Competitions

The Fragile Pattern /// Patterns are composed of repeating elements: color, form, space, light, events, etc. However, patterns themselves are essentially mental constructs, which rely on an applied set of rules. After establishing a pattern concept it is not uncommon to find flaws, inconsistencies, and complexities upon closer inspection. The original pattern unravels and is either replaced by a more nuanced pattern or it is dissolved completely. How must a pattern be regarded differently when it is known that it will eventually fall apart? What practical purpose might a temporary or shifting pattern have? How might a pattern be deconstructed through technical, environme…

KINDER relies again on the community of Desall.com to research innovative ideas. Take part in the new contest THE GAMES OF THE WORLD, exploring games, traditions and modalities regarding the way children play around the world and reinterpret these games for the KINDER brand. For more info: http://bit.ly/KJcontest Timeline Submission phase: 29th October 2015 - 27th January 2016 Client vote: from 27th January 2016 Awards €4500 Participation is free of charge and open to all creative people (at least 18 years old). The gallery of the contest is private. Register by: 01-27-2016 / Submit by: 01-27-2016 View the full article

AIM: The aim of this international ideas competition is to recognise the architectural and design principle involved in designing a high quality tree-house and the role they sometimes play in shaping our ideas of low-cost, low maintenance and sustainable architectural design in many world communities. This competition investigates, explores and emphasises the importance of sustainable concept in Treehouse design as they become ever more popular, more intricate and more commercial. PROJECT: The program is to design an original Contemporary Treehouse pod, capsule or series of pods with the vision of being located on the proposed ‘The Garden Bridge’ across the river Tha…

AIM: The aim of this international ideas competition is to recognise the architectural and design principle involved in designing a high quality tree-house and the role they sometimes play in shaping our ideas of low-cost, low maintenance and sustainable architectural design in many world communities. This competition investigates, explores and emphasises the importance of sustainable concept in Treehouse design as they become ever more popular, more intricate and more commercial. PROJECT: The program is to design an original Contemporary Treehouse pod, capsule or series of pods with the vision of being located on the proposed ‘The Garden Bridge’ across the river Tha…

HANDITEC is organizing a Competition on Innovation, with 6500€ prizes and a trophy. The event will take place from 13 to 15th June 2018 within the framework of the 15e European Exhibition on the Handicapped and Rehabilitation (AUTONOMIC) at the Parc des Expositions of Paris, Porte de Versailles (Hall 4 - Ground Level). The competition is open to: - Anybody able to present a project potentially aiming at promoting or improving one way or another the well being of the elderly, the disabled or the blind (or amblyopes). - All students of Architecture, Design, "Applied arts", Electronics and professionals of these sectors. - Industrialists and creators willing to offer to a wi…

Seoul Metropolitan Government holds an international competition in order to establish a Music-led cultural complex until 2018, in which domestic and oversea specialists from various fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, etc. can participate. Seoul Metropolitan Government established a program for present including necessary facilities and the scale considering citizen participation and publicity for the realization of proposed operation program. Additional program would be prepared for the future. It is expected that creative and various design would be proposed through this competition. Project Outline Eligibility : All professionals in archi…

The Inverted Corner /// A corner defines the convergence of non-parallel forms. Within every corner there are two distinct and often opposing conditions. A corner's interior tends to unify space, while a corner's exterior can divide space along its edge. What if the inside and outside of a corner suddenly switched roles, trading characteristics and functions? What stimuli might trigger a corner to dynamically invert on itself? How is the spatial relationship around a corner affected by this inversion? What mechanism might enable an interior corner to flip to the exterior and vice versa? How does this concept apply to different types of junctures? That happens when a cor…

The Invisible Skyline /// Skylines are symbols for the cities above which they hover. Yet, the majority of buildings in cities lie well below the pinnacles of skyscrapers. Are skylines appropriate billboards for cities when most of population lives, works, and shops in the bottom few stories? What if a skyline, while still physically there, was invisible above ten stories? How does the function of a skyline change when it can no longer be seen? What might be the functional or political purpose of hiding a skyline? How might architecture, technology, or natural phenomena hide such a large mass of buildings? What happens when a skyline becomes invisible? Participants are as…

