Bustler's curated picks of new architecture and design competitions this week feature four calls seeking proposals for the development of the N.Y.C. Groceries visual identity, the most impressive work by graduating architecture students, exceptional designs of a contemporary riverfront market in Rochester, New York's future High Falls State Park, and standout projects where clay brick is the primary building material.

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

The Philip Merrill Environmental Center has been awarded the 2026 AIA Twenty-five Year Award, given each year to a building that has “set an architectural design standard of excellence for 25 to 35 years.” Designed by SmithGroup and completed in 2000, the scheme is described by the AIA as “a pioneering environmental headquarters” in Annapolis, Maryland.

It may not be your first instinct when entering a building to consider how it makes you feel, yet architecture has always had a profound impact on human emotions. Different spaces are designed to evoke different responses: offices can make us feel energised and productive, art galleries thoughtful and curious, and museums calm and intrigued. These spaces are far more than mere structures—they shape experience.

Now in its 8th edition, the Museum of Emotions competition continues this annual series by challenging participants to use architecture as a tool for emotional expression. Designers are asked to create a museum consisting of two distinct halls that evoke contrasting emotional states—one inducing negative emotions and the other positive.

Participants are free to choose which emotions their designs provoke, whether fear, anger, anxiety, love, happiness, laughter, or others. The aim of the Museum of Emotions is to explore how architecture alone can generate emotional responses through spatial scale, sequence and movement, colour, lighting, and materiality.

As an ideas competition, participants may select any site—real or imaginary—as well as define the size of their proposal.

Museum of Emotions is one of Buildner’s silent competitions, requiring participants to communicate their ideas without the use of text. All concepts and design intentions must be conveyed exclusively through visual representation.

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 1 special award recipient and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 10,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize - 5,000 €
2nd Prize - 3,000 €
3rd Prize - 1,000 €
+ 6 honourable mentions

Buildner Student Award - 1,000 €

Awards season has arrived at the American Institute of Architects, with this year’s winners unveiled during the AIA26 Conference on Architecture in San Diego. The annual celebration recognized standout work across 10 categories, honoring everything from interiors and housing to urban design, sustainability, and small-scale interventions.

Among the most closely watched announcements are the recipients of the 2026 AIA Architecture Awards, a program that highlights exemplary contemporary architecture in all its forms. Unbound by project type, budget, or stylistic approach, the awards offer a snapshot of the ideas, ambitions, and design excellence shaping the profession today.

Here are the winning designs:

Arbour House, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Patkau Architects

The European Centre has honored 40 architects and designers under 40 years old, who they describe as “the most promising new talent in architecture and design from across Europe.”

The Europe 40under40 Award initiative attracted over 350 submissions, with names chosen from Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.

The program was open to all early-career architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and industrial designers currently under the age of 40, whether working independently, in a firm, or on a specific project as a lead architect/designer.

The 40 names for the 2026 edition are as follows:

Northwestern University’s search for an architect-engineer team to design a future engineering research building has drawn considerable interest, with more than 100 firms responding to the initial open call. 

The pool reportedly ranged from internationally renowned practices to emerging contenders, underscoring both the competitiveness of major academic commissions and the continued appetite for large-scale research and higher education work.

After reviewing submissions, the university has narrowed the field to these 12 firms to advance to the next phase:

• 3XN Architects
• Behnisch Architekten
• Henning Larsen 
• KieranTimberlake
• PAYETTE
• Richärd Kennedy Architects
• SHoP Architects
• Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)
• Snøhetta
• Studio Gang 
• TenBerke Architects
• WEISS/MANFREDI

The project is tied to a recently completed research facilities master plan for Northwestern’s Evanston, IL, campus, which identified new space needs to support the institution’s long-term research and teaching ambitions. 

The selected teams will now move into an Expression of Interest stage before a smaller shortlist is invited to respond to a formal RFP, with the next round of finalists expected to be revealed later this summer.

For this week's curated picks of architecture and design competitions listed on Bustler, we are featuring four calls seeking proposals using Van Alen Institute's archive that provoke reflection on the progression of design access, ideas for the adaptive reuse of a former textile technical school building into the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, speculative architectural propositions that reconsider the White House as a civic and spatial instrument, and concepts for the revitalization of La Pyramide in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

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

Competition platform Volume Zero has unveiled the winners of their Tiny House 2025 Architecture Competition. The sixth edition of the competition saw entries from 37 countries.

The competition called on participants to “rethink the conventions of modern living and explore how architecture can respond to the evolving idea of home.” Submissions were to include a tiny home for two individuals within a maximum built-up area of just 300 square feet.

"Our humble abodes are being redefined with every passing day," organizers said about the motivation for the competition. "The world is changing constantly, and along with it, our homes are seeing us spend more time within them. The built form of a home is evolving rapidly; its design adapting to various other needs that were not limited to this space before."

