The winners of AIA California's 13th annual Architecture at Zero competition are in: This year's challenge tasked architecture students, high schoolers, and professionals to design a net-zero educational and cultural hub in California's Antelope Valley that could quickly transform into an emergency operations center during regional disasters, blending sustainability goals with community service. 

Centered on decarbonization, equity, and resilience, the competition has long pushed designers to think beyond energy efficiency and explore how architecture can create more adaptable and community-focused places.

The jury, composed of Lance Collins (Partner Energy), Scott Gaudineer (Flewelling & Moody), and Allison Williams, awarded $25,000 in prizes across the winning entries.

And here they are:

PROFESSIONAL

MERIT AWARD: La Plaza Viva (cover image)
Perkins & Will, Dallas, The Beck Group, Dallas, and TBG Partners, Houston, TX

See their proposal in detail here.

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 innovative uses of steel in construction, open chair designs that can be fabricated using a standard home 3D printer, ideas for a contemporary garden suite in Toronto using traditional Persian architectural and landscape principles, and proposals that reimagine an observation tower on Latvia's remote Livonian Coast.

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

MVRDV has won the international competition for the Shift Embassy, a mixed-use cultural destination planned for Rotterdam’s future Waterkant district on the south bank of the River Maas. 

Commissioned by social enterprise Shift, the project is intended to combine immersive exhibitions, hospitality, education, and public space in a building focused on themes of sustainability and societal change. 

Archinect reported on the shortlist for the project, including Heatherwick and Mecanoo, in March.

Bustler's curated picks of new architecture and design competitions this week feature four calls seeking proposals for warming hut art installations in Winnipeg, exceptional student design studio projects integrating health, sustainability, and equity, standout work by NOMA members that demonstrates meaningful contributions to the built environment, and visions for the transformation of Portland's Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

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

Some places are defined not by what is built, but by what is already there. The Oak Moon Pavilion invites participants to create an architectural intervention that celebrates the quiet dialogue between landscape, movement, and mindful living within the countryside of central Italy. Rooted in the philosophy of Yoga Farm Italy, the competition explores how architecture can become a natural extension of its surroundings rather than an object placed upon them.

At the heart of the brief is the design of an open-air timber yoga pavilion, envisioned as a place for practice, contemplation, and community. Defined by a moon-shaped platform and gently woven beneath the canopy of a historic oak tree, the pavilion should embrace the rhythms of nature while creating a memorable spatial experience.

Rather than prescribing a single architectural language, the competition encourages thoughtful and imaginative interpretations that respond to the site’s unique character. Simplicity, sustainability, craftsmanship, and respect for the landscape should guide every design decision, allowing architecture and nature to exist in quiet harmony.

The ambition is to create more than a pavilion—it is to shape a place of belonging. A place where people gather, move, reflect, and reconnect with the landscape, leaving behind an intervention that feels as though it has always belonged there. 

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 8,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

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

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

It may not be your first instinct to consider how a building 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 our experiences.

Now in its 9th edition, the Museum of Emotions competition continues to challenge participants to use architecture as a tool for emotional expression. Designers are invited to create a museum with 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 goal 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—and 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 8,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize - 4,000 €
2nd Prize - 2,000 €
3rd Prize - 1,000 €
+ 6 honourable mentions

Buildner Student Award - 1,000 €

Introducing the sixth Architect’s Chair competition, an exciting opportunity for architects and designers to showcase their creativity, versatility, and design vision through the creation of a signature piece of furniture. Developed in partnership with Stockholm Furniture Fair, the world’s leading platform for Scandinavian design, this edition offers participants the unique opportunity to engage directly with one of the most influential events in the international furniture and design industry.

Inspired by the long-standing tradition of architects extending their design philosophy beyond buildings and into furniture, the competition challenges participants to distill their architectural thinking into a single object – the architect’s chair. Throughout history, renowned architects such as Charles and Ray Eames, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, and Arne Jacobsen have created iconic chairs that embody their distinct design approaches. The Architect’s Chair competition continues this tradition by inviting a new generation of designers to explore materials, craftsmanship, construction techniques, ergonomics, and innovation through the design of a chair that reflects their unique creative identity.

