Competitions

The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona (UIA2026BCN) announces the UIA International Student Competition, an invitation for students from around the world to engage with the Congress's core theme Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition.
Participants are challenged to design spatial interventions that enable resistance and adaptation to predictable threats related to political shifts, social transformations and climate change, among other concerns. This competition asks students to think beyond conventional design methods, using time as a design strategy to catalyse resilient future.
This single-stage student ideas competition is organised and conducted in accordance with the UNESCO Standard Regulations for International Competitions in Architecture and Town planning and the UIA best practice recommendations. The competition brief has been developed by the UIA2026BCN Curatorial Team and organised by the Higher Council of the Orders of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) and the Architect's Association of Catalonia (COAC).

Egyptian Graduation Project Competition 3.0
Organized by: We Are DESCO
Proudly Sponsored by: AEDAS

It all begins with an idea!
Active since 2021, the Inspire Future Generations Awards (IFGA) celebrate exceptional initiatives within the built environment that centre the voices of children and young people. This annual competition welcomes entries from architects, planners, local authorities, developers, and other built environment professionals who are committed to advancing participatory design with children and young people.
The IFGA recognises projects that demonstrate excellence, creativity, care, and a genuine commitment to engaging young people in shaping the spaces around them. Over the past four years, the Awards have played a key role in growing TET’s community of practice: connecting people, sharing knowledge, and fostering collaboration around inclusive and youth-centred design.
Our principal aim of running this awards programme is to open up space for young people to be heard, participate in and empowered in decisions about the environments they live, learn, and play in. By highlighting the value of participation, the IFGA helps ensure that the design of our cities and communities reflects the needs, ideas, and aspirations of younger generations. Each year the winning award entries are added to the TET Resource Bank, sharing knowledge, examples and speakers for TET Dialogues. The entries are featured in our Empowering Environment Report and winners will have space to present and reflect on their work. This year the IFGA present 16 categories spread across three sections, don’t loose your opportunity: enter for the IFGA25!

Sometimes, one drawing is enough to spark a revolution — not through detail or precision, but through imagination. A single image can challenge what architecture is, question what it serves, and propose what it could become.

Join us at the forefront of change for the Ocean Futures Conference 2025. Proudly presented by the Institute of Smart City and Management (ISCM), College of Technology and Design, UEH University alongside our global and local partners, this year we set our sights on the vast potential of the Blue Economy - a theme that redefines how technology and design interact with our planet's most vital resource: its oceans. The blue economy is not only a driver of economic growth, but it also plays a crucial role in safeguarding sovereignty, ensuring national security, and promoting sustainable development.

Timber Futures: International Ideas Competition

Be part of a bold vision to create a smart, green, and resilient city rooted in Mongolia’s rich cultural heritage. This global design competition invites architects, planners, and innovators to shape the conceptual plan of Hunnu City—a next generation urban center blending innovation with tradition. With over 1.4 billion MNT in prizes and opportunities to influence a landmark project, this is your chance to leave a lasting mark on the urban future of Mongolia.
Whether you're an international design studio or a cross-disciplinary team of forward-thinkers, you’ll compete to create a city that is smart, sustainable, climate-resilient, and deeply human-centered.

Michel Foucault, in La volonté de savoir (1976), described how the mechanisms of the examination of conscience belonging to the pastoral tradition of the 17th century progressively extended to all areas of society, marking the threshold of a biopolitical modernity. Here, the 'will to knowledge' is not the subject's drive for research, but the injunction to bring into the field of knowledge-power those borderline domains of life that had been previously excluded from it: death, birth, sexuality. This process of the adherence of knowledge to bodies entirely invests our time and urges us to reflect on the figures of the 'will to knowledge' in the new millennium: the questions of surveillance, of the constant and widespread mapping of life in its social and biological dimension, of ubiquitous visibility, of the collapse of the limits between inside and outside, between inside and outside of work, of wakefulness, of private life, are explored by artistic and design forms.
'The will to knowledge' also carries a more straightforward, primary meaning: here we encounter the sphere of the desire for knowledge and its challenges, a theme constantly evoked today – above all, that of finding orientation within a hypertrophic labyrinth of information. Thus, a few years after Foucault's work, we encounter another text on the inexhaustible drive towards knowledge, its infinite resources of seduction, its lethal traps. With The Name of the Rose (1980), Umberto Eco constructs a thriller whose origin lies in the will to knowledge, with a book at its centre and, surrounding it, the desire of the aspiring initiates in opposition to the strenuous defence mounted by the custodians of tradition.
The 'will to knowledge' evokes both the symbol of infinity, to express the limitless scope of knowledge, and the labyrinth, to indicate its intricate structure and the countless possible paths through it.

Warming Huts V.2026: An Arts + Architecture Competition In Ice

The 21st century began with great promise filled with ambition, optimism, and dreams of a better future. Now, twenty-five years later, we stand at a crossroads. Humanity has achieved remarkable feats: exploring distant planets, transforming healthcare, and advancing artificial intelligence and robotics. But we've also lived through defining global events, shifts that have tested our societies and systems.

The Design-z competition is A-Class Marble's annual celebration of imagination and material mastery, aimed at fostering young talent. The Design-z theme for 2025, 'Upcycle with A-Class', is here to offer you the chance to reimagine discarded marble and craft a compact, functional product that blends sustainability with smart design.

For 2025, OBEL will grant two teaching fellowships of up to €75,000 and invite prospective fellows from around the world to apply in partnership with a host institution. The taught courses will preferably begin in 2026 (or soon thereafter) and revolve around the 2025 OBEL focus: Ready Made. The aim is to foster deeper exploration, development, and dissemination of knowledge on this key topic within the built environment.

The National Pavilion UAE has launched an open call for proposals to curate the United Arab Emirates’ Pavilion at the 20th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, set to take place from May to November 2027 in Venice, Italy.

CIVICNESS
ARCHITECTURE AND THE POLITICS OF THE PUBLIC REALM

The Department of Architecture at the RPTU in Kaiserslautern (fatuk) is dedicated to the future-oriented education of architects and sees the combination of theory, research and practice as a central component of teaching.

Architect Fumihiko Maki (1928-2024), in his seminal text "Investigations in Collective Form," grapples with architecture's role in an increasingly complex society. Collective Form emerged when buildings came together to produce something larger than the sum of their parts. While today many of these same challenges exist, the notion of Collective Form has also expanded. The Steedman 2026 jury seeks mindful research proposals on architecture's role in producing collective forms/ forums that catalyze a more politically engaged discipline and citizenry. The award for the 2026 winning proposal will be $100,000.

Planted Community has partnered with global BIM software leader Vectorworks to launch Design for Regeneration—a brand new UK-wide student competition spotlighting the next generation of regenerative designers. Press release here.

In recent years, rapid urbanization has transformed cities across the globe, bringing both opportunities and challenges. Among the most pressing issues is the need for affordable housing—a crucial component for ensuring equitable urban growth and stability. As populations continue to surge, traditional housing models often fail to meet the demand for cost-effective, high-quality living spaces.