The winning entries for the 2025 edition are as follows:

First Place
Housing is a Human Right by Han K of Taiwan

The Prix Versailles has unveiled its list of the world’s most beautiful restaurants for 2026. The sixteen designs are “imbued with an array of styles and colors that put each one in perfect harmony with its environment… and its menu,” according to Prix Versailles Secretary General Jérôme Gouadain.

In December, three projects from the list will be given additional titles of a World Title – Prix Versailles, Interior, or Exterior. Stay tuned for further upcoming categories, including airports and emporiums, and review the selection of hotels published last month.

Below, we have published the sixteen projects comprising the World's Most Beautiful Restaurants list 2026. You can compare the projects with those of previous years by following our ongoing coverage of the series here.

Nobu One Za’abeel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Rockwell Group

The Valli Wine Tasting Room competition invites architects and designers to propose a contemporary tasting space for Valli Unite, an agricultural cooperative located in the rural hills of Piedmont, northern Italy. The competition explores how architecture can create meaningful connections between wine, landscape, hospitality, and sustainable rural life through a modest and carefully integrated architectural intervention.

Located near the small village of Costa Vescovato in the Colli Tortonesi wine region, the site is surrounded by vineyards, cultivated fields, forests, and rolling valleys. Known for its natural beauty and strong agricultural traditions, the region has become internationally recognized for natural and organic wine production, particularly the revival of the native Timorasso grape variety. The quiet and deeply rural character of the landscape plays a central role in the identity of the competition.

Valli Unite itself is one of Italy’s pioneering agricultural cooperatives dedicated to organic farming and natural wine production. Founded in the early 1980s as a collective response to rural abandonment, the cooperative has grown into a community-oriented agricultural and cultural landmark. Today, Valli Unite manages vineyards, farmland, agritourism facilities, and communal spaces while promoting values of sustainability, collective work, environmental responsibility, and close connection to the land.

The competition asks participants to design a wine tasting room extension connected to the existing wine storage facility. The challenge encourages sensitive and sustainable proposals that respond carefully to the surrounding landscape and the philosophy of Valli Unite. Participants are invited to explore how architecture can shape intimate visitor experiences while strengthening the relationship between wine culture, agriculture, and the rural environment.

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 10,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize - 5,000 €
2nd Prize - 2,500 €
3rd Prize - 1,000 €
+ 6 honourable mentions

Buildner Student Award - 1,000 €
Buildner Sustainability Award - 500 €

Purpose of the Competition

The Superior Design Award (SDA) unites designers from around the world on a global platform that celebrates creativity and innovation. As the first edition of this annual competition, SDA aims to become a lasting tradition that recognizes projects shaping the design world and highlights boundary-pushing ideas. An international jury consisting of distinguished designers, academics, and industry professionals will evaluate submissions based on innovation, functionality, aesthetics, manufacturability, and sustainability.

Theme and Scope

Participants are expected to develop design approaches that push the limits of design, balance aesthetics and functionality, and present innovative, solution-oriented ideas. Evaluation criteria include:

• Creativity and originality
• Functionality
• Aesthetic value
• Sustainability
• Market potential

Designers may submit their works within 6 disciplines and 71 categories, offering a broad range of participation opportunities.

Disciplines

• Product Design
• Packaging Design
• Communication Design
• Interior Design
• Interface Design
• Professional Concept

Who Can Participate?

• Professionals, design studios, and companies working in industrial design, graphic design, interior architecture, communication design, and related creative industries are eligible to apply.
• Both individual and team submissions are accepted.
• Each participant or team may submit multiple projects.

Submission Requirements & Format

• Projects must be submitted digitally.
• Participants will upload their projects through the SDA website under the “SUBMIT NOW” section.
• Visuals should be in JPEG/PNG format, with a 16:9 aspect ratio, minimum resolution of 1080 px, and a maximum file size of 4 MB.
• For detailed participation guidelines, please visit the “How to Join” section on the website.

Awards & Benefits

Winning at SDA means more than receiving an award — it represents recognition, prestige, and an internationally acknowledged mark of quality in the design world.

• Winning projects may use the SDA Winner Logo on their promotional materials.
• The “SDA Awarded Design” label enhances your brand’s value and differentiates you from competitors.
• Additional rewards include exhibition opportunities, publication support, media visibility, and collaboration prospects.

Timeline & Announcements

Submission Deadline: December 31, 2026, at 00:00 (GMT-4)

Jury Panel

• Matthew Bowman
• Carter McGuyer
• Deniz Aktay
• Mariana Prestes
• Mirko Tattarini
• Arpit Parmar
• Xin Wei  
• Hadiye Özdemir
• Mohit arora
• Bruno Oro
• Subinay Malhotra
• Mauricio Sanin

Eligibility & Entry Fees

• The competition is open to professionals working in architecture, interior design, environmental design, industrial design, and related fields.
• Participants may apply individually or as a team.

