The organisers behind The Next Helsinki, a competition masterminded by architect and critic Michael Sorkin, have announced that they have received over 200 international entries. Launched as an alternative to the controversial Guggenheim Helsinki project, the competition called upon architects, urbanists, artists, and environmentalists to imagine how Helsinki and the South Harbour site allotted to the proposed museum could be transformed for the maximum benefit of the city’s residents and visitors.

The sixth international competition by Building Trust International, this year’s “Cool School” design competition is in its final stage. Participants were challenged with the task of designing a school addition for 100 students responsive to the extreme climatic conditions of Mongolia, emphasizing adaptability, aesthetics, and comfort. Of over 180 submissions, one winner and nine honorable mentions will be selected by a jury and announced on May 1, 2015.

Now in its second year, the AIA Portland is seeking entries for its ideas competition - "2015 STITCH II." Open to everyone, the competition asks participants to reinvent an unused site beneath Portland's I-405 bridge into an active public space or shelter. While the specific programming is left to the participants' discretion, designs must respond to the specific context of the neighborhood. Registration is open now and submissions are welcomed through June 1, 2015. Three winners will be chosen by a multidisciplinary jury and announced at a ceremony on June 9, receiving monetary prizes between $100 and $500. For more information, visit aiaportland.org. To register, visit eventbrite.com. You can see last year’s winner, here.

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Thirty-two projects have been announced as the winners of the Inaugural Knight Cities Challenge, sharing in a prize pool of $USD5 million. An initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the challenge received an overwhelming number of entries, with winners selected from a pool of over 7000 submissions. Each of the projects proposed strategies for the civic and economic development of one of the 26 cities in which the Knight Foundation invests, including Detroit, Akron Ohio, San Jose California, Lexington Kentucky, and Biloxi Mississippi.

Budapest-based art program Hello Wood has put out an open call for Project Village, their 2015 workshop and symposium to be held between July 11 and July 19. This year's event follows the success of Hello Wood's workshop in the summer of 2014, which saw participation from over 120 architects, artists and designers from 25 countries.

Architects, Engineers, Artists, Designers and students from all around the world are invited to participate in the Expo Milano 2015 with projects that propose solutions to the theme of the Expo Milano 2015 “Feeding the planet, energy for life.” Participants are also being encouraged to submit proposals that solve some of the main challenges that our society is facing, such as the rapid population growth and all the problems that this brings (destruction of the ecosystems, social divisions, scarcity of resources, etc.). This exhibition desires to showcase different architectural, construction, urban and social solutions promoting its different authors in the Universal Exposition.

CTRL+SPACE has launched its Istanbul Community Market Ideas Competition. Seeking designs from students and professionals (developed individually or in teams of four or less), the competition challenges participants to create a site-specific, multi-functional market with a strong public element. Submissions are welcomed now until June 27 and winners will be announced on July 17, 2015. Three winning designs will receive monetary prizes from 500€ to 3500€, and five merit award recipients will also be selected. For more details or to register, visit ctrl-space.net.

Walk21 Vienna has launched its Walking Visionaries Awards, a challenge that invites people from around the globe to explore the many ways walking can be implemented into our daily lives to support sustainable and livable cities. Submit a solution now through April 30, 2015 for a chance to participate in the Walk21 Conference in Vienna, Austria in October 2015. 30 winners will receive a free ticket to the conference and given the chance to meet leading professionals and share their ideas with other visionaries through mediums such as lectures, round table discussions, and workshops. Additionally, the winners' solutions will be published in the conference documentation. Selected by both public opinion and a jury vote, winning submissions will be announced in June 2015. For more information or to submit an idea, visit walk21vienna.com.

At the request of the Tristan da Cunha government, RIBA has launched of a design competition in search of ideas for a more self-sustainable and innovative future of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas community on the remotest inhabited island in the world.

Bob Borson of Life of an Architect has announced the 2015 Architect Playhouse Competition, now in its fourth year. The competition is free to join, open to everyone, and assists the Dallas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), an organization that helps abused and neglected children. Organized and funded by Borson, it asks participants to design a playhouse that embodies originality, creativity, and can be constructed for $5000 or less. The winners (between two and five entries) will have their designs built and displayed at the Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses, where they will be raffled to benefit the nonprofit organization. Registration is open now and designs must be submitted by April 20th. Winners will be announced May 4th. Check out last year's winners after the break, and visit here to register.

Waterfront Toronto has unveiled five proposals for the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and Harbour Square Park design competition. The finalists were tasked with transforming Toronto's waterfront by revitalizing the existing ferry terminal and park through an extensive gradually-implemented masterplan. See all five proposals, including designs by nARCHITECTS and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, after the break.

On January 13 2012, the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia struck an underwater reef and capsized off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, resulting in 32 deaths. In response to the disaster, matterbetter has announced the Concordia Lighthouse Competition, which invites teams of architects, students, engineers, and designers to "redefine a contemporary lighthouse typology."

Warsaw-based firms KAMJZ and Kurylowicz & Associates have shared their proposal for an office building in Poland, as part of the Gdańsk Central Business District Development Strategy. Centrally located at the interchange of several arterial roads and public transit routes, the complex will house a mixed-use program combining office spaces with retail, leisure, sport, and civic functions.

Last month the UNESCO office in Afghanistan, in collaboration with the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, announced the winning design for the Bamiyan Cultural Center. An Argentina-based team, led by Carlos Nahuel Recabarren alongside Manuel Alberto Martínez Catalán and Franco Morero, was selected from 1,070 design entries from teams in 117 different countries. Now, all of these submissions will be posted in an online gallery on the Bamiyan Culture Centre website for the next three months. “The competition achieved beyond expectation and contributed to portray a new and positive image of the culture sector in Afghanistan. This exhibition aims to showcase the extraordinary effort that the architectural community and each and every applicant put into this competition,” writes UNESCO.

The 2015 Fairy Tales competition, hosted by Blank Space, has drawn to a close with four winners and 11 honorable mentions emerging victorious. Now in its second year, the competition attracted over 1,200 entries from 65 countries and challenged participants in a number of fields to design architectural projects inspired and accompanied by fictional stories.

Six teams have been shortlisted in stage-two of a competition to develop ideas for Russia’s “Atomic Energy Pavilion” in Moscow. Planned for a site at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, the pavilion is intended to share the “history of the native nuclear industry” and its “contribution into modern economic development” as well as provide an open “communication forum” for the ROSATOM and the general public.

Young Architects Competitions (YAC) is launching an open architectural competition to design a Food & Wellness Club for the upcoming F.I.CO.^® (Fabbrica Italiana Contadina) theme park in Bologna. In 2016, F.I.CO. will become the world’s biggest theme park dedicated to food farming and food culture, with nine million tourists expected to visit this structure each year. Such a project will trigger a redevelopment of the surrounding area in order to provide visitors with services. The Food & Wellness Club aims to offer a wellness area for those visitors willing to discover both nutrition and body care, offering comfort and care in a multi-sensory and exclusive space. The question of the competition becomes: how to create an architectural space that combines the elements of food, relaxation, wellness and seasonality?

Urban public spaces create common grounds for diverse, public participation. They are places of social interaction, recreation, cultural activities, political activities, and many other public events, enhancing the quality of urban life.