Concept: The light emphasizes: objects, environments, interior design. It is an exhibition dedicated to the planning of natural and artificial light for the environments and interiors. A special section is dedicated to the light systems and to scenography. Register by: 05-27-2016 / Submit by: 05-27-2016 View the full article

The 'Lighthouse' competition involves the design of an un-manned structure with a light-source to aid the navigation of passing ships The structure may be construction from any material, and innovation is encouraged. The only requirement is that the light-source is accessible for maintenance. Budget: €20,000 (Not including electrical equipment) Entry cost: €20 Teams: Groups of up to 5 people may enter Registration Deadline: Friday 23rd February 2018 @ Midday UTC+2 (Local time) Submission Deadline: Friday 23rd February 2018 @ Midday UCT+2 (Local time) An information pack containing the brief and aerial photographs of the site will be sent to the email address pr…

The ground plane fundamentally influences a building's orientation and organization. Ground floors, basements, and upper floors are designed in reference to a grade. What if the ground disappeared, leaving buildings suspended in position? Without the connective tissue of streets, yards, and natural landscapes, how does the relationship between buildings change? What types of new infrastructure might be used to reconnect neighborhoods and cities? How do sections of a building reorganize when the primary datum vanishes? What happens when the ground goes missing? Participants should respond to the new condition rather than focus on the event of ground disappearing. Submiss…

Carl Sandburg has accurately described language as the most indispensable tool in the life of us social animals, men. Men have traversed through ages and grown into the most superior race on Earth because of their advanced linguistic and communication skills. Human language is unique in comparison to other forms of communication, as it allows us to produce a vast range of expressions and emotions from a finite set of elements. The timeline for the development of modern day languages spans thousands of years. Sounds have developed into words, meanings, scripts, grammar, fonts and a formal system of communication called linguistics. One organization suggests that there a…

Walls are definitive surfaces of separation, both physically and visually. As an intentional division, walls define two sides with little room for interpretation. What if the characteristics of the division varied depending on one's distance from a wall? What if a wall was more opaque at a distance and more transparent up close? How might the perception of the 'other side' be dynamically affected by a wall? Why might walls obscure and reveal different views, sounds, or ideas? What happens when walls are nearsighted? Participants are encouraged to explore a variety of wall types including: building, free standing, political border, etc. Submission Details: Submissions ma…

Artificial lighting comprises a significant proportion of total energy consumption. Even with automatic sensors, task lighting, and outdoor down-lighting, the majority of artificial light emitted never hits a single human retina. How might lights become more focused and more directly controlled by individuals? What if all fixed lights in the world were dismantled and replaced with handheld and wearable lights? How might the use of space change when light emanates from individuals? How do people relate to each other differently when light is more direct than indirect? What happens when lights become personal? Participants are encouraged to explore designs that exten…

This is a call for works of art or design that (i) might fairly be called ‘objects’ by the nascent philosophies of Speculative Realism and Object Oriented Ontology, and that (ii) will throw light on architecture as a peculiar set of objects, phenomena, ideas, relations, connections, skills, materials, obligations, and operations. A selection of twenty of these Objects—all physical and all, whether singular or configurations of smaller objects, falling within the four Parameters set out below—will be exhibited for two weeks around a three-day symposium to be staged by the Center for American Architecture and Design (CAAD) at The University of Texas at Austin in October 201…

VOLUME 39: FOUNDATIONS & DISRUPTIONS Technology is the answer—but what was the question? —Cedric Price Just 20 years ago, Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the MIT Media Lab, anticipated that the post-information age would remove the limitations of geography. Digital living, he said, would allow transmission of place itself. (1) This prediction that technology would destroy distance and that our physicality would lose relevance did not hold true; rather, it expanded the meaning of physical space by making it more complex and inseparable from its digital dimension. (2) The translation of the built environment into digital information—through robotics, big data, and s…

