Initiated in Washington, D.C., USA, the un Design Award is an annual international design competition launched by the International Competition Association (ICA). Centered around the theme "The Self is the World," the competition embraces an operational philosophy of being "undefined". Its aim is to discover and recognize the most influential, outstanding designs and innovative talents worldwide.

Eligibility

The un Design Award welcomes architects, designers, developers, manufacturers, and clients from all over the world to participate. Professional entries will be judged against other professionals and student entries against other students.

Event Schedule

• Early Bird: August 31, 2026
• Regular: September 30, 2026
• Final: October 31, 2026
• Extended Final: November 25, 2026
• Announcement date: December 15, 2026

Registration Method

Participants must create an account on the official website, providing their personal information such as username, email, and phone number. After registration, participants can submit their entries, including design descriptions and high-resolution images. All entries must be accompanied by the required entry fee.

Judging Guidelines

Judges meticulously evaluate each entry based on its artistry, innovation, functionality, societal impact, and sustainability, aiming to provide the most authoritative verdicts.

Winner Package

All winners will receive the following benefits for free: an electronic certificate, a winner's logo suitable for any scenario, and display their winning works online. The "Best of Year" in six major categories will receive a free winner package, and other winners can customize trophies and certificates at their own expense. 

Awards and Prizes

Best of the Year, Platinum, Gold and Silver.

Contact Information

Contact Person: International Competition Association

Contact Email: info@undesignawards.com

Website: www.undesignawards.com

Call for Entries — A' Design Award Standard Deadline: September 30

Your Best Work Deserves the World's Attention. Submit by September 30.

The Standard Deadline for the A' Design Award & Competition closes on September 30. Designers, architects, brands, and innovators from 180 nationalities are invited to nominate their finest products, projects, and services for one of the world's most prestigious and comprehensive design accolades.

Somewhere in your portfolio sits a design that changed how someone lives, works, or feels.

That design has a global audience waiting for it. The A' Design Award & Competition, established in 2008 and organized annually across 196 categories, invites you to nominate your work before the Standard Deadline on September 30. Entries submitted by this date secure current nomination rates and enter the evaluation cycle leading to the results announcement, the winners' exhibition in Italy, and La Notte Premio A', the black-tie Gala Night and Awards Ceremony at Teatro Sociale Como.

Begin with a free, confidential preliminary evaluation. Upload your design and receive a Preliminary Score from 0 to 10 rating your design quality, a Presentation Score from 0 to 100 assessing technical compliance, and expert feedback with specific suggestions for strengthening your entry. This service carries zero cost and zero obligation to proceed. You learn exactly where your work stands before you commit a single euro.

What Recognition Sets in Motion

A grand jury of 312 academics, industry professionals, and journalists evaluates every entry through anonymous blind peer review against pre-established criteria. Recognition earned this way becomes a credential you can defend in any boardroom, pitch, or negotiation.

Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, a documented set of up to 215 winner benefits engineered to convert a single jury decision into sustained global visibility. Three mechanisms illustrate how this works in practice:

Your design travels in 108+ languages. Award-winning works receive translation and placement across 138+ magazines and publications worldwide, supported by press release preparation, newswire distribution, and a media network of 3,868 sites. The competition has generated over 43,000 press mentions and more than 1.1 billion design pageviews to date.

Your achievement becomes a permanent asset. Winners receive a perpetual, worldwide, unlimited license for the Award Winner Logo, a 3D-printed metal trophy designed in Italy, inclusion in the hardcover yearbook as a credited co-author, exhibition in Italy, and an Academic Citation and Digital Research Object Identifier that anchors your design in scholarly record through the Advanced Design Conference proceedings.

Your network expands at the highest level. Laureates join 23,580 award winners across the World Design Rankings, receive invitations to the Gala Night attended by 750 guests including editors, ambassadors, and industry leaders, and gain access to the Ars Futura Cultura Symposium on the shores of Lake Como, where introductions between winners regularly evolve into commissions and collaborations.

