Bustler's Top 10 Competitions of 2017

Another busy year in the world of architecture competitions is wrapping up! 2017 saw more successful editions of contests that designers flock to in hoards every year, like eVolo's ever-popular Skyscraper Competition and Laka's “Architecture that Reacts”. Other reputable organizers sought creative architectural ideas on topics ranging from architectural fairy tales and planetariums to a Seoul ferry terminal and a Hyde Park London Library.

Out of the hundreds of design competitions that happened over the last 12 months, we compiled a list of the Top 10 Competitions of 2017. Have a look.

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1. Laka Competition '17: Architecture that Reacts

“We invite designers from around the world to submit their ideas of architecture that reacts. That means architecture which is able to respond and adjust dynamically to the current needs and circumstances. These circumstances are often unpredictable, but their consequences can be crucial. The architecture that reacts is the architecture that lives as a living organism, since it responds to the external stimuli and develops because of it.”

2. eVolo 2018 Skyscraper Competition

“The competition is an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community. It is also a response to the exploration and adaptation of new habitats and territories based on a dynamic equilibrium between man and nature – a new kind of responsive and adaptive design capable of intelligent growth through the self-regulation of its own systems.”

3. ROME 2017: 21st Century River Renaissance

“Eleven [Magazine]’s Rome 2017 is an international ideas and design challenge that seeks to address these issues by asking the international architecture and design community three questions. What would a contemporary river renaissance look like in Rome? Can the city live up to its eternity and incorporate within its layers of history a more contemporary lifestyle? And can this consolidate the river Tiber into a new focus within the city for this millennium: transforming its waters from a passive element to an active, integrated and renewed part of the city?”

4. Seoul Yeoui-Naru Ferry Terminal Design Competition

“The design competition, as the priority project of the 4 Core Projects of the Han River Cooperation Project, aims to create a ferry terminal which manges water transportation and various vessels including private and government vessels in an integrated manner. The site, one of the tourist attractions in Seoul, is able to display the natural and urban scenery of Seoul.”

5. PLANETARIUM: The Experience of Space

“Eleven Magazine invites creatives around the world to imagine a new typology of Planetariums, one that reflects today’s renewed interest in space new and emerging understandings of our world: a new paradigm in the relationship between media and physical space and a new typology of Planetarium which allows architecture and design to play a central role in the experience of space.”

6. OBSERVATORY HOUSES

“For these reasons, the Rimini Fair and the Italian government launched the Observatory Houses project aiming to find a new use for Roccascalegna taking advantage of the potential of an oneiric setting with remarkable skies. The project aims at creating in Italy the first and most suggestive observatory houses. They will be a sustainable and exclusive house model aimed to ensure the protection and improvement of such inestimable heritage.”

7. DWELL: Mumbai Mixed Housing

“Rapid urban growth and growing inequality has created a global crisis in housing that increasingly separates the rich from the poor. Though not fully understood, there is a clear and parallel relationship between the size of a city and its level of socio-economic disparity: the larger the city, the less equal it tends to be. Physical and social segregation, which both reflects and perpetuates disparity, is a growing concern in megacities worldwide - including Mumbai. The long-term success of a city depends on the collective well-being of all its inhabitants. To what extent can architecture support social inclusion and break down spatial segregation within the megacity?”

8. Architecture at Zero

“The competition challenge is to create a zero net energy bayside community education and visitor’s center, in support of the mission of the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies (RTC). This facility is San Francisco State University’s center for estuary and ocean science located on 53 acres of bayside property in Tiburon, California.”

9. Hyde Park Library London

“The competition seeks to create a 21st century 'library in a park' paradox that will incorporate the social factor in an anti-social built form like a library. It should further become a useful prototypical public resource and an architectural landmark within the park that would even attract non-readers to visit the place.”

10. SCHOOL WITHOUT CLASSROOMS | BERLIN

“The competition seeks the creation of a middle school (age group 5-12) that completely negates the present day 'bench-table-chalkboard' idea of a classroom and a regularized building typology of a school. The competition seeks to radicalize the school system through architecture not only in terms of improving the quality of study environment but revamping the system and breaking all the physical and metaphorical class divisions into an entirely new school system. The competition seeks ideas from participants to create a fun built environment for a middle school that understands the individual needs of each child yet being very collaborative in nature.”

Have a new design competition that you want to submit? Send it directly to Bustler for review here.