Celebrating 15 years of
Buildner competitions

Architecture competitions hold a unique and important place in the profession, offering value both to society and to the architects who participate. As architects, we have a responsibility to be visionaries in the built environment and to champion equitable, sustainable, and beautiful design. Competitions provide a forum to test those ideas while building a toolkit of skills and approaches that can inform our work and, potentially, the work of others. They create space for critical investigations of the design zeitgeist and for experimentation that can push the discipline forward. I participate for my own growth as a designer—and because they are good fun.

We treat competitions above all as a way to test ourselves. Each one is a chance to push into unfamiliar territory — new project types, new tools and software, new ways of working — and to come out the other side with knowledge and skills we didn't have going in. Just as importantly, competitions strengthen the team. Working intensely toward a single deadline shows us where each person is strongest and how we work best together, so that every entry leaves us more capable and more efficient on the next one — and on the real projects that follow. The result matters, but the growth is the point.

Because unbuilt ideas can be quite loud in our heads, and we need an outlet for them. In all seriousness, competitions give us a pure, unfiltered platform. It’s a place where our ideas can be seen and our voices can be heard, totally free from the usual compromises of strict zoning codes or conservative budgets.

The best architectural ideas often arrive uninvited — and competitions are one of the few places where that's actually allowed. Without a client brief narrowing the aperture before the thinking has even begun, competitions create the rare conditions for genuine exploration.

Architecture competitions give us a chance to investigate new ideas and spend time thinking about what’s next. This intellectual space allows us to see the world differently and we soon find we are applying what we learned during a competition to our real-world projects.

We participate in architecture competitions to exchange ideas with the very best talents and front tier emerging architects. Most importantly, to showcase our work to the world.

Competitions give us room to ask questions that commissioned work rarely allows. Daily practice, with its budgets, schedules, and codes, is essential, but it can slowly narrow what we allow ourselves to imagine. A competition lets us step back and test ideas we care about: architecture that is participatory, that changes over time, and that belongs to the public as much as to its designers.

Holding an idea is easier said than done, and this is why I keep entering competitions. Everyday work answers to programmes; a competition lets me formulate the programme. It is the only place where a question can be raised before a client raises it. The project awarded here began with such a question: what a suburb could become if the parcel layout were drawn last — after the walk, after the park, after the possibility of change had been built in. No client asks for that; a competition lets you answer it anyway. It is a rare chance to make an attempt: to try a new way of thinking, to test my instincts and my beliefs, and to ask myself what I really want to share.

We participate in the competition to stay informed about the most up-to-date technologies and developments in architecture and to remain actively engaged with the architectural academic community. Although working remotely and not being physically together presented challenges, the experience pushed us to overcome communication barriers, strengthen our collaboration, and develop a more effective way of working together.

I have always been deeply fascinated by nature, its creativity, and human imagination, and I believe they are essential to finding meaning in life. I nurtured this curiosity during my university years while studying architecture, and it is something I definitely do not want to lose as I grow older and become more immersed in professional life. Architecture competitions are a form of continued learning that I intentionally chose after graduation. They give me the opportunity to keep imagining, experimenting, and exploring ideas freely—and to hold on to that sense of curiosity and creativity beyond everyday practice.