With the theme of 'Urban by Nature', the sixth edition of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam opens in May 2014 in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. With Dutch landscape architect Dirk Sijmons as the curator, IABR is calling for best practices from all over the world to support and substantiate the Biennale’s main exhibition’s narrative. Prospective participants who have designed or are designing concrete projects that deal with the relationship between man, nature and city, are invited to submit their applications by June 9, 2013. For more information, please visit here.

The extensive damage to low-lying waterfront zones caused by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 reinforced the need for resilient infrastructure and redevelopment strategies for existing coastal communities throughout the greater New York area. Costly damage to buildings, roads, and utility systems by the storm raises the controversial question of whether areas of particular geographic vulnerability should be rebuilt, maintained and defended, or simply abandoned. In an effort to solicit creative ideas, the FAR ROC [For a Resilient Rockaway] competition seeks innovative proposals for the design and development of a comprehensive new master plan for Arverne East, a vacant 80+ acre Urban Renewal site on the Rockaway Peninsula in New York City. Submissions are due no later than June 14. For more information, please visit here.

Jacques Rougerie, a famous French Sea oriented architect, had the chance during his career to receive help and support from those who believed in his talent. Open to everyone, his foundation, the Jacques Rougerie Foundation, has launched an International Competition which aspires to offer a unique opportunity for students in architecture, engineering or design, from all around the world to make their projects come true, or simply to reward their creativity. The competition aims to reward the most innovative, creative and bold projects at the service of architectural innovation, relative to topics that are dear to the foundation; Water and Space. The deadline for entries is May 28. For more information, please visit here.

On the occasion of MADE expo Milano Architettura Design Edilizia, set to take place at the Milan Fairgrounds at the beginning of October, Federlegno Arredo S.r.l. is promoting the Instant House @ School competition to find the most novel projects for residential cityscapes and urban society. With the focus on kindergartens or nursery schools, and open to Italians and non-Italians who are studying or have studied architecture, engineering and industrial design, the compeition asks for architectural ideas relating to the many ways that children perceive and interpret the world around them through the multi-sensory experience of space and architecture. The deadline for entries is June 3. For more information, and for the complete competition brief, please visit here.

Building Trust international just launched 'PLAYscapes', an international design competition that challenges professional and student architects, designers, engineers and artists to find exciting design proposals to transform neglected parts of cities into interactive landscapes, encouraging public engagement, community involvement and sustainable adaptive reuse. Proposals should be sited in an abandoned or forgotten urban site and develop PLAYscapes that create opportunity for interaction and play for citizens of all ages. Submissions are due July 29. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Aiming to build awareness of urban design solutions capable of shaping Dallas forward, The Connected City Design Challenge is asking participants to develop a more refined and specific strategy for connecting the downtown and river, and assist in securing future public and private investment. By empowering both designers and citizens, The Challenge will work to realize integrated solutions that improve the livability and viability of our city. In order to secure the most capable design talent and facilitate a variety of solutions, this will be structured as a competitive process consisting of two idea streams: a professional stream and an open stream. Requests for qualifications are due May 9 for the professional stream and for the open stream, the deadline for submissions is October 3. For more information, please visit here.

The Architecture Foundation recently launched their annual international Open Call for innovative independent exhibitions and installations for its central London Project Space. Intended as an incubator for independent positions and architectural experimentation, projects selected through the Open Call will punctuate the AF’s ongoing curated program. This program, competitively selected through a jury process, will give space to individuals or organizations to activate the AF Project Space as a testing ground for modes of exhibition and 1:1 scale spatial experimentation, an open studio, a public residency or other diverse formats. The foundation's recent initiative, 'We Made That', was a project selected through the 2012 Open Call. The deadline for submissions is May 10. For more information, please visit here.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has launched an open and international architecture competition for their new headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. With the volume of the planned building at roughly 70,000m3, with a ground surface area of 18,000m2, the development will include headquarters for 450 staff members, “Olympic campus” housing administrative buildings, and possible accommodation and services. This will allow the IOC to benefit from two Olympic sites in Lausanne: one in Ouchy around The Olympic Museum, to host the general public; and the other in Vidy for the whole administrative staff and to host its institutional partners. The deadline for submissions is May 15. For more information, please visit here.

The G Project, hosted by G Adventures and The Planeterra Foundation, is giving four lucky innovators, inventors, visionaries and designers the opportunity to bring a humanitarian and forward-thinking project to fruition.  The G Project is inviting anyone to submit a design idea of any scale that will have a "positive impact on your planet".  The idea must be a proposal that falls into one of four categories: freedom, beauty, knowledge or community.  It is a crowd-sourcing exercise that seeks to engage ideas of any variety and asks the global community to contribute to deciding which projects deserve to be realized.  

The Chicago Architectural Club and Chicago Architecture Foundation, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Transportation, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the Chicago Bus Rapid Transit Steering Committee, recently launched the 2013 Burnham Prize Competition: NEXT STOP: Designing Chicago BRT Stations. Intended to catalyze iconic, sustainable, and functional design for representative corridors in Chicago’s planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, they are seeking entries that integrate innovative and compelling transportation design into Chicago’s urban fabric. Each design team must submit designs for three different prototype sites and demonstrate how BRT station design can be adapted to each context. Submissions are due by May 13. For more information, please visit here.

Organized by ORLI (Operation Resilient Long Island), a student-led grassroots committee of architecture, interior design, and construction management students from New York Institute of Technology, the 3C Comprehensive Coastal Communities Competition aims to catalyze the discussion of rezoning towns that are vulnerable to coastal storms. The post-Sandy rebuilding process has already begun, yet there are no strategies on how rebuilding communities can accommodate transforming coastal housing typologies. In effort to help local communities preserve the value of their neighborhoods, the challenge is to create a vision for a specific northeastern coastal community. Participants should design a resilient housing typology and integrate it into the community master plan. Submissions are due no later than July 25. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Organized by Manifesto Architecture, in collaboration with Modern Atlanta (MA), the third annual MA Prize competition entries will be carefully selected to be displayed at this year's MA13 “Design in Human Week”. The event will be held from the June 1-9 in Atlanta, Georgia. This year, MA Prize highlights bold and innovative design projects that allow us a fresh perspective on the idea of 'SHARE', or ‘SHIFT’ the way we perceive ‘SHARE’. We commonly understand the idea of share as a fairly simple concept: when two different parts interact with each other to produce a new outcome. But, what does sharing mean to design; or what can design provide to sharing? Submissions are due no later than May 7. For more information, please visit here.