Buildner has launched the Unbuilt Award 2026, the third edition of its annual competition, offering a €100,000 prize fund. At the same time, the results of the Unbuilt Award 2025 have been announced, marking the second competition in a series that celebrates architectural designs that have yet to be realized. The initiative provides a global platform for architects and designers to showcase their most compelling unbuilt projects—whether conceptual, published, unpublished, or fully developed.
In collaboration with building materials manufacturer Kingspan, Buildner has launched MICROHOME 2026, the eleventh edition of its annual competition, offering a €100,000 prize fund. This global competition invites architects, designers, and creative thinkers to redefine the concept of microhomes and develop cutting-edge, sustainable solutions for compact housing.
Buildner has announced the results of the Dubai Urban Elements Challenge, a landmark international design competition organized in strategic collaboration with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). With a total prize fund of 2,000,000 AED (approximately €500,000), the initiative represents one of the most significant publicly funded global design competitions focused on urban transformation.
The competition was conceived as a forward-looking procurement and innovation platform for one of the world's fastest-evolving metropolitan environments. Participants were invited to propose modular, climate-responsive urban elements—seating systems, shading devices, lighting infrastructure, wayfinding components, rest areas, and micro-retail structures—designed to enhance pedestrian life and strengthen Dubai's public realm identity.
Buildner, in collaboration with the City and County of Denver and AIA Colorado, has announced the winners of the Denver Affordable Housing Challenge, an international ideas competition exploring how affordability and design excellence can reinforce one another within the specific urban, social, and environmental context of Denver.
As the nineteenth edition in Buildner's Affordable Housing Challenge series, the competition invited architects and designers from around the world to respond to Denver's housing crisis through proposals operating at architectural, urban, and systemic scales. The brief did not prescribe a single site or typology but, rather, encouraged flexible strategies capable of addressing affordability, climate resilience, and community impact while contributing positively to Denver's urban identity.
Buildner is pleased to announce the results of its Architect's Chair Competition Edition 4, an annual international competition that invites architects and designers worldwide to submit designs for a signature chair. Following in the footsteps of iconic figures like Charles and Ray Eames, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, and Arne Jacobsen, participants are tasked with creating custom chairs that reflect their unique design philosophies and visions.
Buildner has announced the results of its Museum of Emotions Competition Edition 6.
The Museum of Emotions is an annual international design competition that tasks participants with exploring the extent to which architecture can be used as a tool to evoke emotion. The brief calls for the design of a conceptual museum with two exhibition halls: one designed to induce negative emotions; the other designed to induce positive emotions. Participants are free to choose any site of their liking, real or imaginary, as well as choose the scale of the project. The meaning of 'positive' and 'negative' is up for interpretation: What two emotions might a designer consider contrasting? How might an architect conceive spaces which elicit fear, anger, anxiety, love or happiness?
The Museum of Emotions is a 'silent' competition: that is, participants must communicate ideas without text, and must use imagery alone. No form of text, whether design descriptions, annotations or even diagrammatic labels, is permitted.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 20 winners of the 2025 RIBA National Awards, recognising the most significant contributions to architecture across the UK. Presented annually since 1966, the awards celebrate design excellence and provide a valuable snapshot of evolving architectural, cultural, and social trends. This year's winning projects span the length and breadth of the country, from the Isle of Wight to Scotland and Northern Ireland, and represent a wide range of typologies and scales, from major institutional buildings to small-scale residential and community-focused interventions.
More than 200 universities from 33 countries participated in the 20th edition of the Architecture Student Contest. Students from all over the world imagined projects to transform and challenge the development of a peripheral urban city and a village in a territory at the crossroads of Europe, home to the largest logistical platform of Southern Europe and a major cross-Europe high-speed railway project to come, and linked by the ambition of "Attracting Youth."
Foster + Partners has won the competition to design the national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II. In February 2025, five finalist teams were selected by the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee to develop a master plan honoring and celebrating the late Queen. The memorial aims to provide visitors with a space for reflection in London's St James's Park, a site of historical and constitutional significance. Foster + Partners' winning proposal features a new bridge inspired by the Queen's wedding tiara, a Prince Philip Gate, and new gardens. The design will continue to be developed until April 2026.
During the EUmies Awards Day in Venice, representatives from the Creative Europe program and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe revealed the four student project winners of the EUmies Awards Young Talent 2025. The award recognizes architecture projects for their capacity to respond to contemporary social, urban, and environmental challenges. The event was held within the context of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, inviting winners, jury members, and institutional representatives to engage in dialogue around four key themes, aligned with the Biennale's curatorial proposal: Artificial, Natural, Collective, and Intelligens.
