Competitions are part of our everyday practice. They carry uncertainty, and with it, unknown possibilities. When the site is far away — somewhere you may never have set foot — correctly understanding and interpreting the brief becomes everything. WUA is unusually well placed for this. Our team spans Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and on this project our Saudi summer intern, Lama Sultan, carried out the crucial work of cultural interpretation. Her deep research throughout the design process ensured that our proposal genuinely reflects what this important site means within its local culture. That kind of learning is, to me, a permanent part of the architect's role.

Try to understand the genius loci & catch the identity of the existing culture.

We participate in competitions because they provide a focused environment for research: a place to test an architectural question rigorously enough that it must move beyond an abstract idea and confront material, spatial, representational, and constructive consequences.

Competitions are an exceptional way to challenge yourself and to push the limits of your own creativity, free of the constraints that shape commissioned work. Equally valuable is what happens after the entry is submitted. Seeing how other entrants have read the same brief and the same site, and how differently they have chosen to answer it, teaches you more about your own thinking than any single project can. Every competition leaves you a better architect than it found you.

We participate in architecture competitions because they give us the freedom to explore ideas beyond the constraints of conventional practice. They allow us to question familiar approaches, bring together different perspectives, and develop new ways of thinking about architecture and place.

Architecture is a discipline that engages with many aspects of society. It responds to specific needs and questions, but at the same time should also be capable of raising new ones – as any practice concerned with culture and the arts should do. In this sense, the architect’s role is not only to provide solutions, but also to interpret existing conditions and open new and unexpected possibilities.

We participate in architecture competitions because they give us the freedom to explore ideas beyond the usual limits of a project. They allow us to challenge ourselves, test different design approaches, and think more openly about architecture, culture, and public space. Competitions are also an important way for us to grow as a young studio, develop our design identity, and learn through the process. 

Architecture competitions give us the freedom to explore ideas, challenge conventional solutions, and develop concepts driven by culture, place, and narrative. For us, they are also an opportunity to explore how local stories, memories, landscapes, and traditions can be translated into contemporary architecture. The process encourages experimentation, collaboration, and continuous development of our design thinking.

Competitions create room for freedom and experimentation. They allow me to test new technologies, explore unfamiliar design methods and develop ideas that everyday practice may leave little space for. They also help me understand where I stand as an architect: what I do well, where I need to improve and which direction I want to take next. Recognition matters, but the process itself can sharpen my judgement and reveal assumptions I need to question. When the results are published, I am also curious to see how others have understood the same brief. Their proposals can reveal an unexpected reading of the problem and open up possibilities I would not have discovered on my own.

In our view, engaging in architecture competitions is a means of keeping the creative process active and exploring architectural typologies that are not part of our daily routine.