces, proving that thoughtful adaptation can be a powerful tool for a more sustainable future.

Download the full competition brief for more information!  

Competition is open to all. No professional qualification is required. Design proposals can be developed individually or by teams (4 team members maximum). Correspondence with organizers must be conducted in English; All information submitted by participants must be in English.

Brief

The competition brief is available for download at any time in the following languages: English, Italian, French and Spanish.

FULL COMPETITION BRIEF [ENG][IT][FR][ES]

Download brief

Prizes

Prize fund

10,000 €

1ST PLACE

5,000 €

2ND PLACE

2,500 €

3RD PLACE

1,000 €

Buildner Student Award

1,000 €

(more details)

Buildner Sustainability Award

500 €

(more details)

6 Honorable mentions & certificates

Buildner will acknowledge the outstanding performance of all winners and honourable mentions with Certificates of Achievement.

Publicity campaign

Buildner's publicity campaign offers extensive exposure to the architectural community, ensuring that the results of the competition are seen by a vast audience:

Buildner's two million

The results are published on buildner.com, a leading website in the architecture industry, attracting over one million unique visitors annually. Additionally, the campaign extends to Buildner's social networks, which boast over 800,000 followers combined, and through newsletter campaigns reaching over 200,000 subscribers.

Interview and movie

Winners will have the opportunity to submit a movie and an interview, boosting their recognizability and helping to build their name in the industry.

Extensive media network

Buildner leverages an extensive network of media industry leaders to publish the competition results. This broadens the audience further, ensuring that participants' work is showcased across multiple platforms known for their influence and reach in the architecture and design sectors.

Publicity

ArchDaily feature

As part of the collaboration between Buildner and ArchDaily, the competition winners will be showcased on ArchDaily, a leading architecture news platform.

This feature will greatly boost the winners' visibility to millions of architecture professionals and enthusiasts worldwide, increasing their chances for new opportunities, attracting new clients, and establishing their reputation in the industry.

Read more about Buildner and ArchDaily partnership
&

Jury

Jury members shall under no circumstances be contacted by competition participants or their representatives. Participants who attempt to contact jury members, shall be disqualified.

All jury members are involved in the evaluation based on their availability at that time. All communication regarding the competition should only be carried out with Buildner staff. For any questions please contact us on [email protected] 

Fionn Byrne

The University of British Columbia (UBC)

Canada

Joan Cortés

Nook Architects

Spain

Miguel Crespo Picot

Zooco Estudio

Spain

Rubén Férez Berenguer

Nook Architects

Spain

Lydia Kallipoliti

Tallin Architecture Biennale, ANAcycle thinktank

USA

Paul Monaghan

Executive director and Head of Design Studio AHMM

United Kingdom

Naomi Ng

Increments Studio

Australia

Matthias Roller

Dannien Roller Architekten + Partner

Germany

Era Savvides

Urban Radicals

United Kingdom

Ming Thompson

Atelier Cho Thompson

United States

Ask questions to the jury panel directly!

This option is available to registered participants only.

If you are registered, please access your upload panel and look for the
Jury Questions & Answers section.

Ask to all.
One collective jury answer
Ask a
specific jury member
Ask questions about

The brief

Interpretation and intent of the competition brief

Your task

Key themes, priorities, or values considered during evaluation

Design help

General design approach or conceptual direction

Personal design assessment

Request an in-depth design assessment of your project after results are announced.

The design assessment highlights each project’s strengths and areas for improvement, giving participants valuable insight into their work. It helps them better understand their submission, compare it to other entries, and identify opportunities for growth in future projects.

Key dates

Send reminders

Registration fees

I'm
I will pay in

140 €

120 €

140 €

120 €

+4.5% VAT


STUDENT REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS


Contact us to receive special student rates for group registrations (discount applies for 3+ registrations from one university/school) and to receive further information and support for getting your students involved in architecture competitions. Send us request from your university email address along with basic information about yourself and your university/school. Please note that only recognized university staff can apply for the reduced student rate.

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Architecture competitions newsletter

Ask questions to the jury panel directly!

This option is available to registered participants only.

If you are registered, please access your upload panel and look for the
Jury Questions & Answers section.