This sixth edition carries special significance through its collaboration with Stockholm Furniture Fair. The competition results evaluation process will take place in connection with the fair, bringing submitted projects into direct dialogue with one of the most important gatherings of architects, designers, manufacturers, and industry leaders. In addition, selected winning designs will be exhibited during the Stockholm Furniture Fair, providing participants with an exceptional opportunity to present their work to an international audience and gain visibility within the global design community.

As part of an ongoing series dedicated to custom furniture design, The Architect’s Chair encourages participants to move beyond the traditional boundaries of architecture and engage with furniture as a medium for architectural expression. By creating a signature chair that embodies their personal design philosophy, participants contribute to the evolving relationship between architecture, design, and craftsmanship while joining a tradition that continues to shape the future of contemporary furniture design.

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 8,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

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

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

The Royal Institute of British Architects has unveiled the shortlist for the 2026 Stirling Prize. The annual prize, arguably the most acclaimed in the UK, is intended “to find the UK’s best building.”

The shortlist, chosen from winners of the RIBA National Awards reported by Archinect earlier in July, was judged against a range of criteria including design vision, innovation and originality, accessibility and sustainability, how fit the building is for its purpose, the level of client satisfaction, and the building’s “capacity to stimulate, engage, and delight occupants and visitors.”

The winning project will be revealed on October 15th. In the meantime, the six shortlisted projects are outlined below. You can compare the most recent selection with that of previous years by reviewing our ongoing coverage of the award here.

A house at Fairmead, High Beach, Epping Forest by Sergison Bates 

Buildner and the Mujassam Watan Initiative Launch the Mujassam Watan Urban Sculpture Challenge – Edition #8 with a €50,000 Prize Fund

Buildner, in partnership with the Mujassam Watan Initiative, has officially launched the eighth edition of the Mujassam Watan Urban Sculpture Challenge. This international competition invites architects and artists from around the world to propose architectural sculptures that meaningfully contribute to public space, reflect cultural identity, and engage with the contemporary urban environment in Saudi Arabia.

A Site-Specific Challenge Across Two Locations

Edition #8 introduces a unique opportunity for participants to select one of two carefully chosen sites in Saudi Arabia, each offering its own spatial and cultural context. Competitors are encouraged to develop site-responsive proposals that address the scale, character, and atmosphere of their selected location while exploring the evolving role of architectural sculpture within the country’s expanding public realm.

Prizes

A total of €50,000 will be awarded to winning proposals.

Vancouver is recognized around the world for its unique balance between urban density, livability, and nature. Framed by mountains and the Pacific coastline, the city has developed a distinct approach to city-building that prioritizes public space, sustainability, and quality of life. As Vancouver continues to evolve, new opportunities are emerging to reimagine how architecture can contribute to the future character of its downtown.

As population growth, housing demand, economic development, and investment in public transit continue to reshape cities globally, questions surrounding height and density have become increasingly important. While taller buildings can help accommodate growth and create new opportunities for public benefit, they also raise important considerations about urban identity, environmental performance, public space, and the everyday experience of city life. Vancouver is now exploring how building higher can strengthen the qualities that make the city exceptional.

The Vancouver Tall Challenge: Building Higher Downtown is organized by Buildner in collaboration with the City of Vancouver and the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA). The competition forms part of a broader conversation about the future of tall buildings in Vancouver and seeks to engage the international design community in exploring new ideas for urban growth, architectural excellence, and public value.

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. 

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of $15,000 CAD in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize - $7,000 CAD
2nd Prize - $4,000 CAD
3rd Prize - $2,000 CAD
+ 6 honourable mentions

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

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 

THE CHALLENGE

Performing Arts Center

A Performing Arts Center is a vital cultural hub that reflects a community’s creative spirit. It connects artists and audiences through performance, education, and imagination. The design challenge is to propose a dynamic architectural response that goes beyond a standard venue, integrating concrete masonry units (CMU), both standard and architectural, as the primary structural and finish material. Your design must serve as a major cultural catalyst by seamlessly integrating three core elements: multifunctional spaces, engaging the public and integrating the building with the community.

All details

The OPPORTUNITY

Integrated Material Research & Design

Ethical & Equitable Materiality: To End Forced Labor is a student competition that offers architecture students the opportunity to design a project using responsible design practices. Students are expected to engage both design and material investigation as interconnected processes, demonstrating how architectural decisions can contribute to eliminating forced labor from the building industry. Design for Freedom studies the mutual benefits of honoring both people and planet, creating buildings that allows our climate health, well-being and local economies to flourish.

