Unbuilt projects are a reservoir of untapped potential, telling stories of creativity, vision, and exploration. The Unbuilt Award 2025 shines a spotlight on these extraordinary designs, offering a global platform for ideas that redefine boundaries.
This competition features categories for small, medium, and large-scale projects, ensuring every vision receives the recognition it deserves. Open to all, regardless of qualifications, this is an invitation for everyone, everywhere.
Categories
- Small Wonders: Up to 100 m²
- Medium Marvels: 101–999 m²
- Large Visions: Over 1,000 m²
100,000 € Prize Fund
Winners will share a total prize pool of 100,000 €, with additional recognition through inclusion in Buildner's exclusive printed book, cementing their contributions to architectural innovation.
Competition Schedule
- Early Bird Registration: 31 October 2024 – 6 March 2025
- Advanced Registration: 7 March – 11 September 2025
- Last Minute Registration: 12 September – 30 October 2025
- Registration Deadline: 30 October 2025
- Submission Deadline: 20 November 2025, 23:59 (London Time)
- Winners Announcement: 17 December 2025
Jury Panel
- Amale Andraos: Co-Founder, WORKac; former Dean, Columbia GSAPP
- David Basulto: Founder, ArchDaily
- Manuela Gatto: Director, Zaha Hadid Architects
- Christele Harrouk: Editor-in-Chief, ArchDaily
- Melodie Leung: Director, Zaha Hadid Architects
- Amanda Levete: Founder, AL_A
- Michael Meredith: Founder, MOS; Associate Dean, Princeton School of Architecture
- Lyndon Neri: Co-Founder, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
- Will Plowman: Partner, Foster + Partners
- Carlo Ratti: Director, MIT Media Lab
For the full jury panel, visit the competition website.
Open to Everyone, Everywhere
The Unbuilt Award 2025 invites you to showcase designs that inspire and challenge conventions. Celebrate the creative journey and share your vision with a global audience.
Register Now
Visit unblt.com for full competition details and registration.
Jury Profiles
Amale Andraos co-founded Workac in 2003 with Dan Wood. She is the President and CEO of the firm as well as a Professor and Dean Emeritus at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), where she recently served as an Advisor on the University's Climate Initiatives and for the newly-launched Climate School. Andraos is recognized as a thought leader, contributing widely to the field through her lectures and writings. Her publications include The Arab City: Architecture and Representation, a critical engagement of contemporary architecture and urbanism in the Middle East. Andraos has served on numerous juries, advisory, and selection committees, including most recently as Chair of the Aga Khan Award, and is currently serving on the Advisory Council for the New Museum's incubator space, New Inc, in New York. She is a licensed architect in the State of New York and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (HFRAIC). Andraos was born in Beirut, Lebanon.
Christele Harrouk is Editor-in-Chief of ArchDaily. Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, Christele Harrouk is a French-Lebanese architect and urban designer with an extensive architecture and editorial portfolio. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture and two Master's Degrees in Architecture and Urban Design, complemented by leadership training. Harrouk began her career as an architect and urban designer, later transitioning to architecture journalism in 2014. She interviewed prominent industry figures, leveraging her extensive network and practical experience. Joining ArchDaily in 2019 as a content editor, she became the Managing Editor in 2020, leading a diverse team of editors and establishing editorial strategies and partnerships with cultural and educational institutions. In August of 2024, she was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the platform. Focusing on empowering women in architecture, highlighting challenges of the built environment and underrepresented areas, Harrouk's multicultural background brings a fresh perspective to ArchDaily's inclusive editorial identity. Her knowledge has led to invitations from renowned institutions as a panel moderator and brand ambassador, contributing to global networks, podcasts, and magazines, and co-authoring ArchDaily's first book.
Manuela Gatto is a Director at Zaha Hadid Architects. She oversees award-winning architecture, managing design, technical teams, and project delivery. Fluent in five languages, she helps lead one of the studio's primary clusters. Gatto graduated with honors in architecture from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) in 1998 and earned her Master of Architecture with distinction in 2002 from the Architectural Association's Design Research Laboratory in London. Co-author of Negotiate My Boundary! - Mass Customization and Responsive Environments, Gatto explores architecture's response to evolving social and cultural dynamics. She has taught at IUAV and the Architectural Association and lectured globally, including at the University of Hong Kong, La Sapienza in Rome, and Technion in Haifa. Her notable projects include the Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion, Zorrozaurre Masterplan in Bilbao, Sky SOHO in Shanghai, and BMW Central Building in Leipzig. She co-directed the Sberbank Technopark in Moscow and led designs for Leeza SOHO in Beijing, featuring the world's tallest atrium, and the Danjiang Bridge in Taipei, set to be the world's longest asymmetric cable-stayed bridge. Currently, Gatto directs projects such as the Dnipro Metro stations in Ukraine, the Mercury Hotel and Residential Towers in Malta, and several major developments in China. As a senior masterplan specialist, she also leads large-scale urban regeneration initiatives, applying her versatile expertise to diverse architectural scales and typologies.