Four Pathways, One Deadline

The Multi-Modal Entry Architecture accommodates every strategic position: Pro-Edition for maximum prestige and the complete physical experience, Digital-Edition for a cost-effective and comprehensive digital pathway, Vision-Edition for flexible and customizable participation, and Classic-Edition for minimal upfront commitment. Pro, Digital, and Vision Editions operate under a no further fees policy, so the benefits you earn arrive free of additional contractual obligations.

Here is a quiet truth from nineteen years of organizing this competition: the entries that win are rarely the ones rushed in the final hours. Submitting now gives you time to act on preliminary feedback, refine your presentation, and enter with your strongest possible materials.

September 30 is your date.

Submit your design today at competition.adesignaward.com. Registration is free, the preliminary evaluation is free, and your journey toward international recognition begins with a single upload.

Get started now:

View Winners:
https://designer.org

Register and Upload Design Free for Preliminary Evaluation Now - Takes 10 Seconds to Register:
https://competition.adesignawa...

Sparking innovation in illumination since 2013, L A M P is a small, independent organization dedicated to championing emerging talent and connecting designers to new markets in lighting design. Every submission fee and sponsorship goes directly into running the competition, prize monies and marketing our Finalists. For a fraction of the cost of a trade-show booth, L A M P puts your work in front of audiences, press, and industry players who matter. Being named a finalist is more than a credential; it's a launchpad. 

L A M P 2026 COMPETITION GUIDELINES The competition is open to TWO MAIN CATEGORIES: PROFESSIONAL & STUDENT (our previous category Manufactured has been folded into Professional). There are SIX SUBCATEGORIES: FLOOR, TABLE, PENDANT & SCONCE. Separate designations for each Sub-Category exist for further recognition if the design is also: PORTABLE/RECHARGEABLE, OUTDOOR, ACOUSTIC, SMART/APP CONNECTED, SOLAR, SUSTAINABLE, HANDMADE/CRAFT or SCULPTURAL. Entries are welcomed from all disciplines including, but not limited to: Artists, Industrial Designers and Architects. Read eligibility requirements below and be sure to submit to the correct category. 

TIMELINE, DEADLINES & FEES • NO PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. • Call for Entries opens: July 1, 2026 • Early Bird deadline: August 15, 2026 • Regular deadline: October 1, 2026 • Late deadline: October 15, 2026 • Judging: November 5–25, 2026 • Winners announced: December 10–15, 2026 

Theme for the Series in this cycle is ‘Architecture and Memories’

Did you know that you can carry space with you?

Architecture is often understood as something permanent, fixed to a site and grounded in geography. Yet some of the most endearing spaces we recollect and relive are the ones carried within us as memories. A childhood home, a school corridor, a buzzing street, or a courtyard left behind through migration—these are spaces that continue to travel with us, transcending time and geography.

Intriguingly, memory is not restricted to spaces we have physically experienced. A room from a novel, a house from a film, a city imagined through a story, and many other spaces constructed through fiction can remain vividly etched in our minds. Beyond physical experience, these spaces quietly settle into our memories.

The Fourth Cycle of the Architectural Haiku Writing Contest calls for an exploration of Architecture and Memories. We invite participants to share with us, in just 17 syllables, the architecture that has settled in their memories.

Theme Curator for 4th and 5th Cycle: Preksha Udupa, AJC+ Associate (Rwanda, East Africa)

We welcome haiku entries from collegians, professionals, academicians, researchers, and design enthusiasts. The contest is open to all.

Submission Guidelines

• Submissions are open to all writers in English. International submissions are welcome.

• A maximum of three haiku entries per entrant are allowed.

• An illustration or photograph, either self-photographed, curated, or used with proper credits and permissions, must accompany the haiku.

• Each haiku should not exceed 17 syllables, following the 5–7–5 structure across three lines.

• ajc.competition@gmail.com with the subject line: Architectural Haiku Writing Contest, 4th Cycle – Category.

