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

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 €

What happens when architects and architecture students are asked to design a chair instead of a building? Well, see for yourself as winners have just been announced for the fifth edition of the Buildner-organized The Architect's Chair challenge.

The brief invited designers to rethink one of architecture's most familiar objects through material innovation, craftsmanship, ergonomics, and innovative conceptual thinking. Wood, cork, woven fibers, bent veneer, and modular systems all made appearances this year, with many proposals exploring repairability and sustainable fabrication. 

Missed your chance to submit your own one-of-a-kind chair design to the competition? Worry not: The next edition, The Architect’s Chair #6, organized in partnership with Stockholm Furniture Fair, is now accepting entries.

First Place: Helical by Oscar John Xavier Lahiff (Hong Kong)