Entry Fees:

• Early Entry: $180 (April 24 – May 24)
• Regular Entry: $200 (May 25 – September 31)
• Late Entry: $220 (November 1 – December 31)

Contact & Information

superiordesignaward.com

The Quiet Tower competition takes place on Latvia’s remote Baltic coastline near Cape Kolka — a landscape of forests, dunes, sea winds, and small villages shaped by nature and seasonal change. Located along the historic Livonian Coast, the site belongs to one of the country’s quietest and most atmospheric regions, where architecture is expected to exist in harmony with the surrounding landscape rather than dominate it.

The project is initiated by a private owner developing the property as a retreat focused on simplicity, presence, and connection to nature. Instead of creating a traditional tourist destination, the vision is to offer visitors a place to slow down, disconnect from everyday routines, and experience the atmosphere of the Baltic coast through landscape, weather, silence, and observation. The future tower is imagined not simply as a viewing platform, but as a lookout ritual, a room above the trees, a sheltered pause within nature, or a contemporary object inspired by the spirit of the coastline.

Not a Tower, but a Vertical Experience

Participants are invited to rethink the observation tower as more than a functional structure. Rather than designing an iconic landmark, the competition encourages proposals that create atmosphere, emotional connection, and a unique relationship between visitor and landscape. The Quiet Tower may become a place for reflection, conversation, photography, watching sunsets, or observing changing weather and distant horizons. Inspired by fire lookout towers, dune watchpoints, pilgrimage shelters, and Nordic retreat culture, the project should explore how simple architecture can create memorable experiences through sensitivity, restraint, and connection to place. 

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 10,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize - 5,000 €
2nd Prize - 2,500 €
3rd Prize - 1,000 €
+ 6 honourable mentions

Buildner Student Award - 1,000 €
Buildner Sustainability Award - 500 €

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Early Bird Registration: JUNE 1 – JULY 22
Advance Registration: JULY 23 – OCTOBER 15
Last Minute Registration: OCTOBER 16 – JANUARY 13

Final registration deadline: JANUARY 13, 2027
Closing date for submission: FEBRUARY 15, 2027 (11:59 p.m. LONDON TIME)
Announcement of the winners: APRIL 6, 2027

More:  https://architecturecompetitio...

The competition provides young professionals below the age of 35 with the opportunity to showcase their work alongside some of the industry's most respected names. With over 200+ renowned jury members and more than 1,200+ participants annually, VOX Architecture Ideas has gained significant recognition for nurturing the next generation of design innovators.

Shortlisted participants present their projects live before an esteemed jury panel and are honoured at the FOAID’s Grand Awards Ceremony in the presence of leading architects, designers, and industry professionals. Winning and shortlisted entries also receive extensive visibility through exhibitions, digital showcases, and social media features, reaching over 2.2+ lakh viewers. When VOX Architecture Ideas introduced "VOX Ceilings as a Design Statement" — a category dedicated entirely to innovative ceiling systems —it became one of the event's most talked-about highlights, generating an overwhelming response from architects and designers nationwide. The VOX Design Challenge has continued to grow year after year, with Span Architects winning a Mahindra XUV in 2024 and Mahan Architects taking home a Mercedes GLA 200 in 2025, setting a compelling precedent for what's yet to come. 

 This year, the challenge returns with its signature category — "VOX Ceilings as a Design Statement" — inviting architects and designers to reimagine ceilings not as a functional afterthought, but as a bold centrepiece of design.

Open to architects and designers of all ages, this challenge breaks from the norm — the under-35 age criterion does not apply here, making it one of the most inclusive platforms in the competition. Entries will be evaluated by a renowned jury from Zaha Hadid Architects, bringing world-class design expertise to the table. The stakes? Once again, a brand new Mercedes GLA 200 for the winner.

Requirements/Eligibility

• Open to practising architects and interior designers.

• Participants may submit projects across multiple categories.

• Entries must be original works by the participant or participating firm.

• Submissions should include project images, drawings, and a brief project description. 

• The competition is open to participants across India.

Categories

The competition features a wide range of architecture and interior design categories, including:

• Interior Design - Residential Apartment (more than 1000 sq.ft.)

• Interior Design - Residential Apartment (less than 1000 sq.ft.)

• Interior Design - Residential Villa & Bungalow

• Interior Design - Restaurant & Lounge Bar

• Interior Design - Commercial

• Interior Design - Retail

• Architecture - Residential Villa & Bungalow

• Architecture - Commercial

• Architecture & Interior Design - Healthcare & wellness

• Architecture & Interior Design - Public & Institutional Building

• Architecture & Interior Design - Hospitality

• Special Category - VOX Ceilings as a Design Statement

About the Organiser

FOAID, stepping into its 13th year, is one of India’s leading architecture and design platforms, known for bringing together architects, designers, brands, and creative professionals through conferences, exhibitions, awards, and knowledge-led initiatives. Through the VOX Architecture Ideas Competition, FOAID aims to create opportunities for emerging talent while fostering dialogue, innovation, and excellence in the built environment.

Jury

The competition is evaluated by a distinguished jury of leading architects, designers, and industry experts from the architecture and interior design fraternity. Over the years, FOAID has brought together more than 200 experienced professionals annually as part of its jury panel. 

