As the mid-2020 dawns upon us, the impacts of climate change have become unavoidable, the cities unlivable with a perennial degradation of our resources for our coming generation.
Every profession bears a responsibility towards the planet and so do we, architects. There has been a consistent effort to bring a reform in the conventional materials and the techniques of construction. So, a providence of a platform for the students and professionals to exercise their creativity and skills will help the fraternity bring new ideas and their forms of expression that will be empathetic towards the various crises that are felt across the globe.
1. International Green Design Award
Website: competition.adesignaward.com
Early registration and submission: April 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020
Regular registration and submission: July 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020
Late registration and submission: October 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021
The A’ Green Design Awards aims to encourage the good quality design of products, projects, and services that benefit society through increased sustainability, efficiency, and respect to ecological factors and includes different categories like spatial design, graphic design, product design, and communication design.
A competition to honor the companies, institutions, and designers who respect the environment and who plan for a better future, this is open to submissions worldwide.
The submissions will be judged on their degree of sustainability, production efficiency, waste reduction, and improvements in product life with the overall aesthetics of submitted products and services.
2. Adaptive Reuse Architecture Design Competition
Website: www.godesignclass.com
Submission Deadline: October 5, 2020
Winners announced by October 29, 2020
A different approach towards sustainability is redesigning an existing abandoned building that may save them money, land, and infrastructure of a newly designed and constructed structure.
DesignClass aims to do this with the call for entries for Adaptive Reuse Architecture Design Competition where the participants have to identify a building in their community and then design for its revival that leaves a positive impact on their community.
The design will be judged based on design, innovation, community impact, practicality, and presentation.
3. Accelerate the city: Designing resilient urban futures
Website: bubblefutures.com
Early Registration open till 8 June 2020
Final Registration open till 28 September 2020
Submission Deadline: 5 October 2020
This competition provides a public platform where the participants can understand and implement the notions of responsive architecture.
It is a challenge to design a digital or tangible, product or space on a micro or macro scale that is a response towards a fundamental issue of a city, thus giving a proposal for a resilient and adaptable future.
4. Open International Competition on Climate Change – Be the Change 2020 – 2021
Website: kethamsatelier.com
Registrations open till 30 September 2020
Late Registrations open till 15 October 2020
Last date for submission: 15 November 2020
The Climate Change – Be the Change 2020-21 is providing a state-of-art platform where participants can express ideas and designs to bring about transformation in the impact of climate change on communities, cities, and countries considering factors like air, flooding, ecology, plastic, recycling, etc.
The output can be in the form of sketches, paintings, handmade drawings, graphical presentations along with text and the top three projects will be part of an Open Exhibition.
5. Senegal Elementary School “Sambou Toura Drame”
Website: www.archstorming.com
Early Registration Begins: August 5, 2020
Late Registration Begins: October 29, 2020
Submission Deadline: November 25, 2020
This is a collaboration between Archstorming and an NGO, Let’s Build My School, a UK charity which was founded in 2016 to build schools in developing countries with a particular focus on remote areas that lack educational facilities.
The competition is a call for a proposal to design an elementary school in Marsassoum, Senegal that will involve innovative and low-cost construction techniques along with integrated rainwater collecting systems and climatic considerations to replace the temporary school with built structures.
Along with the prize money, the top entries will have a possibility for a volunteer trip to build the school with the winning proposal getting built.
6. What is Sustainable Architecture? – Essay Writing Competition
Website: beebreeders.com
Registration Deadline: 11 November 2020
A designer can have several mediums to communicate his or her ideas. Apart from designing products and spaces, one can express them through words.
Bee Breeders, in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS, is calling for essay submissions for their next print publication “What is Sustainable Architecture?” Submissions from participants related to any field or discipline are welcome.
7. Conversations about Climate Change
Website: ttf.co.uk
Registration and submission deadline: 24 August 2020
Conversations about Climate Change is a design competition that provides a platform for urgent climate debates and sets architects, designers, and craftspeople the challenge of creating ‘conversation pieces’ from responsibly sourced tropical timber.
The entries should start a conversation about material provenance and its place in the climate debate along with the aesthetic qualities of the palette of tropical hardwood species selected.
It can be a piece of furniture, sculpture, a model, or a functional design object that can stimulate a discussion on the climate crisis.
8. LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch
Website: landartgenerator.org
Registration and submission deadline: 31 October 2020
The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) with Fly Ranch aims to inspire people at the intersection of art in public space and sustainable infrastructure for the creation of a beautiful post-carbon world.
It is providing a platform to explore approaches to land use for temporary projects that revolves around five principal categories: shelter, food, water, energy, and zero-waste.
The design has to be pragmatic and constructible and should be in context to Fly Ranch, its physical landscape, micro-climate, and culture. The selected projects will be constructed at the Fly Ranch.
9. Architecture of the Abandoned
Website: /www.thebigthing.net
Early Registration Deadline: 15 July 2020
Late Registration Deadline: 10 October 2020
Submission Deadline: 15 October 2020
The competition sheds light on the reuse of metal objects present in our surroundings.
The participants have to design a residence out of the metal objects like trains, lifeguard stations, planes, ships, sea forts, cranes, satellite dishes, nuclear reactors, bridges, cars, etc. The objects can be treated and molded as per the suitability of the design that can carve out space for a functional house.
10. Cambodia Remote Hideout Huts
Website: beebreeders.com
Registration Deadline: 18 November 2020
The Cambodia Remote Hideout Huts competition is a collaboration of Bee Breeders with The Vine Retreat, a health and wellness retreat, located in the countryside between Phnom Vour Mountain and the south coast of Cambodia.
This competition invites design proposals for self-sustained hideout huts to be located in the retreat. To support the country’s desire to grow in eco-tourism, the design should focus on eco-friendly and cost-effective building techniques to set an example of green building practice in Cambodia.