• All entrants must mention at least one social media handle with the submission, such as Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook, or any other relevant platform. and The winners will be announced on AJC+ social media pages.

Note recommended syllable-checking tools: Participants may use online tools such as haikusyllablecounter.com and syllablecounter.net to check the 5–7–5 structure. However, automated syllable counts may vary, so participants are encouraged to manually review the final haiku before submission.

Jury Panel for the Competition comprises

• Sabu Francis, Architect and Researcher, India and founder of Limen Leap Labs Private Limited.

• Dr. Merle Kindred, author of Immersed in India: A Kerala Adventure in Architectural Activism and Gripped by Guyana: A Memoir of Purpose and Adventure.

• Kristiina Oelsner, Project Manager, International Short-Term Programmes, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany, and author of Minu (Ida-)Saksamaa. Mineviku ja tuleviku vahel.

• Pappal Suneja, Ph.D. Scholar, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany.

• Parichita Mohapatra, Architect and PhD Researcher, IIT Guwahati, and Assistant Professor II, Department of Design, School of Design, Media and Creative Arts, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru, India.

• Sanan Verma, Architect-Planner, Assistant Professor, Poet, and Author of Book Kuch Meri Kitaab Se.

Timeline

Submission window for the cycle: 1 July 2026 – 30 October 2026

Registration

• Early Bird Registration till 16 August 2026 (800 INR for participants from India and 10 Euros for international participants)

Indian participants can follow the link to register, and international participants can enter here.

• Standard Registration till 29 October 2026 (1200 INR for participants from India and 15 Euros for international participants)

For queries, contact: plusajc@gmail.com

Winning Prizes for the Competition are

Citation Award: An AJC curated set of books worth 11000 INR / 120 USD.

Special Mention 1: An AJC curated set of books worth 9500 INR / 100 USD.

Special Mention 2: An AJC curated set of books worth 7500 INR / 80 USD.

Total Prize: Books worth 28000 INR / 300 USD.

Besides this, we shall send attested E-Certificates of Participation to all entrants, and the winning entries shall be featured on several web architectural portals. The best entries shall also be compiled as an anthology with ISBN No. after the successful run of all the cycles under this Series.

For further updates regarding the outreach activities and events, Visit the Instagram and Facebook handle of the Organisation.

Competition Poster by Team AJC+ (Background image created with OpenAI)

Via > https://www.ajc-plus.com/post/open-call-architectural-haiku-writing-contest-4th-cycle-architecture-and-memories

Architecture is a discipline of consequences. Buildings organise forms of life, consume resources, shape territories, and materialise political, economic, and cultural decisions. By projecting itself into the future, architecture also projects consequences into the future. The question of what architecture builds can therefore never be separated from the question of what architecture enables, excludes, preserves, or destroys. 

As Robin Evans observed, architects work from an anterior position, articulating ideas of buildings before they are built. Architecture operates through anticipation, it makes space for possibilities, expectations, desires, and fears. Yet every anticipation is also an act of selection. To imagine one future means to abandon or neglect others. Projections establish priorities, planning privileges certain forms of life over others.  

Anticipation presupposes a degree of confidence in the future. It assumes a future to be imagined, planned, shaped, and improved. Such confidence has become increasingly difficult to sustain. Ecological crises, resource depletion, social inequalities, technological transformations, political instability, and the persistence of colonial structures challenge not only the futures architecture projects but also the concepts, methods, institutions, and forms of knowledge through which those futures are imagined. Concepts, methods, institutions, and forms of knowledge through which architecture projects futures have themselves become objects of scrutiny.  

In response, architectural discourse increasingly turns toward a family of operations gathered around a simple prefix: un-. 

Unlearning. Undoing. Unbuilding. Unsettling. Unauthoring. Unmaking. 

To undo is not merely to destroy. To unlearn is not simply to forget. To uncover does not create something new but reveals what was already there. The “un-” names movements that begin from within existing conditions. It questions, exposes, loosens, dismantles, revises, and reorients. It describes a process rather than a destination. In architecture, these movements are more than linguistic operations. They challenge the ways in which the discipline imagines, teaches, researches, builds, inhabits, and ultimately anticipates the world. 