Prizes

• Opportunity to present projects live before an esteemed jury panel

• Recognition at the FOAID’s Grand Award Ceremony 

• Trophy presentation in front of 400+ global architects and designers

• Showcase at the FOAID exhibition attended by over 6,000 visitors

• Dedicated feature across FOAID’s digital and social media platforms

• Feature in the prestigious FOAID Coffee Table Book

• Networking opportunities with leading architects, designers, and industry professionals

• Grand Prize for the special category “VOX Ceilings as a Design Statement” - Mercedes GLA 200

To find more details & register, visit here - https://events.foaidindia.in/v...

LAST DATE OF REGISTRATION: 15 August 2026 

LAST DATE OF SUBMISSION: 31 August 2026

The Brick Industry Association (BIA) has opened entries for the 2026 Brick in Architecture Awards, the leading international design competition featuring fired-clay brick. Entries are due by September 25 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Project entries in nine categories will compete for a Best in Class, Gold, Silver or Bronze award and an overall Craftsmanship Award. The winners will be judged by peers in October.

Winning projects and teams will be honored live at the Brick Excellence Gala on April 8, 2027 during the National Clay Brick Expo in Nashville, Tennessee. As with this year’s debut event, architects, designers and masonry professionals will celebrate outstanding brick design and craftsmanship.

 “These global projects showcase brick’s virtually unlimited flexibility to achieve any aesthetic with exceptional durability for sustainable design,” said BIA President and CEO Tricia Mauer.

Per the competition rules, all submissions must feature new clay brick products as the primary exterior building or paving material comprising over 50% of the visible surface. Entrants must be architects or designers employed by an architectural, design-build or landscape architecture firm. Projects must have been completed on or after January 1, 2020.

Entries must be submitted through the awards website in one or more of these categories:

1. Commercial*

2. Education – K-12

3. Education - Colleges & Universities (Higher Education) **

4. Residential – Single Family

5. Residential – Multifamily

6. Thin Brick

7. Paving & Landscape Projects***

8. Historic Renovation****

9. International (Projects outside of the US, Canada or a U.S. territory must be entered in this category)

* If a Commercial subcategory receives fewer than 10 entries, submissions will be combined and judged within a General Commercial category

** Includes residence halls and academic/administrative buildings

***At least 50% of the project must include clay pavers

***Does not need to meet the 50% or more new brick requirement but project must have 50% or more renovated brick

The goals of the N.Y.C. Groceries initiative are to bring down the cost of everyday groceries and household staples, strengthen neighborhood food access, and demonstrate a new role for public sector leadership in food affordability. It is currently anticipated that the five N.Y.C. Groceries stores will be managed by one or more third-party grocery operator(s) and shall each carry a set of highly in-demand items that will be discounted relative to market prices, providing direct relief for shoppers at checkout. The City will cover overhead costs associated with the grocery stores, while the operator will be required to pass savings on to the customers in the form of discounted prices on everyday groceries. The City plans to open five N.Y.C. Groceries stores—one in each borough—by the end of 2029, with the first store expected to open its doors in late 2027.

NYCEDC plans to select a consultant on the basis of factors stated in the RFP which include, but are not limited to: the demonstrated successful experience in performing services similar to those encompassed in the RFP, the quality of the proposal, the proposed fee, the quality of the firm’s management, reputation, and references, and the respondent’s proposed plans for encouraging participation by minority and women-owned business enterprises.

Optional Informational Session

An optional, virtual informational session will be held on Thursday, June 11, 2026 at 11:00 A.M.. Those who wish to attend should RSVP by using the RSVP web form available here on or before June 10, 2026.

Inquiries

Respondents may submit questions and/or request clarifications from NYCEDC no later than 5 P.M. on Friday, June 12, 2026. Questions regarding the subject matter of this RFP should be directed to the Q&A web form available here. Answers to all questions will be posted by Thursday, June 18, 2026. Questions regarding the subject matter of this RFP will not be accepted after 5 P.M. on Friday, June 12, 2026, however, technical questions pertaining to downloading and submitting proposals to this RFP may be directed to RFPREQUEST@edc.nyc on or before Tuesday, June 30, 2026.

Submission Guidelines

Detailed submission guidelines and requirements are outlined in the RFP, available as of May 28, 2026.

Please submit your response via electronic upload by clicking here and uploading your proposal.

Responses are due no later than June 30, 2026 at 4:00 PM. Please submit all documents in a single .zip file labeled with your company name. The Chrome Browser is the preferred method for uploading.

M/WBE

It is the policy of NYCEDC to comply with all federal, state and City laws and regulations which prohibit unlawful discrimination because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status and other protected category and to take affirmative action in working with contracting parties to ensure certified Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) share in the economic opportunities generated by NYCEDC’s projects and initiatives. Please refer to the Equal Employment and Affirmative Compliance for Non-Construction Contracts Addendum in Appendix F of the RFP.

