Bustler's Top 10 Architecture & Design Competitions of 2022

Continuing our look back at the highlights of 2022 on Archinect and Bustler, we have compiled a countdown of the year's most popular competitions.

From the hundreds of architecture and design contests listed here — some dealing with real-life challenges and sites, others calling for speculative concepts — here are the top 10 competitions based on reader popularity.

1. Museum Of Emotions

"As part of a series of annual architecture competitions, the Museum of Emotions competition is tasking participants with using architecture as a tool to bring out different emotions. They are being asked to design a museum that includes two separate exhibition halls that bring out contrasting emotions — one inducing negative emotions, and the other inducing positive emotions."

2. Land Art Generator Initiative 2022 Mannheim: Beautiful Forms of Energy

"The LAGI 2022 Mannheim design competition — Beautiful Forms of Energy — is an opportunity to weave renewable energy into the city in ways that improve human thriving.  As a part of the 2023 German Bundesgartenschau (BUGA 23), the design challenge includes a number of themes and ideas for inspiration aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals."

3. Miami Floating Housing Competition

"The problems of sea-level rise and housing affordability in Miami merge together as a new phenomenon called 'climate gentrification.' Current residents of neighborhoods located on the higher ground within the city are being displaced by coastal residents looking to escape the rising seas and flooding. [...] The recent development and revitalization of the neighborhoods brings about its own underlying uncertainties: will longtime residents be able to find affordable housing near their current homes and communities? And, if so, how can they protect themselves from the risk of being displaced again due to sea-level rise?"

4. 2023 Skyscraper Competition

"eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe to take part in the 2023 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."

5. Flint Municipal Center Design Competition

"The AIA Flint 2022 Design Competition focuses on the existing City of Flint Municipal Center Campus located in the heart of Downtown Flint on Saginaw Street between Fifth Street and the I-69 & I-475 interchange. The 23-acre campus is split between seven government office buildings on the North side of Stevens Street, with a gas station, pawn shop, and vacant office building on the South side of the street. Currently the site is underutilized and much of the interior space of the buildings is unoccupied. [...] This project is intended to recognize the potential that unique and creative ideas could bring to the Downtown Flint area.  The goal is to re-develop a greatly underutilized  property within the Downtown core in order to draw more people into Downtown Flint."

6. Ireland Meditation Mine

"[...] the goal of the competition Meditation Mine aiming at turning Irish industrial archeology masterpieces into a retreat and meditation destination for people who look for meaningful experiences away from contemporaneity and immersed in the mystic beauty of a timeless nature."

7. Rebuilding Siargao: Community Center + Urban Interventions

"December 16 2021, Super Typhoon Rai, locally known as Typhoon Odette, made landfall in the Philippines. The storm was unexpectedly powerful [...] The storm first made landfall in Siargao, an island known as a world’s surf capital. The typhoon collapsed buildings and power lines, uprooted palm trees, and worse. Nearly half a million people were displaced from their homes and more than 400 people died. It is estimated that around 90 to 95% of the island structures (mostly homes) were damaged. [...] The NGO Lokal Lab wants to build the island back and wants to build back stronger. For that, they are helping the population with several actions and this competition [...]"

8. Tactical Urbanism Now! 2021 Competition

"Over the last decade, cities all around the world have experimented with a wide range of urban transformations through colourful, flexible and light interventions. Nowadays, it has become more and more common to come across these type of projects in both, small towns and metropolises. Tactical Urbanism proposes an innovative design approach that aims to achieve long-term regeneration with short-term strategies. In certain cases, due to the positive impact that these interventions have generated in the urban realm, projects that were once thought of as temporary have now become permanent. Working at the scale of a street, a block or a building, tactical tools have the power to improve liveability citywide. Similar to the way acupuncture inserts needles into one part of the body to boost the well-being of the entire organism, these type of projects can actually lead to positive changes in an entire neighbourhood."

9. A Rehabilitation Centre for Terrorism Victims in Iraq

"Tamayouz Excellence Award invites architects and designers to submit their ideas for a Rehabilitation Centre for Terrorism Victims in Iraq. The rehab centre should offer a safe and comfortable space for the patients, supporting their health, psychological and physical needs. [...] The centre’s physical environment should not give the feeling of a clinical and a treatment institution. Indoor and outdoor spaces should encourage social interaction, sporting activities and learning."

10. The 3rd International Idea Competition for Bcome 2022

"Bcome 2022 is to propose the future vision of Busan, this year’s theme of the Busan Architecture Festival, by addressing the World Expo 2030 Busan which can symbolize its future. To this end, promoting the design proposals of national pavilions from around the world in accord with its theme, 'Transforming Our World, Navigating toward a Better Future,' the competition will explore the presentations of creative designs reflecting the great tradition or culture and technological prowess of each nation. Besides, it expects to increase the citizens’ interest in hosting the World Expo 2030 Busan and become the field of promoting it to the international community."

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