New architecture and design competitions: Seattle Design Festival, Crystal Palace, Healing Garden, and The Next House: USA

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 ideas for a reimagined, contemporary Crystal Palace, visions of a new suburban housing prototype, design proposals reflecting Seattle and its ongoing transformation, and plans for a buildable healing garden within Parco della Certosa in Italy.

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

New Crystal Palace Open Ideas Competition
Registration Deadline: Friday, May 1, 2026
Submission Deadline: Tuesday, May 19, 2026

"The Museum of Architecture, the Great Exhibition Road Festival and Dr Neal Shasore have launched an open international design competition to rethink the Crystal Palace for contemporary society, considering what it might look like, how it would function and who it should serve. The competition marks 175 years since the Great Exhibition of 1851, one of the defining moments in architectural and cultural history, inviting designers, architects, students and creative thinkers from anywhere in the world to reimagine the building at its centre."

The Next House: USA
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Submission Deadline: Tuesday, June 30, 2026

"This competition calls on architects, designers, and thinkers worldwide to envision a new suburban prototype: a home that is compact yet generous, adaptable yet grounded, replicable yet sensitive to place. It asks participants to go beyond size and spectacle, and instead focus on what makes a home truly meaningful—its adaptability, sustainability, affordability, and ability to nurture both family and community life. With a total prize fund of $20,000 USD, the competition is open to all, from students to established professionals. The task is to design a home for a standard household of two adults and one child, with a maximum size of 1,500 sq ft (≈140 m²), conceived as a prototype that could be replicated across the diverse climates and contexts of the United States."

Seattle Design Festival 2026 Call for Proposals
Registration/Submission Deadline: Wednesday, May 27, 2026

"The 2026 Seattle Design Festival theme, IN[FLUX], recognizes that we are living in a moment of transition. Flux suggests movement, instability, and possibility all at once. It reflects the ways our city is evolving and the role design can play in navigating change. [...] Together, these lenses explore the forces that shape our city: movement and stability, structure and experimentation, agreement and disagreement. Through installations, conversations, and experiences across Seattle, the Festival invites our community to examine how design operates within these conditions and how it can help us imagine what comes next."

Healing Garden - Certosa Park
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Submission Deadline: Saturday, August 15, 2026

"Participants are invited to design a buildable Healing Garden within the defined intervention area of Parco della Certosa. The proposal should create a landscape environment that supports biodiversity, social interaction, and sensory experience, while respecting heritage constraints and the 60.000 EUR construction budget. The project should function as an urban prototype demonstrating how design can foster well-being and ecological regeneration."

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.