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.
Concéntrico is an urban innovation laboratory that invites reflection on the city through architecture and design. Since 2015, it has carried out more than 180 interventions in Logroño, Spain. The new 2025/2026 season of the festival expands on this experimental spirit with three international calls for proposals that bring the ideas in the book Concéntrico: Laboratorio de Innovación Urbana (Park Books, 2025) into action. Through these calls, the organization seeks to explore further three lines of research, the ephemeral, the ecological, and the symbolic, to imagine different ways of inhabiting the city. The winning projects from this edition's calls for entries will be developed, built as urban installations, and presented in the exhibition during the festival, taking place in Logroño from June 18–23, 2026.
Following the release of seven shortlisted proposals in 2025 through an online gallery, the Foundation for the Development of the Lands Adjacent to the Baptism Site has announced the winner of the international design competition for the Museum of Jesus' Baptism at Bethany, Jordan. Managed by Malcolm Reading Consultants, the six-month invited competition brought together architect-led multidisciplinary teams to design a museum and landscape project responding to the sacred character of Al-Maghtas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After finalist interviews conducted by an international Advisory Panel, the team led by Níall McLaughlin Architects (NMLA) was selected as the competition winner.
Buildner has announced the results of its Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces, an international ideas competition examining the adaptive reuse of small-scale existing buildings. The competition invited architects and designers to propose transformations of used, abandoned, or overlooked structures with an approximate footprint of 250 square meters, located anywhere in the world. With no fixed site or program, participants were encouraged to explore alternatives to demolition and new construction through reuse strategies grounded in contemporary social and environmental concerns.
As an open-format competition, Re-Form foregrounded sustainability, feasibility, and community impact over formal or typological constraints. Submissions ranged from precise urban insertions to more speculative rural interventions, reflecting a broad range of approaches to working with existing fabric. Many projects focused on how limited, often marginal spaces could be reactivated to support new forms of collective use while responding to material, climatic, and ecological conditions.
Bechu & Associés has been selected as the winner of the international open competition for the masterplan of Hunnu City, a new satellite city planned south of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Announced in 2025, the winning proposal establishes a long-term urban framework for a 31,503-hectare site located near Chinggis Khaan International Airport, with phased development planned between 2025 and 2045. The project forms part of Mongolia's broader territorial strategy under the Ulaanbaatar 2040 Master Plan and the national Vision 2050 framework, positioning Hunnu City as a new emerging major city intended to support population decentralization, economic diversification, and long-term urban resilience.
Bratislava, the rapidly developing capital of Slovakia—located in the heart of Europe—continues to strengthen its presence on the European architectural map. As a growing hub of contemporary design—already home to projects by Zaha Hadid Architects, Massimiliano & Doriana Fuksas, Stefano Boeri, Studio Egret West, and Snøhetta—the city has now reached another important milestone: an international architectural and urban design competition has been announced to shape the future of Zváračák, one of the last major brownfield sites near the city center.
Kistefos Museum has announced Swiss architectural practice Christ & Gantenbein as the winner of its international design competition for a new museum building at the Kistefos site in Jevnaker, approximately one hour north of Oslo. Conceived as a significant new addition to one of Europe's leading sculpture parks and cultural destinations, the project is scheduled to open in 2031 and will house the art collection of Kistefos founder and collector Christen Sveaas through the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. Following the announcement, Christ & Gantenbein will now work with Kistefos Museum to further develop the concept design toward realization.
Buildner and the Mujassam Watan Initiative have announced the results of the Mujassam Watan Urban Sculpture Challenge.
This international competition invited architects, artists, and designers to create visionary public sculptures that reflect Saudi Arabia's rich cultural heritage and forward-looking ambitions. As the Kingdom undergoes a profound transformation under Vision 2030, this initiative—organized in partnership with the Mujassam Watan Initiative—called for works that engage with both history and future, tradition and innovation, within the public realm.
Buildner has announced the results of its Portugal Vez River SPA international competition.
This international competition invited architects to design a boutique wellness retreat along the serene banks of the Vez River in northern Portugal. The project challenged participants to propose a space of tranquility and renewal that would harmonize with its extraordinary natural setting and complement a restored historic watermill already on site. The project partner, the site landowner, plans to construct one of the winning entries.