Melodie Leung is a Director at Zaha Hadid Architects. Her experience is focused on projects with a community centred and experiential design approach, effective place making and collaborative solutions from concept through to completion. Leung completed her Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002 and her Masters of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning at Columbia University, New York. She has been involved in teaching design studios at the Architectural Association, Southern California Institute of Architecture, Columbia University and Pratt University in New York. Leung has led the design and delivery on projects ranging in scale from the urban realm, architecture, interiors, product designs, exhibitions, research and creative direction in the performing arts. Her project portfolio includes the interior design concepts for Guangzhou Infinitus Plaza, 'The Henderson' in Hong Kong and 'The Magazine' at the Serpentine North Gallery, as well as the 'Walkable London' proposal for pedestrianized boulevards across the city, alongside significant monographic exhibitions on ZHA's works at the Guggenheim, NYC, and MAM Shanghai, and notable products within the Zaha Hadid Design Collection. Her latest completed project as Project Director is 'The Kensington', a first-ever sculptural billboard situated within the Royal Borough of Kensington, Chelsea which enhances the public realm.
Amanda Levete is a Stirling Prize winner and the founder of the architectural practice AL_A. Recently completed projects include two buildings for Wadham College at the University of Oxford, a center for the cancer care charity Maggie's in Southampton, the Victoria & Albert Museum Exhibition Road Quarter in London (the V&A's largest building project in over 100 years), and MAAT, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon, commissioned by EDP, one of the world's foremost energy companies.Ongoing commissions include the renovation and expansion of Paisley Museum in Scotland, the reimagining of the D'Ieteren Headquarters in Brussels, a prototype fusion plant for the clean energy firm General Fusion at Culham, and the Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall in Serbia, which represents the largest cultural investment in the region to date. Levete trained at the Architectural Association and worked for Richard Rogers before joining Future Systems as a partner in 1989, where she completed groundbreaking buildings including the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground and Selfridges department store in Birmingham. In 2017, Levete was recognized in the Queen's Birthday Honours List and awarded a CBE for services to architecture. In 2018, she received the Jane Drew Prize, and in 2019, she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She was also recently made a Royal Academician. Levete is a trustee of the V&A, a regular radio and TV broadcaster, and writes for several publications. She lectures around the world and is an internationally recognized cultural commentator.
David Basulto is an Architect and Founder of ArchDaily. He has served on juries for several awards, and design competitions in Latin America, North America, Europe, and Asia. He is a member of the Mies Crown Hall America Prize International Advisory Council, Chicago. He is recognized as an Endeavor Entrepreneur from the Endeavor Foundation in New York, and received the National Award of Innovation from the Chilean Government in 2012. David served as curator of the Nordic Countries Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Michael Meredith is Associate Dean and Professor at Princeton University. Along with his partner, Hilary Sample, Michael Meredith is a principal of MOS, an internationally recognized architecture practice based in New York. His writing has appeared in Artforum, LOG, Perspecta, Praxis, Domus, and Harvard Design Magazine. Meredith previously taught at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, the University of Michigan, where he was awarded the Muschenheim Fellowship, and the University of Toronto.
Lyndon Neri co-founded Neri&Hu Design and Research Office with Rossana Hu in 2006, an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai with satellite offices in Milan and Paris. Neri received his Master of Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Alongside his design practice, Neri has been deeply committed to architectural education and has taught and lectured in numerous universities. He was recently appointed as Visiting Faculty at Princeton University School of Architecture, starting spring semester 2024. Neri was appointed the Howard Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, the Design Critic in 2023 and the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture in 2019 and 2021 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor in 2022 and Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor Chair in 2018 at the Yale School of Architecture. Neri co-authored and edited Persistence of Vision: Shanghai Architects in Dialogue published by MCCM Creations in 2007. In 2017, his first monograph Neri&Hu Design and Research Office was published by Park Books. In 2021, the second monograph Thresholds: Space, Time and Practice was published by Thames&Hudson and the Chinese edition was translated and published in 2023 by Guangxi Normal University Press.
Will Plowman is a Partner at Foster + Partners and currently leads the Dubai office of the firm. He earned his degree in architecture from the University of Newcastle and London Metropolitan University, graduating in 2007. Before joining Foster + Partners, he gained valuable site experience working on award-winning residential and educational projects, such as Crouch Hill in London and the UK's first zero-carbon in-use school. Joining Foster + Partners in 2011, Will has worked on several high-profile projects around the world, including the Brooklin Tower in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which showcases sustainable design. As the head of the Dubai office, he has worked closely with the operator and client team for the design and delivery of LANA by Dorchester Collection, a luxury hotel and branded residences development that features seven stunning gardens. Will has been instrumental in the success of this project. With a passion for design and a commitment to excellence, Will has lived and worked in various countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and the UK, gaining invaluable international experience that has enriched his work. His dedication to his craft and extensive experience in the field have made him a valuable asset to the architectural community.
Carlo Ratti is Director of the research initiative MIT Senseable City Lab, which works with industry partners, metropolitan governments, individual citizens and disadvantaged communities to develop and deploy tools to learn about cities. He also runs CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati - an international design and innovation office based in Turin, Italy, with branches in New York City and London.
Title
Buildner’s Unbuilt Award 2025: Celebrating Your Unbuilt Architectural Ideas! €100,000 PrizeType
Call for SubmissionsWebsite
Organizers
BuildnerRegistration Deadline
October 30, 2025 11:59 PMSubmission Deadline
November 20, 2025 11:59 PMPrice
100,000 €