This pandemic has undoubtedly affected our lives in one way or the other. Many lives have been claimed, many are in hospitals, attacked by the deadly virus, and their family and friends. The rest of us are locked in our houses with tons of work and nowhere to go. This has hit morale majorly. We are even bored with experimenting with new hobbies now, waiting for a medical marvel of the discovery of a vaccine against this virus. Well, until they don’t find medical measures, we have to resort to the non- medical measures, that is, design measures. We as designers and architects have this responsibility and opportunity to find creative solutions to help the world. But, doing it for a prize would encourage more and more participants. Yes, competitions are a great way to earn credits and rewards and it will even help us kill our time we spend staring into the sky. So here is a list of competitions architects, designers, and even people from unrelated fields can participate in.
1. Social Distancing- Housing Block
This architecture competition is organized by ‘Non-Architecture Competitions’. This is part of a competition series aiming at developing new design models post-pandemic. The brief demands a creative approach to architectural design for creating a house or a ‘dwelling’. This also asks to include solutions for increasing density problems which would arise in the future.
Eligibility: Open for all, maximum of 5 members per team
Submission requirements: 3 drawings, a word documents for a site of 25m by 25 m, see details in brief at the link below.
Prizes: 2 winners, 6 honorable mentions, 6 editorial picks, up to 36 finalist mentions
Timeline: Registration till 29 August 2020, submission till 29 August 2020
Fees: According to the registration timeline up to 100 Euros, fees per team
2. Healing- Alternative designs for Quarantine Cities
This too is organized by ‘Non-Architecture Competitions’ and is part of the competition series as mentioned earlier. This brief asks us to design the city or urban life in any way or format with the help of architectural designs, to improve the quality of life. It can solve a challenge or simply be any innovation.
Eligibility: Open for all
Submission requirements: 3 drawings free of scale or site.
Prizes: 2 winners, 6 honorable mentions, 6 editorial picks, up to 36 finalist mentions
Timeline: Registration till 22 August 2020, submission till 22 August 2020
Fees: According to the registration timeline up to 100 Euros, fees per team
3. Covid-19 Memorial Design
This competition is brought forward by ‘Design Class’. The pandemic has claimed millions of lives and has also affected their families, friends, and close ones. So, this competition wants us to design a memorial for the people who can pay solace to their dear people who they lost.
Eligibility: Open for all
Submission requirements: 5 images of design, and a 500 word write-up
Prizes: Prize amount of 1000 Dollars
Timeline: Registration and submission till 2 November 2020
Fees: 15 Dollars for students, 35 Dollars for professionals
4. Pandemic Dwelling Design
This competition is organized by Archue challenges. During this pandemic, most of us were confined to our homes. These dwellings should be useful for our current requirements like work-from-home corners and also for those who are advised of being home quarantined.
Eligibility: Open for students and professionals of architecture and interior design
Submission requirements: 1 landscape-oriented A1 sheet, for design under a maximum of 5000 sq ft.
Prize: Prize money will be distributed after total registrations
Timeline: Registration starts on 17 May 2020 and submissions till 30 August 2020
Fees: Up to 3400 rupees or 90 Dollars according to registration timeline
5. Beyond Covid-19
This competition is organized by the Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture. This is collaborated with the platform ‘What is to be asked’. It is more of a discussion-based competition, where participants are required to find solutions to this problem aroused by the pandemic. It is a process-based competition designed to participate in different stages of submissions.
Eligibility: Open for students, researchers, and professionals of architecture
Submission requirements: Stage-wise – Key concepts of topic and insight image, sharing of selected entries and research with the proposal, and result presentation
Prize: Total prize amount of 50,000,000 KRW
Timeline: Stage:wise – 17 August 2020 to 30 September 2020, 1 October 2020 to 30 November 2020, and 1 December 2020 to 31 December 2020 respectively.
6. ADAPT- Alternative Design for Pandemic Times
This unique competition by ‘Mooarch competitions’ will donate our registration amount to the WHO COVID-19 solidarity response fund. This also has a unique brief to design a facility based on two parameters- physical infrastructure and health activities. We need to pick a keyword from each category and design accordingly.
Eligibility: Designers in terms of a maximum of 3 members
Submission requirements: 3 submission boards with a complementary text of maximum 300 words
Prize: 3 winners, 9 finalists, 3 people’s choice, and 24 honorable mentions
Timeline: Registration till 1 October 2020, submission till 4 October 2020
Fees/donation: Minimum 5 Euros
7. Rethinking Hospitality- ‘Common Spaces for Uncommon Times’
This competition is organized by ‘Good goes Viral’. During these challenging times, people may have to find new shelters, or, those quarantined may need more space as isolation wards. Thus, many are concerned about the lack of hospitality during this situation. So, the competition needs us to redesign hospitality settings, including hotels, cafes, restaurants, etc, to either help, those affected, or to innovate for the ‘New Normal’.
Eligibility: Open for architecture, urbanism, and design students, a team of up to 3 members
Submission requirements: 1 A2 board to show design, with a text description of maximum 300 words
Prize: 5 finalists to receive recognition in international architecture outlets, 1 winner to get a surprise reward
Timeline: Registration till 20 June 2020, submission till 4 July 2020
Fees: Free
8. Future Office
This competition is organized by Archue competitions. During these times, the working scenario has changed completely. Everyone is either working from home, or the office days have become alternate. Thus, this competition aims to find solutions for workplace designs responsive to this situation.
Eligibility: Open for all, with a team of maximum 4 members
Submission requirements: Any creation from their previous works or competitions in form of images
Prize: Prize money to be distributed after total registration
Timeline: First come first serve till 150 entries, submission date of 8 November 2020
Fees: According to the registration timeline
The world would heal a lot faster if we as architects and designers identify our responsibility and give a chance to our creativity by participation.