This project has Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (“M/WBE”) participation goals, and all respondents will be required to submit an M/WBE Participation Proposal with their response. To learn more about NYCEDC’s M/WBE program, visit http://edc.nyc/opportunity-mwdbe. For the list of companies who have been certified with the New York City Department of Small Business Services as M/WBE, please go to the https://sbsconnect.nyc.gov/certification-directory-search/.

NYCEDC established the Contract Financing Loan Fund programs for Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (M/W/DBE) interested in working on public construction projects. Contract Financing Loan Fund facilitates financing for short-term mobilization needs such as insurance, labor, supplies and equipment. Bidders/subcontractors are strongly encouraged to visit the NYCEDC website at http://edc.nyc/opportunity-mwdbe to learn more about the program.

SUBMIT NOW

The International Urban Project Award (IUPA) is presented by Bauwelt (Berlin, Germany) and World Architecture Magazine (WA, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China), with the support of BAU China and Messe München.

The award recognizes outstanding recent projects in architecture and urban design that have transformed cities worldwide. It focuses on the interface between architecture and urban space, examining how buildings, urban design, landscape architecture and architectural technology shape cities, activate public space, and contribute to the development of urban neighborhoods. The prize highlights architecture and urban design as social and cultural forces that enhance public space, strengthen civic life, and celebrate urbanity.

One First Prize and three Special Prizes will be awarded. Submissions are open to both architectural and urban development projects.

TOPIC 2026: ARCHITECTURE THAT SPEAKS

Too often, the city feels anonymous, hostile, or even inaccessible. IUPA 2026 highlights projects in which architecture counters homogenisation and gives cities a voice: shaping life, creating identity, and opening places to diverse uses. By responding to local contexts, architecture and urban planning can reveal a site’s latent potential. Strategies may vary: transforming industrial relics to encourage interaction, turning isolated structures into places of character, or opening up closed-off buildings to engage people. The sixth edition of IUPA seeks projects in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design that restore personality and distinctiveness, repurpose obsolete places, and transform introverted environments into memorable ones.

APPLICATION CRITERIA

Projects should be substantially built but need not be fully completed. They should be less than five years old (2022–2026).

Projects must be first-time entries. A maximum of three projects per office may be submitted.

Eligible applicants include architects, urban planners, and landscape architects from around the world, both individuals and teams. Developers may submit projects together with architects.

There is no entry fee or any other cost for applicants.

JURY

The jury session will take place in Beijing in September 2026. The jury consists of:

•                     LI Cundong, Secretary-General of the Architectural Society of China (ASC)

•                     CAO Jiaming, Vice President of the Architectural Society of China (ASC) / President of the Architectural Society of Shanghai China (ASSC)

•                     Zhang Li, Vice President of UIA (Region IV), Dean of the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, Professor of Architecture, leader of Atelier TeamMinus, board member of the Architectural Society of China, Editor-in-chief of World Architecture Beijing

•                     Benedetta Tagliabue, founder of Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects, Barcelona (tbc)

•                     Boris Schade-Bünsow, Editor-in-chief Bauwelt, Berlin

For further information please check: IUPA 2026

Announcement of International Design Competition for Pohang Museum 

 We aim to create a new cultural platform that preserves and promotes the comprehensive history of Pohang, bridging its deep roots into the future by systematically collecting, researching, and exhibiting its cultural heritage. Currently, Pohang lacks a museum to serve as a central hub for the systematic collection, research, and exhibition of the region’s history, culture, and cultural heritage. 

This issue has resulted in the relocation of over 32,000 vast artifacts to other regions. 

Consequently, Pohang City aims to establish a museum that will reclaim, exhibit, and utilize these precious cultural assets born from our region, while fully preserving the area's identity and history to pass down to future generations. Beyond fragmented memories, we design a comprehensive museum that fully embodies the unique identity of the city in the Yeonorang Seonyeo Theme Park.

◦ Site Location: 129-1 and 129-9 Imgok-ri, Donghae-myeon, Nam-gu, Pohang-si, Republic of Korea 

◦ Building Scale ◦Total Floor Area: 7,640㎡ (※ adjustable within ±5% of the total floor area) 

◦Site Area: 

• Yeonorang Seonyeo Theme Park: 105,142㎡ 
• Project Site: 15,142㎡ 
• Zoning District: Urban Zone, Natural Green Zone, Cultural Park 

 ◦ Total Construction Cost: KRW 31,378 million, including VAT 

◦ Design Fee: KRW 1,600 million, including VAT 

 ◦ Schedule 

• Registration: 2026. 6. 8. (Mon.) ~ 7. 20. (Mon.) 
• Inquiries: 2026. 6. 8.(Mon.) ~ 6. 12. (Fri.) by 17:00 
• Submission: 2026. 9. 7. (Mon.) 13:00–17:00 
• Jury review: 1st round 2026. 9. 16. (Wed.)  /   2nd round 2026. 9. 22. (Tue.) 
• Announcement of Results: 2026. 9. 23. (Wed.) 

