New architecture and design competitions: WAF Awards, 2x8, Burnham Prize, and TWOPAGES X Design Contest

For this week's curated picks of architecture and design competitions listed on Bustler, we are featuring four calls seeking the world's best architecture and design projects, exceptional curtain designs that function as works of art, visions for a reimagined State Street in Chicago, and student-driven ideas that explore how design can serve to repair, reuse, adapt, and advocate.

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

WAF Awards 2026
Registration/Submission Deadline: Friday, May 15, 2026

"World Architecture Festival 2026 will return to the USA for its second year. At the heart of the festival sits a unique awards programme. All finalists will present their project live at the event in front of a panel of expert judges and their peers. [...] WAF is the only awards programme where every finalist presents their project live to an expert jury at the festival. This is your chance to showcase your vision, get direct feedback from industry leaders, and use their insight to strengthen your future work."

TWOPAGES X Design Contest 2026: Curtain As Art
Registration/Submission Deadline: Friday, June 5, 2026

"TWOPAGES invites designers, artists, students, and creative practitioners to participate in the 2026 TWOPAGES X Design Contest, a global platform for creative collaboration exploring the expressive potential of curtain design. With the theme Curtain As Art, this year’s contest asks participants to design a curtain concept that works like art: bold or quiet, abstract or narrative, traditional or experimental, but always intentional. The competition encourages entrants to consider curtains not simply as functional interior elements, but as surfaces for storytelling, spatial atmosphere, emotion, movement, and identity."

Chicago Architectural Club 2026 Burnham Prize: The Future of State
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Submission Deadline: Monday, July 20, 2026

"This competition calls for bold, future-facing proposals that reclaim State Street as Chicago’s Great Street, an active, mixed-use corridor in the heart of the Loop. The competition seeks strategies to revitalize and reimagine retail, housing, office, business, schools, culture, entertainment, and the arts, supporting a more resilient and diverse downtown. State Street should be welcoming to residents, workers, families, students, and visitors alike, capable of supporting both everyday use and citywide events."

2026 Fall 2x8 Exhibition and Scholarship Program
Registration Deadline: Monday, September 14, 2026
Submission Deadline: Monday, October 19, 2026

"2x8: RECLAIM invites students and professionals to explore how architecture can take back trust, access, shared space, identity, and purpose for the public. In a time shaped by climate crisis, housing pressure, social fragmentation, and growing demands for accountability, RECLAIM positions architecture as both a design discipline and a civic act. The theme challenges participants to move beyond creating new objects and instead see design as a way to repair, reuse, adapt, and advocate. As part of 2x8’s student exhibition and scholarship program, RECLAIM highlights work that reasserts architecture’s role in serving the public good and communicating the value of design to our communities."

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.