Ask to all.
One collective jury answer
Ask a
specific jury member
Ask questions about

The brief

Interpretation and intent of the competition brief

Your task

Key themes, priorities, or values considered during evaluation

Design help

General design approach or conceptual direction

Absolutely not! You’ll always keep full ownership and authorship of your project. Submitting to a Buildner competition doesn’t mean giving up your rights — it simply gives us permission to share and promote your work as part of the competition. We may feature your project on our website, social media, newsletters, books, or exhibitions — all to celebrate your creativity and inspire others. This permission helps us give your work the visibility it deserves, without needing to ask you each time we publish it.
Click on "register now", fill in all the required fields, choose your payment method and submit your information. You will be forwarded to Paypal or CPS secure payment gateway, to cover the competition fee. Once we receive your payment, we'll send you an email with your username and password to upload your submission directly to the website.
You can add/remove/edit team member information as often as you want in the upload panel, up until the submission deadline.
Yes we are in the process of negotiating with multiple international industry-related media representatives. The list of media partners is constantly updated on our website, please check it regularly to find latest updates.
Yes. If the jury panel selects a Student award's submission for the top 3, it will automatically be awarded both prizes.
No. Competition entries are evaluated anonymously. The participant registration type is only revealed upon the announcement of the results.
Please contact us – [email protected] and we will address the problem directly.
The short answer is yes, you may submit a previously published design concept as long as you are the author. Before re-submitting your project, please carefully read the following clarification points listed here - architecturecompetitions.com/resubmit-your-design
As AI-generated images may be based on pre-existing work or generated using proprietary algorithms, it is best to check the specific terms and conditions of the AI tool used to generate the image to determine its ownership status. It may also be necessary to seek legal advice to fully understand the ownership rights and any restrictions that may apply. In general, it is not recommended to consider AI-generated images as your sole work or intellectual property unless you have obtained explicit permission to do so.
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I participate in competitions to push the boundaries of my design practice beyond the constraints of daily professional work. These platforms provide an essential arena for critical thinking, allowing me to explore speculative ideas and innovative materials that foster continuous professional growth.

1ST PRIZE

I participate to test spatial ideas and explore concepts beyond commercial limits. Competitions also allow me to engage with architectural and urban contexts on a conceptual level.

HONORABLE MENTION

I participate in architecture competitions because they create room to explore ideas with freedom and rigour, test a point of view, and contribute to wider conversations about how we want to live.

HONORABLE MENTION

I view architecture competitions as fertile ground for innovative ideas to develop into something new and unexpected. These competitions provide an excellent platform for envisioning concepts that might otherwise fade in the barren soil of pragmatism.

Through architectural competitions, there is an opportunity to explore solutions to a wide range of problems, both on a theoretical and practical level, without the constraints typically encountered in real-world applications. This allows for the investigation of ideas and approaches that, under different circumstances, might never be developed, helping to keep imagination, creativity, and innovation alive. At the same time, regardless of the final outcome, the very process of participation and exposure to the work of architects from around the world constitute a valuable journey of learning and exploration of different architectural cultures and ways of thinking.

Architecture competitions allow designers to work without many of the real-life constraints that often dictate a specific style or type of building. It is always inspiring to see the level of artistic ability and creativity that participants from around the world bring to these competitions. I also see them as a challenge for self-improvement. Knowing that I am competing with capable people from all over the world gives me a push that other projects don’t always offer.

HONORABLE MENTION

We participated in this competition because we wanted a platform to express our ideas. Through collaboration, we imagined a unique piece of work created from a blend of our different thoughts, perspectives, and creativity.

We participate in architectural competitions to maintain strengths in creative and critical design practices. Within the workforce it’s often easy to get bogged down and focused on the practicalities of everyday design. We wish to be not only architects that can see a building through its construction, but also designers that can create a piece of architecture through study and research.

Architecture competitions are not only opportunities for recognition, but also occasions to deepen our design approach, strengthen collaboration, and evaluate our work within a broader cultural and architectural discourse. By participating in architectural competitions, we are offered a valuable space for experimentation, research, and critical thinking, allowing us to challenge ourselves beyond the limits of everyday practice, develop ideas, and engage with architectural questions in a more open and exploratory way, helping us grow as architects. Among all competitions, it is especially important for us to engage with those whose criteria align with our professional interests and values. We deeply believe that the approach promoted by this competition can help meaningful ideas take shape and contribute to creating a better world.

In professional practice, architecture is often shaped by multiple constraints such as budget limitations, regulatory frameworks, and the expectations of clients and local authorities. These parameters are essential, but they can sometimes restrict the exploration of more experimental or unconventional ideas. Participating in architecture competitions, especially ideas competitions, offers a different space. It allows me to step outside these constraints and explore architecture as a field of research and speculation. It is an opportunity to test new approaches, challenge assumptions, and push my creativity further than what is usually possible in everyday practice. Competitions also allow me to position myself critically—towards the city, towards current building practices, and towards the role of architecture itself. They become a platform to propose alternative visions, question existing models, and imagine more ambitious or sensitive responses to contemporary challenges.

Celebrate your idea. Register today!