 ◦Prize-winning Entries and Compensation 

   - Winner : Awarding of Design Service Rights 

   - Prize-winning Entry Total compensation budget: KRW : 100,000,000, including VAT 

• 1st Rank: 4/10 of the compensation budget 
• 2nd Rank: 3/10 of the compensation budget 
• 3rd Rank: 2/10 of the compensation budget 
• 4th Rank: 1/10 of the compensation budget

Official Website: 

www.pohang-muse.kr

Call for Participation 

Architecture has long been called upon to give spatial form to political ambition. Its capacity for monumentality, symmetry, and spectacle has made it a reliable instrument of authority—particularly for regimes invested in permanence and control. Yet architecture also carries another, less concrete history: one in which designers, artists, and collectives have worked to unsettle these logics, producing counter-images, counter-spaces, and alternative civic imaginaries. 

13 White Houses takes this tension as both subject and structure. 

Rather than returning once more to the singularity of the White House—an overdetermined emblem of American governance—the exhibition multiplies it. The project assembles thirteen distinct “White Houses,” each understood not as a fixed building, but as a civic construct: a spatial apparatus through which power is staged, negotiated, naturalized, or contested. 

The exhibition will be hosted by Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and will bring together invited works, juried architectural proposals, and a broader image-based call to form a composite field of speculation, critique, and repair.

Exhibition Structure 

13 White Houses comprises three interrelated components: 

Thirteen White Houses: Propositional Works (Models + Drawings) 

The exhibition is organized around thirteen speculative architectural propositions that reconsider the White House as a civic and spatial instrument. A group of international practices will be commissioned to produce new work, supplemented by additional participants selected through this open call. Realized as models and drawings, these projects examine the White House and its grounds as a site of ongoing negotiation—between governance and representation, permanence and revision, authority and public life. Together, invited and selected practices will constitute the thirteen White Houses that form the exhibition’s core. 

Expanded Field: Juried Image Exhibition 

In parallel, the exhibition will include a juried image presentation drawn from this open call. Comprising single images—drawings, renderings, collages, diagrams, photographs, or other visual propositions—this section expands the exhibition’s discursive field and introduces a broader range of spatial, political, and disciplinary approaches. Submissions will be considered both for inclusion in the image exhibition and as the primary basis for identifying additional participants to develop full propositional works for the model-and-drawing presentation. 

The Thirteenth Condition 

For critical contrast, the exhibition acknowledges a thirteenth condition already underway: the demolition of the East Wing and construction of a White House ballroom. Presented as documentation rather than design, this ongoing intervention functions as a real-time case study in how architecture mediates authority through spectacle, speed, erasure, and unilateral transformation. 

Provocations 

Submissions may engage the White House through any of the following lines of inquiry, or propose others: 

Preservation as an active political practice

Adaptive reuse as institutional reprogramming 

Democratic deep retrofit of spatial and procedural systems 

Unbuilding, subtraction, and architectural refusal 

Proto-constitutional architectures and draft forms of governance 

Ritual and protocol reconsidered beyond spectacle 

Architectures for plural, distributed publics 

Ecological and infrastructural recalibration 

Pedagogical architectures of civic reorientation 

Pop reinterpretation and mediated form 

Iconoclasm without substitution 

Architecture as capital display, development instrument, and spectacle economy 

Image Submission: Open Call 

The open call solicits single-image submissions for inclusion in a juried image exhibition. Individuals and collaborative teams are encouraged to apply. The call is open to practitioners working across architecture, landscape, art, design, and related spatial fields, independent of professional licensure. 

Deadline: Sunday, August 02, 2026 (11:59 pm EDT) 

Image: One image per submission 

Format: JPG or PNG Resolution: 18 inches × 12 inches  (or equivalent) at 300 dpi minimum 

Text:  Statement (max. 150 words) 

Images should function as complete visual propositions—capable of standing alone as arguments rather than illustrations. 

Submissions may operate at the scale of the building, the landscape, the campus, the city, the territory, or the diagram. We welcome speculative, critical, poetic, and rigorously architectural approaches alike. 

Submission Details 

All submissions must be made via the project website:

Questions may be directed to: info@whitehouses.us

Why This Exhibition Now? 

Architecture has often been used to stabilize power by giving it form. 13 White Houses begins from the counter-possibility: that design can function as speculative resistance—a way of rehearsing institutional alternatives before they become real. Thus, the exhibition assembles architectural arguments that reconsider how authority is staged, shared, and spatialized. It suggests that democratic futures may depend less on the preservation of monuments than on the capacity to redesign the spatial conditions through which public life unfolds. 

Curatorial Team: Anya Sirota, Sharon Haar, Olivier Peyricot

The New York High Falls Riverfront Market competition invites architects, designers, and creative thinkers to imagine a new civic destination within the evolving landscape of Rochester’s future High Falls State Park. Located along the dramatic Genesee River gorge in western New York State, the project site sits within one of the city’s most historically significant industrial and natural landscapes — a place where waterfalls, infrastructure, public space, and industrial heritage converge.

