Design an observation tower in Latvia. The Quiet Tower is launched!

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 €

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Early Bird Registration: JUNE 1 – JULY 22
Advance Registration: JULY 23 – OCTOBER 15 
Last Minute Registration: OCTOBER 16 – JANUARY 13

Final registration deadline: JANUARY 13, 2027 
Closing date for submission: FEBRUARY 15, 2027 (11:59 p.m. LONDON TIME)
Announcement of the winners: APRIL 6, 2027

More:  https://architecturecompetitions.com/quiettower