Unlearning 

Learning is often associated with accumulation. Yet every form of knowledge also establishes boundaries. It privileges certain histories, methods, and perspectives while rendering others less visible. Unlearning is not the abandonment of knowledge but the difficult work of recognising how assumptions, privileges, and forms of subjectivity are themselves produced. This is the challenge that Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak formulates when she calls for the difficult work of unlearning one’s own privilege as one’s loss. Within architecture, unlearning opens inherited histories, theories, pedagogies, and institutions to critical reflection, making visible the exclusions and hierarchies through which architectural knowledge has been produced. 

Undoing 

Undoing begins by asking whether inherited structures can be transformed through inherited tools. Audre Lorde’s claim that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” becomes, for Jane Rendell, the starting point for a further question: what other tools remain at our disposal? Drawing on feminist theory, she imagines undoing not as a new method but as another position from which to think and practice architecture. Rather than separating theory from practice or writing from building, she works from the thresholds between them, questioning architectures of appropriation, ownership, and authorship. Undoing becomes a feminist practice of reimagining architecture through relations of use and misuse, generosity and reciprocity, opening the discipline to other ways of making, inhabiting, and writing architecture. 

Unbuilding 

At a moment marked by ecological limits and material constraints, the production of the new is no longer architecture’s only horizon. Repair, adaptation, maintenance, preservation, reuse, and demolition have become central architectural concerns. What forms of practice emerge when architecture works with what already exists? How do ecological limits challenge assumptions of growth, expansion, and novelty? What can architecture learn from care, maintenance, and stewardship? 

Unsettling 

Many of architecture’s methods rely upon prediction, expertise, and control. Yet ecological, political, and technological transformations increasingly unsettle the conditions under which such claims can be made. Donna Haraway argues not for mastery or withdrawal, but for situated forms of knowing that remain accountable to their own positions and entanglements. From this perspective, uncertainty is not a problem to be overcome but a condition from which architectural thought and practice must proceed. Unsettling invites architecture to work with complexity, contradiction, and partial perspectives, engaging futures that remain open, contested, and unresolved. 

Unauthoring 

Architecture continues to privilege the figure of the architect as the author of buildings, projects, and ideas. Yet architectural work is always the result of many forms of labour, negotiation, maintenance, inhabitation, and care that often remain unacknowledged. Unauthoring does not deny responsibility. It questions how authorship is attributed, whose work becomes visible, and whose contributions remain invisible. It shifts attention from the singular author to the relations through which architecture is collectively produced, maintained, and transformed. 

Unmaking 

Unmaking asks what architecture itself may need to relinquish. Assumptions of progress, extraction, growth, authorship, expertise, and professional autonomy continue to shape the discipline’s understanding of its own role. Yet contemporary debates on decarbonisation, restitution, reparation, care, maintenance, and material life cycles increasingly suggest that architecture cannot simply add new concerns to existing practices. Certitudes and assumptions may first have to be undone before other ways of knowing, designing, building, and inhabiting become possible.  

The “un-” unfolds across architectural thought, practice, research, and education. It moves between different scales, from the individual to the institutional, from buildings and materials to labour, knowledge, and the discipline itself. The operations gathered here mark only some of the trajectories through which architecture can be reconsidered, leaving space for others to emerge.

COTAA #3 invites researchers, practitioners, historians, theorists, educators, doctoral researchers, artists, and independent scholars to contribute to this ongoing conversation. We welcome theoretical, historical, methodological, and practice-based contributions that engage with the “un-” in architecture, whether through the operations proposed here or through others that challenge inherited assumptions and expand the possibilities of architectural thought, practice, and research. 

