DiscoverArch Student Project Awards 2025

Website: www.discoverarch.org/competitions/student-project-awards-2025

About: The DiscoverArch Student Project Awards are a premier global platform dedicated to celebrating your best academic thesis or studio projects. Unlike many other competitions that require new work, this award lets you submit a pre-existing academic project. It offers both a Jury Choice Award (judged by experts) and a Public Choice Award (voted on by the global community).

Why it's for Students:

It provides a rare and valuable opportunity to gain international recognition and critique for a project you’ve already poured your academic life into, turning a class grade into a global publication. It is also very affordable making it accessible for more students to showcase their work. It is strictly limited to students.

120 Hours Competition 2025

Website: www.120hours.no

About: This is a prestigious international student-exclusive competition originating in Norway. As the name suggests, you have only 120 hours (5 days) to solve a complex, topical architectural problem. The challenge is immense, demanding quick thinking, concise presentation, and a high-impact conceptual response.

Why it's for Students:

It’s an authentic rite of passage for students, testing your raw design agility and ability to perform under pressure skills highly valued in practice. It is strictly limited to students.

Designaddvance 2025: Beyond the Game: Adaptive Arenas for Tomorrow

Website: www.ethosempowers.com

About: Challenges students to design a versatile, modular arena that is easily transformable, relocatable, and sustainable to cater to various scales of events from major games to community gatherings.

Why it's for Students:

Participants get access to free self-learning modules and webinars on BIM, energy simulation, and sustainability from industry experts.

BUILDNER'S UNBUILT AWARD 2025

Website: architecturecompetitions.com/unbuilt2025/

About: The Buildner's Unbuilt Award 2025 is a prestigious global architecture competition dedicated to celebrating unrealized designs from conceptual ideas to detailed plans awaiting construction. It focuses on the creative potential and visionary thinking that define unbuilt projects, regardless of whether they have been previously published.

Why it's for Students:

The Unbuilt Award is highly relevant for students as it provides a platform for their most ambitious, theoretical, or thesis projects work that is often conceptual and not intended for immediate construction.

Tiny Library 2025 Architecture Competition

Website: volumezerocompetitions.com/tinylibrary-2025

About: Organized by Volume Zero, the Tiny Library 2025 Architecture Competition is a global, open-ideas design challenge focused on rethinking the library as a 21st-century self-learning and educational incubation space.

Why it's for Students:

The Tiny Library competition is an exceptional opportunity for students to engage in a high-impact, socially relevant design brief with Dedicated Student Award.

The 14th Annual Architizer A+Awards

Website: awards.architizer.com/a

About: The Architizer A+Awards is the largest and most global awards program dedicated to celebrating the world's best architecture, spaces, and products. The 14th Annual A+Awards celebrates a "new era of craft," emphasizing material intelligence, detailing, and human-centered ingenuity. The program includes over 120 categories spanning across major groups.

Why it's for Students:

While the A+Awards primarily recognizes built and unbuilt work by professional firms, it offers crucial categories and unparalleled exposure for academic projects.

IGBC Green Design Competition 2025: Urban Echoes

Website: ethosempowers.com/ideace/events/IGBC2025LARGE

About: The 19th IGBC Green Design Competition, hosted by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and supported by Ethos, is a prominent national design challenge for architecture and design students in India. The theme, "Urban Echoes: Revive the Past, Reclaim the Present," focuses on the critical practice of adaptive reuse in the urban context.

Why it's for Students:

This competition is explicitly designed for the academic community and is an essential platform for students focused on sustainable and responsible design. The competition is open exclusively to currently enrolled undergraduate and postgraduate students in Architecture and Design courses in India, ensuring they compete solely with their peers.

The Architecture Community World Design Awards

Website: www.thearchitecturecommunity.com

About: The Architecture Community (TAC) World Design Awards is an international architecture and design award program that recognizes outstanding projects across various scales, from small conceptual work to large built structures. It is a broad competition with categories spanning Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning.

Why it's for Students:

The World Design Awards is one of the most direct and accessible international platforms for architecture and design students to showcase their academic work globally. There is a specific WA Student Award category which is reserved exclusively for school projects that are conceptual/designed.

eVolo Skyscraper Competition 2025

Website: www.evolo.us/registration-2025-skyscraper-competition

About: The eVolo Skyscraper Competition is a prestigious and forward-thinking awards for high-rise architecture. Established in 2006 by eVolo Magazine, it is a global, open-idea design challenge that focuses on redefining the skyscraper typology for the 21st century.

Why it's for Students:

The eVolo competition is an essential proving ground for architecture and design students looking to gain international recognition for their most radical and visionary conceptual projects.

The Social Hub: Reimagining Community Spaces

Website: www.discoverarch.org

About: The Social Hub: Reimagining Community Spaces is an international design competition organized by DiscoverArch that challenges participants to develop innovative architectural concepts for integrated, multi-functional community spaces. These community spaces are intended to serve as vibrant centers for interaction, learning, collaboration, and social welfare within an urban context.

Why it's for Students:

This competition is exceptionally tailored for architecture and design students, offering a fair and focused environment for their most socially relevant work. Students are free to select any context allowing them to research and design specifically for the unique needs and challenges of a chosen community. This encourages a powerful exercise in empathy-driven design and contextual architecture. It is also very affordable making it accessible for more students to showcase their work. It is strictly limited to students.

Participating in architecture competitions is one of the most valuable means through which one can gain experience, compile a portfolio, and be recognized within this highly competitive profession. Each of these platforms offers unique opportunities to challenge yourself and showcase your vision. Whether you are drawn to conceptual design, sustainable solutions, or built excellence, there's a competition out there for you.

Now, bookmark your favorites, build your team, and get ready to design the future. Good luck!

Top 10 Architecture Competitions of 2025 for Students

Latest Stories