New architecture and design competitions: IDEAS Awards, UIA-HYP CUP International Student Competition, Vancouver Tall Challenge, and Memorial to the Sixth Extinction

Looking for new, exciting architecture and design competitions to consider? Check out our latest curated picks of challenges listed on Bustler. Featured today are four briefs seeking the premier structural steel projects in the United States, student-led projects that engage with contemporary architectural, urban, and environmental challenges, innovative ideas for how tall buildings can more sustainably be integrated in Vancouver, and designs for a memorial that highlights humanity's role in nature's destruction.

For the complete directory of newly listed competitions, click here.

IDEAS Awards 2027
Registration/Submission Deadline: Monday, August 31, 2026

"The search for the next generation of steel innovation is on: The 2027 IDEAS Awards are now officially accepting entries!  Presented by the American Institute of Steel Construction, these awards represent the pinnacle of design achievement in the structural steel industry. Winning teams earn a full year of prestige, with their projects featured in national publications, across digital platforms, and at NASCC: The Steel Conference."

UIA-HYP CUP 2026 International Student Competition in Architectural Design
Registration Deadline: Sunday, September 20, 2026
Submission Deadline: Saturday, October 10, 2026

"In the competition brief, Philip Cox reflects on the continuing rural drift to cities, the future of community and social units, and the emergence of self-sufficient and sustainable communities. Participants are invited to select one of three ways of living—urban, suburban, or rural—and demonstrate how communities can be created that have relevance. The brief explores questions of identity, belonging, social interaction, sustainability, and the evolving relationship between people, place, and architecture in a rapidly changing world shaped by environmental concerns, technological innovation, remote working, and artificial intelligence."

Vancouver Tall Challenge
Registration Deadline: Thursday, October 29, 2026
Submission Deadline: Monday, November 30, 2026

"The competition invites architects, designers, planners, landscape architects, and creative thinkers to imagine innovative approaches to tall buildings within Vancouver’s downtown core. Participants are challenged to explore how architecture can contribute to a more vibrant, sustainable, inclusive, and resilient city while helping define what a truly made-for-Vancouver approach to building higher could look like."

Memorial to the Sixth Extinction - Design Competition
Registration/Submission Deadline: Sunday, November 1, 2026

"The challenge of this ideas competition is to create a physical memorial to the Sixth Extinction—a global event that has happened, is happening, and is also yet to happen—one that doesn’t remember or edify the human subject as most memorials do but rather questions the human as nature’s self-appointed executioner. Your memorial design can be any size and can be sited anywhere."

Would you like to contribute competitions, award programs, or calls for submissions that aren't listed on Bustler yet? Send them directly to our team to review. We may include them in our next roundup.