All details

The OPPORTUNITIES

Community Youth Center & Open

The 2027 Steel Design Student Competition will offer architecture students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories:

Category I: Community Youth Center

Design a Community Youth Center in a site of your choice. Students are invited to submit design proposals that address how a youth center can contribute to the community as a more integral part of the neighborhood fabric.

Category II: Open

Offers architecture students the opportunity to select a site and building program using steel as the primary structural material. This competition category permits any building type other than a community or recreational center.

Students may not enter both categories of the competition.

The competition allows students to explore the many functional and aesthetic uses for steel as a building material and structural system. Steel is an ideal material for multi-story building because it offers the greatest strength-to-weight ratio. In addition, steel can be constructed quickly and for all project site types with the use of labor-saving prefabrication methods such as kit-of-parts, panelization, and modular construction. A building built with steel is potentially more flexible and adaptable to allow for a change in program, occupancy, and loading needs over time. It’s not required, but we encourage you to explore material reuse, steel framing and CLT decking hybrids, and new additions to existing buildings.

More details

Given their long lifespan, new buildings must be designed to address solutions to climate change and to respond to its projected impacts, well into the second half of the 21st Century and beyond. As with the COTE Top Ten award for built work by design professionals, COTE Top Ten for Students allows designs to be characterized in terms of 10 principles ranging from Community to Water to Wellness.

About the Competition

The AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students Competition is sponsored by The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE®), in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Each year, the competition recognizes ten exceptional student design studio projects that integrate health, sustainability, and equity, evaluated following the same categories of the AIA COTE® Top Ten Award for built work, and the AIA Framework for Design Excellence (now adopted as the basis of professional practice and awards across the AIA).

The 2027 AIA COTE Top Ten for Students Competition offers architecture students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories:

Category I: FOUNDATION LEVEL
This category is open to students enrolled in first-year and second-year design studios, or related classes; in 2-year, 4-year, and undergraduate programs from any ACSA member school, including international member schools. Faculty will be required to confirm satisfaction of this requirement upon registration in this category.

Category II: UPPER LEVEL
This category is open to upper-level students (third year or above, including graduate students) from any ACSA member schools, including international member schools. Faculty will be required to confirm satisfaction of this requirement upon registration in this category.

Students may not enter both categories of the competition.

More details

We're inviting architects, interior designers, landscape architects, construction innovators and emerging talents to share their work with an international audience that values excellence, clarity and purposeful design. If you’ve completed something recently that reflects your craft and vision, this is the perfect moment to present it.

Reflecting on the past season, co-founder Astrid Hébert shared a sentiment that still resonates: “The ceremony in Switzerland was a truly inspiring moment. Seeing internationally established firms and first-time student winners share the same stage reminded us why the BLT Built Design Awards exist. Every project carries a unique story, every designer adds a new perspective, and together they create a powerful dialogue about the future of our built world. As we open the 2026 edition, we are genuinely excited to welcome the next wave of ideas and contributions.”

Your submission will be evaluated by an extensive jury of respected architects, designers, educators, innovators and industry leaders. Their combined expertise spans the full spectrum of the built environment, ensuring a rigorous, informed and globally relevant review process.

Among them are Samantha Lassoudry, Founder and Chief Designer at Lassoudry Architects; Christian Brendelberger of Dietziker Partner Baumanagement AG; Anastasia Ignatova, Urban Planning and Design Expert; Andreas Rupf, Head of ETH RAUM; Muhammad Habsah of U+A; Mona Vijaykumar of Perkins&Will; Cas Esbach of KANS and SCAD; Tran Ngoc Danh, Vice President of the Vietnam Design Association (VDAS); Christina Chen-Chiao Kuo of Kuuo Living Limited; Omar Zhan, Co-founder of Surfaice and “Construction Voices”; Amir Idiatulin, Founder of IND; Zhou Yi, Chief Designer at Dayi Design; Rudi Stouffs of the National University of Singapore; Osaru Alile of CC Interiors Studio; Pal Pang, Chief Creative Officer at Another Design International; Juliet Kavishe of the Pan Afrikan Design Institute; Sandra Baggerman of Trahan Architects; Des Laubscher of Greenside Design Center, College of Design and Hannah Churchill, Founder of hcreates interior design. It is a rare opportunity to have your work reviewed by such a broad and distinguished panel of designers who understand the realities of practice, the complexities of construction, the cultural weight of architecture, and the importance of creating spaces and products that matter.