The Student Annual Architecture Models + Artifacts (S.A.A.M.A.) exhibit is a collaborative design exhibition that focuses on architecture student model work. It is an annual exhibition that catalogs a curated publication of the best physical models that architecture students have made across North America. This is a call to all hardworking architecture students to submit images of their models to be reviewed by the Curatorial Practices Team at KSU-Arch (Kennesaw State University) and publish a catalog of the best work that you have to offer in a digital exhibition. Register by: 05-01-2020 / Submit by: 05-01-2020 View the full article

The Permanent Form /// Everything that is designed and built will eventually be destroyed. By weather, wear, or war, built form eventually returns to its elemental state. Objects made of durable materials may last longer, but will not last forever. What if everything that was built became permanent? How might the process of design change when all objects, once fixed and formed, could never be altered or moved from its location? With finite material and space how must designers adjust to planning for the extreme long-term? How might future generations adapt inconvenient forms from the past to meet contemporary needs and functions? What happens when form becomes permanent?…

CALLING: artists, makers, visual thinkers, students and practitioners of design, urbanism, architecture, landscape, planning and other allied disciplines. Images and techniques that portray the process of revealing design in all its forms are invited for a peer-reviewed exhibition and publication. Think Fast explores the role of ambiguity and deconstruction in design imagination, intent and contemporary representation. The interdisciplinary collection of work selected for exhibition will travel to at least three academic venues: Ball State University, Kansas State University and Parsons The New School for Design. The exhibition and subsequent publication will collect u…

CALLING: artists, makers, visual thinkers, students and practitioners of design, urbanism, architecture, landscape, planning and other allied disciplines. Images and techniques that portray the process of revealing design in all its forms are invited for a peer-reviewed exhibition and publication. Think Fast explores the role of ambiguity and deconstruction in design imagination, intent and contemporary representation. The interdisciplinary collection of work selected for exhibition will travel to at least three academic venues: Ball State University, Kansas State University and Parsons The New School for Design. The exhibition and subsequent publication will collect u…

Home is a domain that is intimate to all of us. Beyond its everyday function as a physical shelter for people and their activities, it connects with its user on a personal and emotional level. The modern day scenario of environmental and financial concerns along with the desire to have more freedom has led people to follow simpler and efficient ways of living. With the rapid growth of technology and smart living there lies an opportunity for efficient spaces with the feeling of homeliness and personal touch points. The Tiny House Movement celebrates this concept of simple yet resourceful living. The homes can be designed as an innovation of maximum usable space in minimum…

TOWN MEETING HALL is the 3rd annual competition organized by AIA Vermont Emerging Professionals Network. COMPETITION BRIEF Only 35.9% of eligible voters in the U.S. cast ballots during the 2014 midterm elections*. That was both the lowest turnout and the biggest drop from a preceding presidential election since 1952*. While many factors contributed to this statistic, the role of architecture can not be diminished. Many towns hold voting and meetings in inadequate spaces, such as cramped town halls, gymnasiums, and church basements. Communities need a new platform to facilitate and celebrate civic engagement. New England already has a strong tradition of holding annual …

TRANSIENT SPACES is a publication project originated at CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture by faculty members whose research and studio practices engage with the themes of transiency, activism and dwelling in contexts of impermanence and crisis, where the demand for belonging and community building challenges the agency of design and our roles as architects and educators. The aim is to build a platform to reveal academic and professional practices as a means to expand the dialogue among design, policy professionals and the communities they are engaging with. The publication will include work of artists, scholars, students, architects, engineers and actors from humanitari…

TRENDS Excellence Awards for Architecture & Design 2015 is India's premier design competition for professionals. The awards are brought to you by Home & Design TRENDS magazine (India). Categories are spread over architecture, interior design, product design and visual design. Entries open on October 15, 2015. The submitted works must be located within India only. However, the firm can be based outside the country and still be eligible. A first-of-its-kind in the country, these awards are an endeavour to bring forth the best in architecture, interior design, concepts, forms, and practices in India. Register by: 12-01-2015 / Submit by: 12-01-2015 View the full…