The Drawing Board 2026

THE DRAWING BOARD 2026 — 11th Edition

The Story of the Wall | Chikkajala Fort, Bengaluru

The Drawing Board is a free-to-participate, international architecture competition for undergraduate architecture students. Since 2016, it has challenged thousands of students worldwide to engage with real, socially relevant design problems.

A wall is more than a structure that divides space — it tells the story of human life and civilisation. This 11th edition asks students to see the wall as an active participant in shaping experience: a threshold between the outer world of chaos and the inner world of calm, between past and present, ruin and expansion.

The Site

Chikkajala Fort is a historic, ruined fort-like enclosure near north Bengaluru, believed to date to the medieval period. Spread over approximately 2 acres, it contains remnants of a fort wall, pillared halls (mandapas), a temple, and a large water tank (Kalyani). Historians often read it not as a defensive fort but as a Dharmachatra — a resting place for travellers and animals — located on the old highway route between Bengaluru and northern Karnataka.

As Bengaluru expanded, sections of the original stone wall — once two feet thick and fifteen feet high — gave way to road widening and urban development, exposing the site's long-preserved calm to traffic, noise, and pollution. Every November, the temple tank still fills with water and oil lamps for a local festival, drawing villagers for cultural celebrations across the site.

This Year's Challenge

Students are asked to reintroduce an enclosure — walls averaging 5m in width and 8m in height — that stands as a threshold between the fast-moving city and the enduring spirit of the site within. The wall must house a traveller information center about Karnataka, a cultural hub, and an urban edge facing the main road, with public space accessible to all. Programme for the urban edge is open to the students' interpretation.

The design should engage the site's existing trees, axes, temple tank, shrine, and pillared pavilions with sensitivity — spaces are meant to be discovered, not displayed, with minimal intervention into the pillared pavilions. Total built area is approximately 25,000 sq.ft.

Why Participate

• FREE TO PARTICIPATE, open globally
• Work on a live, culturally rooted heritage site
• Present to an international jury
• Win prizes worth $2,000
• Get published and featured in media

Eligibility

Open to undergraduate architecture students, current or final year as of June 2026. Team size: 1 to 3 members. Cross-college teams allowed.

Key Dates

• Launch: 15th June 2026
• Submission Deadline: 18th September 2026
• Finalist Announcement: to be updated on the website
• Masterclass & Grand Finale (Live Jury Presentation, Pune): to be updated on the website

Submission Guidelines

• Four A3 sheets in PDF format only (max 50MB)
• Include plans, sections, elevations, 3D views, site strategy, and material ideas
• Rendered walkthrough videos optional
• Any design software allowed; no AutoCAD files
• Team ID and participant name(s) mandatory on the submission PDF

Register and submit at: www.thedrawingboard.in