Winning a BLT Built Design Award offers more than recognition. Honourees receive international visibility through the BLT platform, publication in the annual BLT Book of Design, global media outreach and the chance to be celebrated at our next ceremony, where industry leaders and creative minds come together to connect, exchange ideas and celebrate design.

To help our early entrants, we’re offering a 10% Early Bird discount until March 31st, 2026. If you plan to submit, now is the ideal time. Submit your project at bltawards.com. We can't wait to discover what you've been working on.

The competition seeks to bring together the best visions to conceive a landmark project that combines architectural excellence, landscape integration, sustainability, and innovation, responding to the needs of one of the country's most important social and sports institutions.

The new headquarters will be developed on a 91-hectare site and must be designed as a space for gathering, wellbeing, sport, and community, capable of strengthening the members' experience and becoming a benchmark for design, spatial quality, and connection to its surroundings.

The call includes an initial open stage for the submission of credentials and portfolios to select the teams that will take part in the Ideas Competition by invitation.

More Information & Competition Guidelines

Presented each year, the awards recognize the work of NOMA members whose projects demonstrate thoughtful design and meaningful contributions to the built environment. Named in honor of Phil Freelon, the program celebrates design excellence while recognizing projects that serve communities and strengthen the profession.

Architects, designers, and firms are invited to submit work in five categories:

• Built Work
• Unbuilt Work
• Vision
• Small Projects
• Historic Preservation, Restoration & Renovation

Award recipients will be recognized during the 2026 NOMA Conference | The Leading Edge, taking place October 14–18 in South Florida.

The submission deadline is Monday, August 3, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

The Phil Freelon Professional Design Awards continue a long tradition of recognizing the talent, creativity, and leadership of NOMA members. If you have a project that reflects the impact of design in practice or in the community, we encourage you to submit your work for consideration. Learn more about the awards at noma.net/phil-freelon-professional-design-awards 

Please send us your work digitally, to info@icarch.us, by October 15th, when there will be 100 years since Foucault's birth. Please use two sheets format A1, oriented vertically. If you have any questions, please contact us. Please register through our website by October 1st. We will publish all the works received on our website and we also plan to have a traveling exhibition.

www.icarch.us

Please send us your work digitally, on two sheets format A1, to info@icarch.us, by September 1st, 2026. Please register on our website by August 15th. If you have any questions, please contact us. We will publish all the works received on our website.

Calling all community designers to join us for ACD49 in Bozeman, Montana!

ACD49: Enduring Optimism marks the return of the Association for Community Design's annual conference with a two-day convening on October 2-3, 2026.

ACD49 is hosted by the Montana Community Design Center at Montana State University. As the center marks its 50th year, this gathering reflects on the endurance of community design as both a movement and a practice. Set within Montana's rural context and hosted at the state's largest university, ACD49 creates space to reflect on where this work began, what has endured, and where community design must go next.

Through panels, presentations, and shared experiences, the conference will explore how practices evolve over time while staying rooted in justice, partnership, and community knowledge.

→ Submit a Proposal

→ Conference Information

→ Register for ACD49

The July 27 opening celebration features a panel discussion with workshop participants and invited guests, offering insights into the design process, fabrication challenges, and the role of making in architectural practice. Architects, designers, and the broader community are invited to experience the exhibition and discover the stories behind the work. The exhibition runs through August 10.

https://www.aialosangeles.org/...

Rooted in a shared commitment to creativity, civic engagement, and the power of public space, the Pratt Institute x TheVillage West: Windows on 14th Street installation brings the work of 36 students across creative disciplines beyond the classroom and gallery walls and into the everyday rhythm of one of New York City’s busiest pedestrian corridors, connecting neighborhoods from Union Square to the Meatpacking District through the power of a creative education, art, design, and culture. 

The project reflects Pratt Institute’s expanding presence in the heart of Manhattan and the role Pratt plays among neighborhood institutions, community partners, and cultural organizations to reimagine the 14th Street corridor as a more vibrant, welcoming public experience. Through partnerships with The Village West, local stakeholders, and neighborhood organizations like the Union Square Partnership and the Meatpacking District Management Association (Meatpacking BID), Pratt is demonstrating—and inspiring other institutions—how creativity can activate underutilized spaces, enliven retail corridors, and foster stronger connections between institutions and the communities around them. Pratt Manhattan also supports broader public conversations and planning efforts shaping the future of the 14th Street corridor in partnership with NYC DOT and neighborhood stakeholders.

