ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION

COMPETITION CONDITIONS
Contents

3 ARCHHIVE BOOKS Buildner (formerly Bee Breeders)

4 ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION 7 PRIZES Architecture Competition Organisers

have prepared this document for
6 PROGRAMME 8 BUILDNER STUDENT PRIZE
the purpose of arranging the
9 CERTIFICATES Milan Affordable Housing Challenge
10 PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN architecture competition.

11 COMPETITION SCHEDULE
The concept and planning for this competition
12 REGISTRATION FEES have been developed solely by
12 DISCOUNTS FOR ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS Buildner (formerly Bee Breeders)
13 SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS Architecture Competition Organisers.

14 RECOMMENDED SUBMISSION CONTENT

© Buildner (formerly Bee Breeders)
14 PRESENTATION DELIVERABLES SET Architecture Competition Organisers
15 PRELIMINARY PRESENTATION REVIEWS contact@buildner.com

16 architecturecompetitions.com
JURY
17 TELL THE WORLD YOUR STORY!
VIDEO AND INTERVIEW
18 MEDIA PARTNERS
18 ELIGIBILITY
 What is
Affordable
Housing?
The most up-to-date collection
of interviews, essays, and
design case studies.

ARCHHIVE BOOKS is a print publication

A must-read for expanding on the ideas presented by

“
industry-leading
architects and design teams!
“ARCHHIVE BOOKS “What is
Affordable Housing?” considers
that we are now living in an era
when we must reconsider and
change the definition of “living” in
a dwelling. For this, the crucial
thing is”that every type of housing
we design has to be affordable.”
Buildner Architecture Competition
Organisers.
ARCHHIVE BOOKS aims to bring architects
together with startups, entrepreneurs,
developers, and problem-solving organizations
which tackle these same global issues, often in
ways other than building. ARCHHIVE BOOKS
merges the wealth of Bee Breeders’ novel
architectural design proposals with
complementary ideas in entrepreneurship,
policy, and technology.

Kengo Kuma,
Architect

3
Architecture
Competition
Milan may not be Italy’s capital city, but it stands out as Over recent decades, Milan has transformed from a
being the most expensive in terms of housing. According working-class city, operated largely by the Milanese
to a report by Italian real estate brokerage Tecnocasa mafia, to a cultural and economic hub.
Group, if you want to buy a property in Milan, you need That transformation has come with some serious
the equivalent of 166 Italian salaries. So even if you consequences. Renovated buildings and a more mixed
were able to pay no other bills or costs or spend any population has regenerated some neighborhoods and
other money, it would still take the average Italian 13 gentrified others, causing house prices to soar and
years to pay off their mortgage in Milan. making Milan unaffordable for those in weaker
economic and social circumstances.
Often referred to as the economic capital of the country,
Milan’s property market is far from economical. It takes
an average of 12.8 years to purchase an apartment in
Milan, compared to the national average of just 6.9
years.

4
Alzaia Naviglio Grande, Milano, Italy © Cristina Gottardi
Buildner architecture competitions is launching its 15th
affordable housing competition – “The Milan Affordable
Housing Challenge” – tasking architects and designers
with creating a concept for affordable housing that can
be adapted and located throughout the city.
Participants should consider designs that are flexible
enough to accommodate different sizes for various
inhabitants (families, single professionals, couples, etc)
and their varying requirements.

As there are no specific requirements, participants are

encouraged to be as creative as possible in the solutions
they design, challenging typical ideas of housing,
design, and the community at large, while at the same
time maintaining a practical element that could
potentially see these designs realized.

5
Aerial view of Milan city skyline © VILTVART
Programme
• Design a concept for affordable housing within Milan,
which can be easily rolled out to increase the capacity
of housing stock, and is minimal in its use of land and
materials.

• No minimum size or amount of the residential units

per block is defined. The proposals should be flexible
enough to adapt in different sizes with different
inhabitant capacity requirements.

• Designs for the Milan Affordable Housing Challenge

should be flexible to different locations across the
city. The designs should also be adaptable, allowing
adjustments to be made in order to suit different
residential capacity requirements.

