Bustler's Top 10 Competitions of 2016

After revisiting the most popular/talked-about/award-winning Architects, Projects, and Events on Bustler in 2016 over the past few days, we're closing out our look back with the top Competitions of the year. 

Regulars will recognize recurring audience favorites from 2015, like eVolo's annual Skyscraper Competition (eVolo also features the highly popular VMODERN Furniture Design Competition among the top 10 this year) and the Laka 'Architecture that Reacts' Competition.

Some established competition organizers managed to attract design submissions with time-sensitive briefs and thematically relevant ideas contests, like Eleven Magazine's Moontopia, archasm's PARIS PAVILION : The Art of Peace, or arch out loud's Death & the City: Tokyo Vertical Cemetery.

Need to get the word out about an architectural competition that isn't listed on Bustler yet? Click here to submit it directly.

Below is a compilation of the top 10 most visited competition posts.

1. Laka Competition '16: Architecture that Reacts

"Laka Architektura invites 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 it develops because of it—to react is to live..." - more

2. 2016 VMODERN Furniture Design Competition

"eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite designers around the world to participate in the 2016 VMODERN Furniture Design Competition. The award was born from the desire to create a forum for the discussion, debate and development of innovative design. Our goal is to discover and promote the most creative pieces of furniture that will transform the way we live and interact with our environment. What is the future of furniture design? ..." - more

3. eVolo 2017 Skyscraper Competition

"eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe to take part in the 2017 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious awards for high-rise architecture. It recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. It is a forum that examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city...." - more

4. Death & the City: Tokyo Vertical Cemetery

"In the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, arch out loud challenges designers to develop proposals for a vertical cemetery that explores the relationship between life and death within the city. The need to examine this condition affords designers the opportunity to not just efficiently respond to the issue of space but also look into the cultural identity that this solemn program can project within its environment..." - more

5. Tri An Monument

"The overriding purpose of this proposed monument is to honor and express deep gratitude for the millions of Americans and Vietnamese who fought side-by-side to stop communist aggression and give the South Vietnamese people a chance to live in freedom. To give meaning to this difficult struggle, it is important for many of the Vietnamese people who fled their country and escaped communist persecution, to show their appreciation to those that helped them during and after the war. [...] This is an open world-wide competition and anyone with an idea is welcome to submit an entry—artists, sculptors, architects, landscape architects, graphic designers, students, professionals, etc..." - more

6. Architecture at Zero 2016

"The Architecture at Zero 2016 competition challenge is to create a zero net energy student housing project at San Francisco State University campus. The competition has two components. First, entrants will create an overall site plan to accommodate the 784 housing units, student services, dining center, childcare facility, and parking, detailed in the Challenge Program. Second, entrants will design one building, in detail, to indicate zero net energy (ZNE) performance. The competition is open to students, architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers and designers anywhere in the world..." - more

7. MOONTOPIA: An out of this world challenge...

"Eleven is excited to announce its first international ideas and design competition on space architecture. We invite thinkers, architects, designers, academics and visionaries from around the world to imagine innovative solutions for Moontopia - the first ever self-sufficient lunar colony designed for living, working, researching and - why not - a little space tourism too. How will man-kind exist on the moon? You decide..." - more

8. University Island competition

"[...] Venice has never completely forgotten Poveglia, but its citizens stopped visiting the island over time has become a natural setting for the grimmest tales and fantastic rumors. But, this situation will soon change. The Italian Government – the owner of the estate – has lately put a spotlight on Poveglia, in order to make a reuse of the island possible. In the wake of this purpose, YAC launches University Island, a project to transform Poveglia into a dream university campus; a place of training, leisure and relax for the many students gathering in Venice..." - more

9. Fairy Tales 2017

"After the record breaking success of last year’s competition which drew over 1,500 participants from 67 countries, Blank Space is excited to announce that the 2017 edition is open for registration. Now in its fourth year, Fairy Tales is the largest annual architectural competition in the world.  Blank Space is proud to partner with the National Building Museum and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) along with Bustler, Archinect, Archdaily, and Design-Milk. [...] Fairy Tales is open to all, and invites architects, designers, writers, artists, engineers, illustrators, students and creatives to submit their own unique architectural fairy tales. A successful entry crafts a text narrative, along with 5 images, in the most spectacular way possible..." - more

10. PARIS PAVILION : The Art of Peace

"archasm invites architects, students, engineers, designers, artists and philosophers to send in their entries for our competition [...] The aim of this competition is to design a 'Peace Pavilion' in Paris that would exhibit the virtues of hope and tolerance, translated through the language of art and architecture. The pavilion should be a free standing temporary structure that can host a variety of activities and exhibitions..." - more

In case you missed it, here are our lists for 2016's Top Prize-Winning Projects and Architects, as well as the Top 10 Events of the year.