Introduction

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2025

Buildner is pleased to announce the results of the second edition of the Buildner Unbuilt Award, an international competition series that honors architectural ideas not yet realized. With a continued 100,000 EUR prize fund, the award recognizes excellence in conceptual and speculative design across all scales and typologies, celebrating projects that explore the future of architecture through innovation, sustainability, and social relevance.

Organized into three categories: small, medium, and large-scale projects, the award promotes architectural experimentation regardless of size, program, or context. Participants were invited to submit proposals that may be conceptual, unbuilt, paused, or published but unrealized, offering space for bold research, formal invention, and visionary thinking. 

This year’s prize-winning projects reflect a shared commitment to architecture as both cultural speculation and practical solution. From climate-adaptive systems to thoughtful urban insertions and new models for collective space, the awarded work demonstrates how unbuilt ideas can shape architectural discourse with clarity, precision, and critical imagination. Across categories, the strongest entries conveyed a refined balance between concept and execution, supported by compelling drawings, models, and visual storytelling. 

The jury for the 2025 edition included an outstanding panel of global experts, each bringing distinct perspectives from design, education, and editorial practice. Jurors evaluated entries not only on design merit, but on clarity of narrative, responsiveness to context, and potential impact on the built environment. In addition to first-place winners in each category, the award recognized multiple honorable mentions, student prizes, and a special award for presentation excellence. 

The third edition of the Buildner Unbuilt Award is now open with a 100,000 EUR prize fund and categories for small, medium, and large-scale work, the 2026 competition continues to celebrate the role of unbuilt architecture in shaping tomorrow’s ideas. Let’s continue to recognize the value of unbuilt work, not as unfinished, but as foundational to the evolution of architectural thought.

We sincerely thank our jury panel
for their time and expertise

Manuela Gatto

Director, Zaha Hadid Architects

UK

Christele Harrouk

Editor in Chief, ArchDaily

Lebanon

Melodie Leung

Director, Zaha Hadid Architects

UK

Amanda Levete

Founder, AL_A

 

Jürgen Mayer H

founding partner of J.MAYER.H und Partner

Germany

Michael Meredith

Princeton University, MOS

USA

Lyndon Neri

Neri&Hu Design and Research Office

China

Will Plowman

Partner at Foster + Partners

UAE

Carlo Ratti

Director, MIT Senseable City Lab

USA

Enter the next competition edition
new
Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2026

Celebrating your unbuilt architecture visions with a €100,000 prize

100,000€ Prize / 2026 ideas COMPETITION

Small scale category winner

Project name

Nomadic Permanence: Architecture as Resilient Machine

Award

20,000 €

Author
Yuanyuan Cao
Country
United States
+22 points Buildner University Rankings
  • 7/10 Linework
  • 7/10 Quality of drawings
  • 8/10 Balance of color
  • 8/10 Layout
  • 7/10 Hierarchy
  • 7/10 Annotation
  • 7/10 Text
  • 8/10 Clarity of story
  • 7/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 8/10 Quality of overall presentation

Medium scale category winner

Project name

. the wine path

Award

20,000 €

Company
Author
Tigran Danielian
Country
Armenia
  • 8/10 Linework
  • 8/10 Quality of drawings
  • 7/10 Balance of color
  • 8/10 Layout
  • 7/10 Hierarchy
  • 6/10 Annotation
  • 7/10 Text
  • 8/10 Clarity of story
  • 7/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 8/10 Quality of overall presentation

Large scale category winner

Project name

Theseus: A New Housing Typology

Award

20,000 €

Authors
Emma Agnes Sheffer
Joseph Robert Russell
Country
United Kingdom
+22 points Buildner University Rankings
  • 8/10 Linework
  • 9/10 Quality of drawings
  • 7/10 Balance of color
  • 8/10 Layout
  • 7/10 Hierarchy
  • 7/10 Annotation
  • 8/10 Text
  • 8/10 Clarity of story
  • 8/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 8/10 Quality of overall presentation
Project name

Nomadic Permanence: Architecture as Resilient Machine

Award

5,000 €

Small scale category
Author
Yuanyuan Cao
Country
United States
+22 points Buildner University Rankings
  • 7/10 Linework
  • 7/10 Quality of drawings
  • 8/10 Balance of color
  • 8/10 Layout
  • 7/10 Hierarchy
  • 7/10 Annotation
  • 7/10 Text
  • 8/10 Clarity of story
  • 7/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 8/10 Quality of overall presentation

The best presentation award 2025

Project name

Tranquillizing the Void

Award

10,000 €

Authors
Xavier Arés
Koh Noguchi
Juan Pablo Lopez Isabella
Country
Spain
  • 9/10 Linework
  • 10/10 Quality of drawings
  • 8/10 Balance of color
  • 9/10 Layout
  • 8/10 Hierarchy
  • 8/10 Annotation
  • 8/10 Text
  • 9/10 Clarity of story
  • 9/10 Clarity of diagrams
  • 9/10 Quality of overall presentation
Project name

Upside Down

Award

1,000 €

Small scale category
Author
Christina Sophia Heck
Country
Germany
Project name

Playwood

Award

1,000 €

Small scale category
Authors
Catherine Marielle Wilmes
Eduardo Cilleruelo Teran
Country
United States
Project name

Calitropis

Award

1,000 €

Small scale category
Project name

La Geria

Award

1,000 €

Small scale category
Authors
Andrea Baldo
Gino Leonardo Brollo
Angelo Emilio Brollo
Country
Spain
Project name

Bedouin Folds

Award

1,000 €

Small scale category
Authors
Daniel Beyene
Biniyam Bewketu Teshome
Frezer Tesema
Country
Ethiopia