Presented by Buildner in partnership with AIA Rochester as part of its annual Designers Unleashed initiative, together with Community Design Rochester and Future Reality Services, the competition explores how architecture can contribute to the transformation of Rochester’s riverfront into a contemporary public landscape centered around gathering, culture, and everyday urban life.

Participants are asked to design a contemporary riverfront market together with the surrounding public space at the Smokestack Portal site — one of the future entry points into High Falls State Park. The proposal should function as both an active public destination and a gateway into the future park system while responding carefully to the site’s dramatic topography, industrial identity, and relationship to the Genesee River gorge.

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 10,000 USD in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize - 5,000 $
2nd Prize - 2,500 $
3rd Prize - 1,000 $
+ 6 honourable mentions

Buildner Student Award - 1,000 $
Buildner Sustainability Award - 500 $

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Early Bird Registration: MAY 25 – JULY 29
Advance Registration: JULY 30 – OCTOBER 7
Last Minute Registration: OCTOBER 8 – DECEMBER 10

Final registration deadline: DECEMBER 10, 2026
Closing date for submission: JANUARY 18, 2027 (11:59 p.m. LONDON TIME)
Announcement of the winners: MARCH 9, 2027

https://sites.google.com/lafor...

So, what skills as designers we need to make planet-centric decisions and increase our positive influence?

To explore this topic, we invited Cat Drew, Chief Design Officer at Design Council, the powerhouse behind the Double Diamond Framework. From leading Design Council's Design for Planet mission, to creating the world’s first Government AI & Data Ethics Framework Cat has made a career of using design to shift systems to help people to live happier and healthier lives.

In this 90-minute interview, she'll share the Skills for the Planet Blueprint developed by Design Council, to help designers shape a regenerative, resilient and inclusive world for all.

Register: https://fla.wiki/4e0QvNq

Founded by Celia Chaussabel and Ekin Bilal, NOT NOT is a design practice working across architecture, objects, and stories. The office explores the overlooked spaces, materials, and systems that shape the built environment, from maintenance routines and demolition debris to regulatory gray zones and infrastructures that sustain buildings over time.

The eponymous exhibition NOT NOT features a mix of recent work by Chaussabel and Bilal alongside new designs, commissions, and proposals. Side-by-side with architectural drawings and models, the exhibition includes animations, video games, comics, furniture, and other formats that expand how architecture can be made and shared.

Supported by NYSCA and the Architectural League of New York, this exhibition turns Van Alen Institute’s Urban Room into something between a show and a working office. 

Ekin Bilal and Celia Chaussabel are members of the Van Alen Vanguard, a network of 21 emerging design leaders. Activating Van Alen’s space at 303 Bond Street, the Vanguard develops public programs and exhibitions that reimagine designers’ roles in civic life. NOT NOT is the first exhibition presented as part of the Van Alen Vanguard.

As Mark McDonald notes, “In the context of ‘T’ Space, and alongside architecture and furniture, [Saliske’s] sculptures can be read as models for imagined or speculative spaces. There is a push and pull in that ambiguity. The reverse can also happen: architectural models and furniture begin to read as sculpture.”

This dialogue emerged naturally. Saliske elaborates: “They could be architecture, or machine parts, or a section lifted from nature. The viewer brings their own experiences to an abstract form to make sense of it. When I make sculpture, all forms in my environment are available consciously or unconsciously. The trick for me is to keep this information suspended so that everything is in play at once.”

The exhibition includes works by Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Rudolph Schindler, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Frank Gehry, Steven Holl, Jean Nouvel, Philip Johnson, Serge Chermayeff, Henry P. Glass, and Richard Meier.

An interview by Kelly Pope with Mark McDonald and Margaret Saliske further explores these intersections of sculpture, furniture, architecture, and space. Read the full interview here.

Opening Sunday, June 14, 11 – 5  

On view through August 23,  2026

Archive Gallery Open Hours: Sundays 11 – 5  

60 Round Lake Road, Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Mark McDonald is a leading authority on twentieth-century design. For over four decades, he has advised leading collectors and museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Vitra Design Museum. Frequently cited as an expert in national publications, he has also contributed to books on design from the 1930s through the 1970s.

In 1982, McDonald co-founded Fifty/50 in New York City with Ralph Cutler and Mark Isaacson, pioneering the research, exhibition, marketing, and sale of what became known as Mid-Century Modern design. He later opened Gansevoort Gallery and, after relocating to the Hudson Valley in 2003, continued dealing in exceptional examples of mid-century design. Today he works from Hudson L-House, designed by Steven Holl Architects, where he continues to advise collectors and museums while specializing in rare mid-century design and studio jewelry.

Margaret Saliske lived and worked in New York City until moving to the Hudson Valley in 1989. She has a B.A. degree from Bennington College and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in studio art. In 2018 she received an Apexart fellowship to Seoul South Korea and in 2019 was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome.