- Adria Daraban, guest editor of COTAA 3/2026 

Guidelines for authors: The third issue of COTAA welcomes abstract submissions of no more than 300 words, including references, bibliography, and image descriptions. Images should be submitted in black and white, in JPEG (.jpeg) format. All materials should be compiled into a single editable Microsoft Word file or a Microsoft Word-compatible document, using minimal formatting. All submissions to COTAA must be written in UK English. 

Abstracts and review proposals should be sent by e-mail at office@cotaa.ro no later than 10th August 2026. 

Authors will be notified of the outcome of their submissions on 17th August 2026. 

The final version of accepted papers should be between 5,000 and 6,000 words and will undergo a double-blind peer review process. 

Review proposals should be submitted in the same format as abstract submissions and according to the same submission schedule. The final version of accepted reviews should not exceed 2,000 words. 

Calendar: 

Brief launch: 1st of July, 2026 

Submission of abstracts: 10th of August, 2026  

Notification of acceptance: 17th of August, 2026  

Full paper submission for double-blind peer review: 10th of October, 2026 

Peer review results sent to authors: 10th of November, 2026  

Final paper submission: 15th of December, 2026 

Journal publication: 1st of February, 2027

For more information please visit COTAA's website.

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 €

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Early Bird Registration: June 22 – September 10
Advance Registration: September 11 – November 12
Last Minute Registration: November 13 – January 21

Final registration deadline: January 21, 2027
Closing date for submission: February  22, 2027 (23:59 LONDON TIME)
Announcement of the winners: April 13, 2027

More: https://architecturecompetitions.com/museumofemotions9/

Van Alen Institute and BMA are collaborating to select an emerging designer or artist to create a temporary public design installation, to be on view March 2027–January 2028. Located Mitchel Square in Washington Heights (the northern end of the Broadway malls), this installation will explore the theme of eco-mutualism, highlighting ecological interactions that address climate change, wellbeing, or equity. 

Successful applications should demonstrate an understanding of the neighborhood’s ecological, cultural, and historical context. Designers and artists with a connection to Washington Heights are especially encouraged to apply. (Part of a team, collaborative, studio, or firm? Only one person needs to respond, but your responses should reflect the availability, opinion, and work of the group.) 

 From this open call, three shortlisted designers/teams will be invited to submit a proposal. Van Alen will award shortlisted designers/teams $1,000 upon submission of their proposals. One winning proposal will be implemented. Van Alen will award the selected designer/team $8,000 as a fee for development and delivery of the project, and $25,000 for direct expenses for production, fabrication, and installation.

Learn more and apply to the Open Call: https://www.vanalen.org/project/bma-design-installation/

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 €

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Early Bird Registration: JUNE 17 – JULY 23
Advance Registration: JULY 24 – SEPTEMBER 24
Last Minute Registration: SEPTEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 3 

Final registration deadline: DECEMBER 3 , 2026
Closing date for submission: JANUARY 5, 2027 (11:59 p.m. LONDON TIME)
Announcement of the winners: FEBRUARY 10, 2027

More:  https://architecturecompetitio...

Cape Verde occupies a unique position at the crossroads of Africa, Europe and the Atlantic. Across its islands, centuries of migrations and exchanges have shaped a layered cultural identity and a landscape defined by the complexity of the territory.

But Cape Verde is not only a territory of memory. It is also a country in transformation, entering a new phase of growth driven by infrastructure, tourism, international investment and the need for more resilient models of development. This condition makes architecture especially relevant: the question is not how to build more, but how to build better.

Cidade Velha, on the island of Santiago, is one of the most significant places in the history of the archipelago. Founded in the 15th century as Ribeira Grande, it was the first urban settlement and a strategic centre along the Atlantic routes. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009, its ruins, forts, stone and relationship with the ocean still reveal a deep and fragile identity.

ARCH CHALLENGE begins from this opportunity, in which we believe a lot: real sites, real constraints and real potential, where geography, climate, memory and growth guide the project from the very beginning.

BRIEF

Architecture and territory are closely related. With Challenge 01 – Linha do Horizonte, ARCH CHALLENGE is looking for proposals for a residential complex capable of belonging to the place before occupying it, designing with the land, not over it.