The storefront gallery is located at The Village West (525 6th Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets). So next time you walk down 14th Street, look up—the gallery is already part of the neighborhood.

Explore the Individual Window Installations

• Pratt Institute x The Village West: Windows on 14th Street
• School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at The Village West
• School of Architecture at The Village West
• School of Design at The Village West
• School of Continuing and Professional Studies at The Village West
• School of Art at The Village West
• School of Information at The Village West

Thank you to all of our external partners who helped to contribute and shape the Windows on 14th Street installation: The Village West, Union Square Partnership, Meatpacking District Management Association, NYC Department of Transportation, Art on the Ave NYC, and Zero Empty Spaces.

The first exhibition to present the Nowickis as equal partners in a shared body of work, it explores a practice that bridges drawing, building, graphics, and structure, across Europe, America, and India. While Nowicki died tragically at age 40 when his plane crashed as he returned from a job site in India, several years later Sandecka-Nowicka went on to become the first woman in the United States to be appointed as a full professor of architecture when she was appointed as such at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. She taught fundamental design principles until her retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1977 and received the American Institute of Architects medal in 1978 for her lifelong influence on the profession.

Curator: Kacper Kępiński, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, Warsaw, Poland

Event details

The exhibition is curated in three parts: recording past DMU work, documenting current DMU efforts and a provocation for the future of DMU.

Curated and produced by a Dark Matter U network team, co-led by Venesa Alicea-Chuqui, Jerome Haferd and Sophie Weston Chien.

Event details

The Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States, located 3 miles outside of Lebanon, Kansas, was established in 1918 by the United States Geological Survey as, “the point where a plane map of the 48 states would balance if it were of uniform thickness.” Its commemorative park, established in 1941, has since changed stewardship and transformed into an American roadside attraction with four primary structures as noted by Google Maps: the Historical Landmark, Picnic Pavilion, Outdoor Barbecue Grill, and the U.S. Center Chapel.

The reconnaissance documentation of the geographic center, undertaken in March of 2026, attempts to position it as the tangible intersection of geospatial methods that mapped the continent, the networks that service it, and the cultural norms that evolved as a result. The four specific architectural structures of the site are coaxed from the large-scale modernist grid and emerge (perhaps unintentionally) as postmodern symbols typifying rural America.

In this exhibition, photographs, models, drawings, and writings reinterpret the complicated relationship between geometry, symbol, and nation-building in the culturally remote, yet geographically central area in and around Lebanon, Kansas. The seemingly straightforward mathematical equation of center-finding on a gridded landscape becomes near impossible due to the shifting boundaries of national territories, private property, and civilian access; thus, the viable centers for the United States have multiplied, forming a complex constellation rather than a single point. It is in this scalar and contextual fluctuation that the Geographic Center becomes Off Center.

Each day will unfold at a different venue—the IIT College of Architecture, Experimental Station, and the Chicago Architecture Center—and will combine short talks and public Q&A with guided tours. The program is free and open to professionals, academics, students, and the broader public.

Join us for this three-day public symposium taking place in Chicago in September organized by MAS Context and Villa Albertine Chicago.

“Shaping Contemporary Realities: Architecture and Beyond” is organized by Villa Albertine Chicago and MAS Context, with the support of Saint-Gobain, Albertine Foundation, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, and Driehaus Foundation.

The symposium is presented in collaboration with IIT College of Architecture, Experimental Station, the Chicago Architecture Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), and the Driehaus Museum.

Editorial partners include CSF – Constructing Sustainable Futures and States – Villa Albertine.

Full program will be available late summer.

Over three days, the Biennial brings together symposium sessions, installations, lectures and public events across Lugano, Bellinzona and Mendrisio, welcoming architects, researchers and international scholars to address an increasingly pressing question: how can architecture care for existing places, rather than simply replace them?

"HANDLE WITH CARE" invites us to rethink architecture as a responsible practice—one that listens to places, preserves their resources and fosters new relationships between communities and the built environment.

This vision takes shape through the international Symposium and 10 Call for Action projects, selected through an open international call and presented in the park of Villa Saroli until 28 November 2026.

LACMA

LACMA