The Foundation for the Development of the Lands Adjacent to the Baptism Site has unveiled seven shortlisted concept designs for the new Museum of Jesus' Baptism at Bethany, Jordan. The proposals, now available in an online gallery, were developed by internationally recognized multidisciplinary teams led by AAU Anastas, heneghan peng architects, Níall McLaughlin Architects, Studio Anne Holtrop, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO, Toshiko Mori Architect, and Trahan Architects. Managed by Malcolm Reading Consultants, the invited competition seeks an architect-led multidisciplinary team to design a museum and garden that responds to the sacred character of the site. The project is planned to open in 2030, marking the bimillennial of Christ's baptism, and aims to create a space of reflection, learning, and cultural exchange.
Buildner has announced the results of its international architecture ideas competition, Architect's Stair, and the launch of its third edition.
The event invited designers to reflect on one of architecture's oldest and most symbolic elements: the stair. Beyond its functional role as a connector of levels, the stair was positioned here as a medium of architectural storytelling—an invitation to explore ideas of procession, sequence, space, and form.
For this first edition, participants were asked to conceptualize a stair not as a technical solution but as an expressive artifact—an embodiment of their design sensibility and architectural values. There were no constraints on site, scale, material, or program. Instead, designers were challenged to reimagine the stair as a sculptural, poetic, and even philosophical construct—one that could provoke, question, or elevate our understanding of vertical space.
Buildner has announced the results of its Kinderspace Edition #2 Competition and launched the third annual Kinderspace Edition #3 with an upcoming registration deadline of 26 November 2025. Following its inaugural launch, this annual international competition once again invited architects, designers, and educators to explore new possibilities for early childhood learning environments.
Participants were tasked with envisioning spaces that inspire discovery, foster imagination, and support the emotional and cognitive development of young children. The aim was to move beyond standardized classroom design and propose innovative, flexible, and nature-connected spaces that reflect a deeper understanding of how children interact with their surroundings.
Buildner has announced the results of its fourth annual Hospice - Home for the Terminally Ill international architecture ideas competition. This global call for ideas continues to explore how architecture can support end-of-life care with empathy, dignity, and contextual sensitivity. The competition invited architects and designers to move beyond clinical requirements and envision spaces that offer emotional warmth, social connection, and a profound sense of place.
The 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, one of the most prestigious honors in the field, celebrates projects that not only exhibit architectural excellence but also profoundly improve the quality of life for their communities. Among this year's winners is the West Wusutu Village Community Centre, a project in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, by Chinese architect Zhang Pengju. In an era when rural areas often face social fragmentation and a loss of identity, this community center offers a powerful counter-narrative.
In recognizing this project, the award jury praised its ability to intervene in a sensitive yet rational manner, using design to foster inclusivity, resilience, sustainability, and overall well-being. The design achieves these goals by rejecting rigid functional zoning. Instead, a permeable circular courtyard integrates diverse community activities, organizing circulation and connecting multiple open rooms into a cohesive whole.
Today, September 2, the seven winners of the 16th Cycle (2023–2025) of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture were announced, following on-site reviews of the 19 shortlisted projects revealed in June. Established in 1977, the Award seeks to identify and encourage building concepts that respond to the physical, social, and economic needs of communities with a significant Muslim presence, while also addressing their cultural aspirations. To understand the vision behind this cycle's winners, ArchDaily's Editor-in-Chief, Christele Harrouk, spoke with Farrokh Derakhshani, who has been with the award for over four decades. He described the initiative as "a curated message to the world," a message that evolves with the times.
The independent Master Jury of the 16th Award Cycle (2023–2025) of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has announced seven winners, selected following on-site reviews of projects shortlisted earlier in June. Collectively, the awarded works demonstrate architecture's potential to act as a catalyst for pluralism, community resilience, social transformation, cultural dialogue, and climate-responsive design. Two projects from Iran, and one each from Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Pakistan, and Palestine, will share a prize of $1 million, among the most significant awards in the field of architecture.
Mongolia, the world's second-largest landlocked country, spans 1.5 million square kilometers. Yet, over 50% of its population—approximately 1.7 million people—reside in Ulaanbaatar, a city that occupies just 0.3% of the nation's total land area. This disproportionate population concentration has led to significant regional development imbalances and mounting urban challenges in the capital.
In response to these issues, Ulaanbaatar has undergone a series of comprehensive urban development initiatives. Since the first master plan was introduced in 1954, six such plans have been created. The latest, the Ulaanbaatar 2040 Master Plan, includes a strategic vision to decentralize urban growth through the development of two new satellite cities—one of which is the Hunnu City project.