The competition seeks a high-end residential complex of approximately 10 to 18 housing units – independent villas, grouped apartments or a combination of both – across studio to three-bedroom typologies (T0–T3). Buildings should rise on a maximum of two levels, following a principle of low density and low visual impact, working with the slopes, views, orientation and the presence of the ocean.

The programme also includes a shared swimming pool integrated into the landscape, a compact technical room, and carefully integrated access, paths and parking treated as essential components of the design rather than residual surfaces. Among the winning proposals, one project may be selected to be further developed and potentially realized, so feasibility is a central criterion.

REGISTRATION TIMELINE:

01/07/2026  EARLY BIRD registration opening - 90.- / 45.-* EUR / team

01/08/2026  STANDARD registration opening - 120.- / 60.-* EUR / team

16/09/2026  LATE registration opening - 150.- / 75.-* EUR / team

*Reduced (Accessibility) fee for participants from eligible countries. Submission deadline is the same for all phases: 12/10/2026.

PRIZES (check the details on the organisers’ website)

1st PRIZE - Total value: 10.000 EUR

2nd PRIZE - Total value: 5.000 EUR

3rd PRIZE - Total value: 2.500 EUR

HONOURABLE MENTIONS - 3 x 1.000 EUR (Best Environmental Integration, Best Parking Integration, Best AI-Assisted Vision)

www.archchallenge.net

The Swiss Finance & Property Group (SFP Group) invites students of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, spatial planning, and related disciplines to participate in the Walzwerk Student Design Competition, an international ideas competition exploring the future of one of Switzerland's former industrial sites.

Located between Münchenstein and Arlesheim in Basel-Landschaft, Walzwerk has evolved from a historic aluminium factory into a thriving destination for work, culture, education, and leisure. Home to more than 90 tenants, the site now enters a new phase of transformation as it seeks to become a vibrant mixed-use urban district that builds on its industrial heritage while responding to contemporary social and environmental challenges.

Participants are invited to develop a conceptual vision for the future of Walzwerk that balances preservation with innovation. Rather than replacing the site's existing character, proposals should explore how new architecture, public space, landscape, and program can strengthen its identity, create lasting social and economic value, and establish stronger connections with the surrounding communities.

Projects will be evaluated across five equally weighted criteria: Urban Continuity & Landscape, Economic Viability & Feasibility, Social Diversity & Inclusion, Identity & Narrative, and Ecology & Sustainability. The competition encourages ambitious yet realistic proposals that demonstrate a clear spatial vision for a resilient, inclusive, and future-oriented urban district.

The competition is open to students currently enrolled at recognized universities or universities of applied sciences. Entries may be submitted individually or in teams of up to four members, with interdisciplinary collaborations encouraged.

Awards

The three winning teams will receive cash prizes and have their projects exhibited publicly at the Walzwerk Christmas Market:

• 1st Prize: CHF 5,000
• 2nd Prize: CHF 2,500
• 3rd Prize: CHF 1,000

Schedule

• Competition Launch: June 2026
• Online Q&A Session: 6 August 2026
• Optional Site Tour & Q&A: 22 September 2026
• Submission Deadline: October 18th, 2026 (23:59)
• Final Presentations & Award Ceremony: November 11th, 2026
• Public Exhibition: November 21st-22nd, 2026

Submission Requirements

Participants must submit:

• One vertical A0 presentation board (PDF, max. 20 MB) including the design concept, site strategy, proposed program, drawings, diagrams, plans, sections, elevations, visualizations, and a brief explanation of the material and intervention strategy.
• One A4 summary sheet (PDF) using the provided template, including team information, a project summary, and a short statement explaining how the proposal addresses each of the five evaluation criteria.

All entries must be submitted digitally by October 18th, 2026 (23:59) to hochschulwettbewerb@sfp.ch. Registered participants will receive the complete competition documentation, including site plans, maps, and supporting materials.

More infos here: Student Design Competition - Swiss Finance & Property Group