Buildner, in collaboration with building materials manufacturer Kingspan, has announced the winners of the MICROHOME Kingspan Edition with a 100,000 EUR prize fund.
Innovation is thriving around the world—and the latest results from the A' Design Award & Competition make that clear. The 2024–2025 edition has recognized 1,823 remarkable designs from 115 countries across 157 creative fields. From architecture and product design to fashion and communication, these entries highlight what happens when imagination meets craftsmanship.
Chosen by an international jury of design experts, this year's winners offer fresh perspectives and bold ideas. The A' Design Award isn't just about recognition—it's about celebrating original thinking and the creative minds reshaping how we interact with the world.
Buildner has announced the results of its third annual Home of Shadows international architecture ideas competition. The competition series is designed to focus on the vital interplay between light and shadow in creating functional and inviting living spaces. It highlights the importance of natural light in home design, essential for creating comfortable, inviting, and practical environments.
Light is viewed as a language through which architects communicate emotions in their designs, with shadows playing an equally significant role in influencing the ambiance of a space. The balance between light and shadow allows for the creation of spaces with depth and texture, setting different moods for various purposes. Often, this balance can be achieved through the strategic placement of windows and doors.
Buildner has announced the results of its competition, the Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial No.5. This competition is held each year to support the universal ban on nuclear weapons. In 2017, on the 75th anniversary of the 1945 bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which claimed the lives of over 100,000 people, the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
In recognition of this treaty, Buildner invites conceptual designs for a memorial to be located on any known decommissioned nuclear weapon testing site. The conceptual memorial is intended to reflect the history and ongoing threat of nuclear weapons, aiming to promote public awareness of nuclear disarmament.
The challenge is intended to bring attention to the history and dangers of nuclear weapons. Participants are tasked with designing a space that commemorates nuclear warfare victims and conveys the need for a nuclear-free future. As a 'silent' competition, submissions are not allowed to include any text, titles, or annotations.
The next edition of this competition, the Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial No. 6, has been launched with an early bird registration deadline of June 12, 2025.
Buildner, in partnership with Collective Action for Culture (C.A.C), the Municipality of Peja, and the Ministry of Culture of Kosovo, has released the results of the Peja Culture Pavilion competition – an international architecture competition inviting architects and designers to reimagine a historically significant site in the heart of Peja, Kosovo.
The competition sought innovative and respectful design proposals that would revitalize a neglected urban square centered around a 15th-century water fountain. Entrants were asked to integrate this cultural heritage element into a multifunctional pavilion that could serve as a space for performance, reflection, gathering, and celebration.
Buildner has released the results of its Denver Single Stair Housing Challenge, an international design challenge inviting architects, designers, and urban planners to explore innovative solutions for high-density residential living. Participants were tasked with reimagining a common point access block typology—often characterized by vertical circulation concentrated in a compact core—and transforming it into a more sustainable, community-oriented, and adaptable living environment. The competition was focused on sites in Denver, Colorado, though its issues are relevant to urban situations throughout the United States and around the globe.
On April 10th, 2025, Saint-Gobain revealed the winners of the 14th edition of its International Gypsum Trophy during a ceremony held in Paris, France. 85 projects from 29 countries participated in this unique international competition organized by Saint-Gobain.
From the Americas to Asia, from Europe to Africa, the most talented and skilled gypsum installers competed in six categories: Ceilings; Innovation; Residential; Culture, Education and Leisure; Business and Institutional; and Façades, for the chance to win one of the 14 prizes. The 1st and the 2nd prize were awarded in each category, as well as the President's Prize (the "coup de coeur" of the jury) and the Grand Prix (rewarding the most outstanding project across all categories).
Buildner has released the results of the Morocco Oasis Retreat Competition, an international design challenge inviting architects, designers, and urbanists to envision a self-sustaining oasis in the Moroccan desert. Participants were tasked with designing an architectural intervention that responds to the region's extreme climate, integrating shelter, water conservation strategies, and energy-efficient design.
The competition encouraged exploration of how architecture can support resilience in remote environments while drawing from both traditional building techniques and modern sustainability principles. Entrants had the flexibility to determine the scale and purpose of their projects. Key considerations included passive cooling strategies, resource management, and integration with the desert landscape. The competition highlights the role of architecture in creating functional and sustainable spaces in challenging environments. Full details on the winning projects are available on the Morocco Oasis Retreat Competition website.