6
© Watchara Ritjan
 Prizes
Monetary awards

Total prize fund

7,000 €
3 winning proposals, 2 special award recipients and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 7,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize
BUILDNER STUDENT AWARD
3,000 €
1,000 € Cash prize +
50 € ARCHHIVEBOOKS.com gift card
2nd Prize
1,500 € + 6 honorable mentions

BUILDNER SUSTAINABLITY AWARD

3rd Prize
500 € Cash prize
1,000 €

7
Prizes
Buildner Student Award

1,000 € Cash prize + 50 € ARCHHIVEBOOKS.com gift card

More information about the special awards at
architecturecompetitions.com/MilanChallenge

8
Certificates
Buildner will acknowledge the outstanding performance of all
winners with Certificates of Achievement.

9
 Publicity campaign
All competition winners will be part of Buildner’s extensive global publicity campaign:

‘SEEN BY’ ‘SEEN BY’

ONE MILLION 800 000 MORE
Results published on buildner.com, – one of the Publications on Buildner’s social networks (over
leading websites in the industry, which is visited by 600,000 followers) and newsletter campaign (over
over one million unique visitors each year. 200,000 subscribers).

INTERVIEW MOVIE MEDIA PARTNERS

Exclusive interview published with the results and Competition winners will be granted an opportunity Competition results will get
shared on Buildner’s social networks. to submit a movie about themselves. The video will international art and design media coverage and will
be published on Buildner’s website and social be featured in the world’s leading architecture media
networks. outlets.

10
Competition schedule
Preliminary registration deadlines
Early Bird Registration
NOVEMBER 16 – DECEMBER 7 Closing date for registration
APRIL 20, 2023
Advance Registration
DECEMBER 8 – JANUARY 26
Closing date for submission
Last Minute Registration JUNE 1, 2023 (11:59 p.m. LONDON TIME)
JANUARY 27 – APRIL 20
It is still possible to participate in this competition after the preliminary Announcement of the winners
deadlines, however, a higher late registration fee will be charged. JULY 6, 2023

Closing date for questions & answers

APRIL 26, 2023
In order to guarantee equal opportunities to all
competition participants, no new questions will
be answered after this deadline!

11

Registration fees
Please find registration fees
listed at the competition website
architecturecompetitions.com/MilanChallenge
Discounts for
architecture students
Buildner Architecture Competition Organisers would like to hear from
representatives of universities, schools, and colleges offering
architecture/design studies.
Contact us to receive special student rates for group registration
(discount applies for 3+ registrations from one university/school), as
well as further information and support to get your students involved
in architecture competitions.
Send us a request from your university email address along with basic
information about you and your university/school. Please note that
only recognized university staff can apply for the reduced student rate.
Buildner Architecture University rankings
Explore the Buildner's list of the world's 1000+ most competitive
architecture universities –
architecturecompetitions.com/architecture-university-rankings
12
Submission
requirements
• Participants are required to upload one (1) A2
landscape-orientated presentation board (must
not exceed 10MB) with sketches, renderings, plans,
sections, elevations, diagrams, and/or other
presentation tools to explain their proposal.
1 panel
• No video files are accepted.
• All information provided in writing must be in English.
• All submissions must be uploaded via the
architecturecompetitions.com upload panel. Access
information and instructions on how to upload the
presentation board will be issued to participants via
email immediately after successful registration.
• Presentation boards must not indicate any
information related to individual's/team's identity.
Participants who do not comply with the requirements
will be disqualified without refund.
Participants can choose and upload one
project preview image from their
presentation that best describes their project.
• The project preview image would need to be at
least 2000x1680 pixels large, orientated
horizontally, no more than 10 MB in size, and in
jpg/jpeg format.
• The project preview image will be used for
promotional materials to showcase the project
in case the project is selected as the winner.
• Please note: the competition jury will not see
the selected project preview image.
13
Presentation Recommended
deliverables set submission
content
• Urban plan • Diagrams • A cityscape to illustrate how the proposal fits in with
• Street elevations • Circulation the quality, value, and significance of the historical
• Public versus private space and modern urban structure of Milan.
• Primary sectios
• Landscaping • Concept designs which highlight that all aspects of
• Primary floor plans
• Transportation the design are of the highest quality and in keeping
• Details
• Cityscapes/urban relationships with the design brief and the proposed site.
• Envelope
• The main points of proposed plans and sections,
• Key materials multiple internal and external perspectives
• Site or landscape demonstrating the spatial quality of the building as
• Axonometrics providing information on building well as operational needs and accessibility
systems or illustrating key architectural concepts Please note the PRESENTATION DELIVERABLES SET
requirements.
listed above is a suggestion only. Participants can
• Perspectives • Demonstration of project construction, materiality,
choose to use the entire list, a selection from it, or
• Primary interior spaces functions, management and maintenance; approach
propose a completely different set that would explain
• Primary site locations to environment, energy and sustainability, indoor
their design in the most efficient manner.
environment and logistics.