She exhibited her work at Artists Space and 55 Mercer Street Gallery in New York City before moving upstate where she has shown her work at numerous area galleries. She exhibited with Pamela Salisbury in Hudson NY and Lockwood Gallery in Kingston NY. In 2023, she was represented at Art Taipei by Carrie Chen Gallery. She was recently included in “Let It Shine” an exhibition of New York artists in Mark McDonald’s L House designed by Steven Holl. Saliske lives and works in Hudson, New York. 

October 8–10, 2026 | Portland State University | Portland, Oregon

We are excited to announce the Structures for Inclusion (SFI) Conference 2026. This year's theme is Indigenous Public Interest Design: Cultural Knowledge and Practices. Over three days, speakers, practitioners, researchers, and community members will share built works, strategies, and practices that center Indigenous wisdom in design and the built environment.

Co-organized by Design Corps, the SEED Network, the Center for Public Interest Design (CPID), and the ITECK Program at Portland State University.

We look forward to gathering in October to share Indigenous knowledge, celebrate exemplary design and shape positive futures together.

Register on Eventbrite → 

Call for Papers

Abstract Deadline: June 19, 2026

CPID, ITECK, and Design Corps invite scholars and practitioners to submit abstracts for 20-minute presentations on topics in Indigenous Public Interest Design. We welcome work across eight thematic areas: Food Sovereignty; Land Rights / Reclaiming the Land; Land as Pedagogy and Sacred Connection; Urban Indigenous Experiences and Spatial Justice; Indigenous Design Methodologies and Community Engagement; Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Relationality, and Practice; Storytelling as Collaborative Past and Futures; and Open Session. Papers selected will be presented by authors at the Structures for Inclusion conference.

Proposals must include contact information, a 250-word abstract, and four keywords. Selected presenters will be notified in July; full papers are due September 10, 2026, with publication to follow in Fall 2026.

Submit Your Abstract →

Indigenous SEED Awards: Call for Entries

Deadline July 1, 2026

The 2026 Indigenous SEED competition is open. Five Awards for Excellence in Indigenous Public Interest Design will be selected by a jury of seven Indigenous leaders to honor projects that exemplify excellence in Indigenous design. Each winner will receive a $1,500 honorarium and present their work at the SFI Conference. The award and conference are co-organized by Design Corps, the SEED Network, CPID, and ITECK. Entries are free of charge.

• Application deadline: July 1, 2026, 11:59 PM EST

• Winners announced: August 21, 2026

Featuring:

• Antonia Cereijido, L.A. Material

• Frederick Fisher, Frederick Fisher and Partners

• Christopher Hawthorne, Punch List

• Jimenez Lai, Bureau Spectacular

• Samuel Medina, New York Review of Architecture

• Carolina A. Miranda, arts and culture journalist

• and plenty of vox populi!

Plus:

• New photographs of the David Geffen Galleries by Janna Ireland

An open-bar reception will follow the forum.

Ticket info

Earthen Comforts: Airing Earth is a courtyard installation led by Liz Gálvez (Office e.g.) that stages mass and fiber as shared infrastructures for collective comfort in the Los Angeles summer. Building on the practice’s ongoing investigation into heat resilience and material experimentation by staging thermal infrastructures as architectural and civic propositions, the project adapts passive cooling strategies from desert contexts into the M&A x Craft Contemporary Courtyard.

Now a global phenomenon, San Francisco’s international success is born from a historically free-spirited entrepreneurialism, coupled with the imaginative vision of contemporary design and state-of-the-art technology. Pioneers of new ways of looking at the world, nimble Bay Area start-ups are now among the world’s most influential design-led companies, producing products, services and experiences that profoundly influence the daily lives of billions of people globally.

Through studio tours and events, SFDW celebrates this spirit of newness by providing unique access to exhibitions and conversations with the designers who are shaping the future — from architecture to fashion, product design to digital services, and everything in between.

Event details

The Products

The industry’s major manufacturers as well as the latest emerging companies will showcase thousands of new products and services in categories including Furniture, Fabrics, Flooring, Interior Building Products, Interior Finishes and Technology.

The People

Design professionals representing markets ranging from Workplace, Healthcare, Hospitality, Retail, Education, Public Space and Government, converges each year at NeoCon to connect, learn and do business.

The Programming

The NeoCon exhibition is complemented by first-class educational and inspirational programming offering expertise and insight into the most relevant topics in the industry today.

2026 Show Dates

• Sunday, June 7: Preview Day, 12pm-4pm
• Monday, June 8, 9am-5pm
• Tuesday, June 9, 9am-5pm
• Wednesday, June 10, 9am-3pm

New in 2026: Preview Day, Sunday, June 7, 12-4pm
Open to all registered NeoCon attendees.

For everyone interested in shaping the future of London, the Festival unites industry professionals, students, and Londoners to collaboratively engage with and create positive change in our city’s unique neighbourhoods.

LFA is run by NLA, London’s built environment community – a cross-sector membership organisation for everyone committed to shaping a better city.