New architecture and design competitions: Iceland Slow Sauna, Friendly and Inclusive Spaces Awards, UIA Award for Innovation in Architectural Education, and Arnold W. Brunner Grant

Bustler's curated picks of new architecture and design competitions this week feature four calls seeking exceptional and forward-thinking architectural research, excellence in architectural and urban design education, high-quality architecture that creates socially sustainable environments, and designs for a modest retreat uniting a sauna and a greenhouse at a site in Iceland.

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

Arnold W. Brunner Grant 2025
Registration/Submission Deadline: Monday, December 15, 2025

"This grant furthers advanced study in any area of architectural investigation that will effectively contribute to the knowledge, teaching, or practice of the art and science of architecture. The proposed investigation is to result in a final written work, design project, research paper, or other form of presentation."

The UIA Award for Innovation in Architectural Education
Registration/Submission Deadline: Sunday, February 15, 2026

"Open to colleges, schools, departments, or programs of architecture worldwide, the third edition of the UIA Award for Innovation in Architectural Education will recognize excellence in architectural and urban design education, focusing on innovative pedagogies that foster contributions to realizing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals across the five UIA regions, while reflecting their broad diversity."

2026 Friendly and Inclusive Spaces Awards
Registration/Submission Deadline: Tuesday, February 24, 2026

"The Awards were established to promote inspiring buildings and sites that have created socially sustainable environments through high quality architectural design. A research award will also be given for evidence-based design research that makes a significant contribution to improved quality of life through facilitating a better understanding of human centered design and its application to the design of the built environment."

Iceland Slow Sauna
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Submission Deadline: Monday, May 11, 2026

"The assignment calls for a modest retreat that unites a sauna and a greenhouse into a single structure, a small architecture that is at once intimate and expansive. The challenge is not to build larger, but to build with sensitivity — to explore how transitions between hot and cool, enclosed and open, dark and bright can become a journey of their own. This competition asks architects to think not in terms of objects, but of experiences, rituals, and atmospheres."

Would you like to contribute competitions, award programs, or calls for submissions that aren't listed on Bustler yet? Send them directly to our team to review. We may include them in our next roundup.