2026 BIGFIELDS STUDENTS PRIZE > Competitions

1. Competition Overview

BIGFIELDS 2026 focuses on "WAR", one of the most complex and urgent conditions of the contemporary world. 

This competition views war not merely as military conflict, but as a complex spatial condition involving urban destruction, severed memories, reshaped borders, displacement and survival, mourning and healing, and reconstruction and coexistence.

Participants are invited to respond to the theme of "WAR" through their own interpretations and architectural languages. 

The competition specifies no set program or site boundaries. 

Thus proposals can range across various typologies and scales, including buildings, landscapes, urban strategies, infrastructure, memorials, shelters, research facilities, community spaces, or experimental concepts.

2. Organizer and Competition Objective

BIGFIELDS understands architecture not as mere formal production, but as a cultural practice that reads societal crises, analyzes the human condition, and imagines new possibilities. 

BIGFIELDS 2026 is an international student architecture competition designed for architecture students worldwide to critically and creatively explore the relationship between war and architecture within a global forum.

This competition prioritizes an inquiring attitude and fresh perspectives over finalized answers. 

We believe that the imagination, experimentation, passion, and contemporary awareness of young future architects represent crucial potentials that chart the forward path for contemporary architecture.

Thus BIGFIELDS 2026 seeks architectural proposals embedded with spatial strategies, narratives, expressive power, and cultural interpretations based on a clear sense of purpose and contextual understanding, rather than the mere production of striking images. Through the profound theme of war, participants will propose their own unique visions for post-destruction recovery, memory and borders, survival and community, and the potential of space for the future.

3. Theme Description: WAR

 WAR is not merely an isolated event but a continuous state—a force that disrupts the orders of cities, communities, territories, memories, resources, and human survival. 

At the same time, war generates urgent spatial demands for protection, bearing witness, commemoration, healing, recovery, and reconstruction.

Participants can freely interpret expanded war concepts such as actual war and armed conflict, refugees and migration, ruins and regeneration, borders and surveillance, memorial and memory, emergency relief and survival infrastructure, information warfare, climate warfare, water war, and food conflict.

4. Competition Objectives

The objective of this competition is to explore the conceptual, social, and spatial possibilities of architecture through the theme of "WAR". 

Participants must propose how architecture can record war, provide protection, reorganize life after conflict, and transform memory and mourning into spatial forms.

The competition does not demand a single correct solution. Participants must demonstrate an attitude that translates contemporary unstable conditions into spatial thinking and architectural imagination.

5. Site and Context Setup

This competition does not designate a specific site. Participants can freely choose real locations, fictional sites, urban conditions, distributed networks, or non-building spatial systems.

But every proposal must present and justify its own context. Submissions must explain why the specific location or condition was selected, must demonstrate how the site connects to the theme of "WAR", and how social, political, historical, and environmental factors are integrated into the design.

6. Scope of Submission

This competition accepts all architectural proposals that meaningfully respond to the theme of "WAR". 

For example, memorials, refugee shelters, humanitarian health care and relief facilities, postwar community reconstruction infrastructure, protection spaces, archives and education facilities, ruins regeneration projects, urban restoration strategies, and experimental proposals to respond to future conflict scenarios are possible. Participants can freely establish any scale and program for their project. But all submissions must maintain strict architectural logic and be formatted as explicit spatial proposals.

7. Eligibility

This competition is an international open competition for architecture students. Students currently enrolled or holding active academic status in undergraduate or graduate programs related to architecture are eligible to participate regardless of nationality or age.

Both individual and team participation are permitted, and each team may consist of up to five members.

Jury members and any individuals with a direct conflict of interest are not eligible to participate.

Multiple submissions are not permitted; each individual or team may submit only one project.

Participants may be required to submit documentation verifying their academic status during registration or award verification. Registration or awards may be canceled if false information is identified.

In the case of team participation, one representative must be designated, and all official notices and communications from the organizer will be addressed to the designated representative.

The organizer shall not be responsible for any disputes within a team regarding prize distribution or rights-related matters.

8. Registration and Participation Fee

 The participation fee is USD 100 per submitted project. 

Registration is deemed valid only after both the official registration form is submitted and the payment of the participation fee is fully confirmed. 

Upon successful registration, participants will be issued a unique registration number and all required submission files must be named and prepared based on this unique registration number. 

In principle, the participation fee is strictly non-refundable. If the competition is cancelled by the organizer, separate notices will be provided regarding refunds or alternative compensation measures.

9. Official Timeline

- Competition Opens: May 22, 2026

- Registration Period: June 15 – August 31, 2026

- Submission Deadline: August 31, 2026 / 23:59 UTC+9(KST)

- Jury Review: September 1, 2026 – September 20, 2026

- Announcement of Results: September 25, 2026

- Publication of Winning Entries and Online Archive: September 30, 2026

The final submission deadline is August 31, 2026, at 23:59 UTC, based on the server's arrival time. 

The participant holds full responsibility for any disadvantages caused by upload delays, file errors, internet connectivity issues, or time zone calculation mistakes.

10. Language, Anonymity, and File Naming Rules

English is the official language of the competition. All text within the submission deliverables must be written in English.

Since the screening is anonymous, identifiable information such as name, school name, office name, logo, signature, email address, nationality mark, SNS account, and watermark should not be included anywhere in the submission.

11. Awards and Prizes

1st Prize: USD 10,000 / 1 Team

2nd Prize: USD 1,000 / 1 Team

3rd Prize: USD 500 / 1 Team

Honorable Prize: USD 100 / 5 Teams

Special Recognition: Selected if necessary / No cash prize

12. Jury

The jury will consist of 5 leading professionals from around the world.