Open Chair Design Competition

A Global Design Competition, in Partnership with Aibuild  

Open Chair is a global ideas competition inviting architects, designers, makers, engineers, and creative thinkers to reimagine one of the oldest objects in human history through the lens of digital fabrication and open design.  

 With the rise of desktop manufacturing and accessible digital fabrication, the way we design and make objects is changing once again. Open Chair challenges participants to explore this new frontier by designing a full-scale chair that can be fabricated using a standard home 3D printer, assembled with minimal tools, and shared freely as an open design. This is not simply a challenge of aesthetics. It is a challenge of systems thinking, fabrication strategy, assembly logic, and design excellence. 

Participants are invited to create proposals that balance beauty with buildability, developing chairs that are not only visually compelling, but also realistically printable, constructible, and reproducible. Whether your proposal is minimal or complex, experimental or conventional, what matters is the clarity of the idea and the intelligence of its execution.  

The competition is open internationally to students, graduates, professionals, makers, and multidisciplinary teams. Selected projects will receive exposure through Creathlon's platforms, with money awards presented to the winning proposals.  
    

Submission Requirements  

2× 3D Print Files | A2 Board | Project Description | A2 Poster  

 

Key Dates  

• Registration Closes: 22 October 2026   

• Submission Deadline: 6 November 2026   

• Winners Announced: 12 January 2027   

  

Prizes  

• 1st Prize: £600 + Certificate   

• 2nd Prize: £300 + Certificate   

• 3rd Prize: £100 + Certificate   

• Honourable Mentions  

  

Registration Fees  

• Early Bird: £5 Single / £10 Team   

• Regular: £15 Single / £25 Team   

• Late: £25 Single / £35 Team   

  

Jury  

• Michail Desyllas - Co-Founder and COO, Aibuild  

• Vaishnavi Deo - Senior Creative Engineer, Aibuild  

• Sebastián Andía - Senior Associate, ZHA  

• Jillian Nishi - Senior Designer, ZHA  

• Andreas Palfinger - Architectural Designer / Creative Influencer  

• Andrei Oțet - Co-Founder Phenomena Laboratory  

 

Are you ready to rethink how furniture is designed, fabricated, and shared?    

Design a chair. Print it. Build it. Share it.  

  

Register and learn more:  

https://www.creathlon.co.uk/competitions/open-chair 

Open Chair Poster