2016

This is the fourth year of the various 'shoestring' design idea competitions. This year we are seeking innovative ideas for a flexible low cost Starter Home (a 65 sq m + home that can be built for £50k or less). The judges include a string of TV celebrities (Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs, George Clarke from Amazing Spaces and Charlie Luxton from Building the Dream, plus others). There is a £5,000 prize fund, and the top entries will be displayed at Grand Designs Live in October.

The purpose of this competition is to design a stage set for a dance and music performance to be given at the Bauhaus stage in Dessau in December 2016. Since the Gropius Bauhaus was opened in 1925 Music and Dance was an important part of Bauhaus teaching complementing other disciplines such architecture painting textile or graphic design and sculpting.The most well-known exponent in the field of stage set and costume design was Oskar Schlemmer.

Call for entries have opened for Taiwan's Golden Pin Design Award (GPDA) 2016–the only international huaren-focused design award in the world. As Taipei City proudly hosts the World Design Capital 2016, the gaze of the international design community is squarely on the island nation. This unique award offers designers and companies around the world the perfect opportunity to test the viability and inventiveness of their product or design project in the huge, diverse huaren (Chinese-speaking) market. Winners will receive a prestigious Golden Pin Design Mark–an indicator of innovation that they can use to market their product or design project–or a Best Design trophy, and valuable brand exposure in two languages.

SEE (Santiago Emergent Ecologies) international ideas competition aims to articulate a series of concrete projects for the fringe comprised between the city of Santiago and the El Roble ecological conservation site (Sitio Proritario el Roble). The el Roble conservation site is one of the major reservoirs of biodiversity in Chile; its resources and ecosystemic relations have a direct impact on the environment and the quality of life in the Region of Santiago, and influence the potential economic development of the area.