14
Presentation
preliminary
review
For more than ten years, Buildner has analyzed and
rated thousands of architecture competition project
submissions. Trust us when we say — the quality of your
presentation is vital to convince a jury team of your
design intent, and there are several graphic and
representational factors that can make it or break it.
We can help you make it right!
Buildner can review your
presentation and give you valuable
feedback!
Participants are welcome to submit their competition
presentation draft panel/s before submitting it/them
as a final competition entry for a preliminary review.
Within 1–3 days, our team will analyze your
presentation panel/s and rate them on predefined
criteria points, as well as add valuable written feedback
on how you can improve your final competition
submission.
Find out more here –
architecturecompetitions.com/crits
15
Jury
The jury panel members list and biographies are
published at
architecturecompetitions.com/MilanChallenge
Participants are advised to research both the working
site and previous similar case studies as part of the
design process. For each competition, 6–9 jury panel
members are selected. Buildner reserves the right to
add/remove the jury panel members at any moment.
Jury members shall under no circumstances be
contacted by competition participants or their
representatives. Participants who attempt to contact
jury members shall be disqualified.
All competition-related communications should be
carried out solely with Buildner staff.
For any questions, please contact us at
contact@buildner.com
Milan Affordable Housing Challenge is an ideas
competition, which encourages participants to test or
redefine the boundaries of architecture. The jury may
choose to reward projects that show a high degree of
creativity, even if they breach competition guidelines, as
long as this is justified.
Buildner is committed to selecting the most qualified
industry professionals to comprise its jury panels. Jury
panels consist of architects, in addition to professionals
from other professional backgrounds that are relevant
to the competition topic, to guarantee the most
objective competition results.
You may find the invited jury list from previous
competitions here –
architecturecompetitions.com/guest-jury
16
Tell the world
your story!
Video and interview
Shortly prior to the results announcement, selected Please note – both the interview and video submission
competition winners and honorable mentions will is OPTIONAL. However, we do recommend that all
be contacted and asked to answer a series of participants submit as much material as possible in
interview questions (in writing) and submit a video order to maximise the publicity and media attention
about themselves. These will be published with the their work will receive.
competition results.

There is a tight deadline to announce the winners

on time, therefore interview questions will need to
be returned within 2 days, and videos submitted
within 2 weeks of being requested. Hence, we
advise participants to consider ideas for their video
and answers to their questions in advance so that
Read more about:
they are able to submit the relevant material on
time. The interview – architecturecompetitions.com/interview

The video submission – architecturecompetitions.com/submit-movie

Explore the movies received from Buildner (formerly Bee Breeders)

architecture competition winners and honourable mentions here - youtube.com/@buildner

Bosco Verticale, Milano, Italy © Josè Maria Sava

Eligibility
The competition is open to all. No professional
qualifications are required. Design proposals can be
developed individually or by teams (4 team members
maximum).
People who have direct personal or professional
relationships with jury panel members or organisers
may not participate in this competition.
Media partners
A full list of media partners who have committed to
present the competition winners in their publications
can be found at
architecturecompetitions.com/MilanChallenge
For potential media partners who are also interested in
covering the present competition and its winners, please
contact us at contact@buildner.com
Competition press kit (in English) and banners are
available at
architecturecompetitions.com/MilanChallenge/press
Full Competition Terms & Conditions: © Buildner (formerly Bee Breeders) contact@buildner.com
architecturecompetitions.com/MilanChallenge/terms Architecture Competition Organisers architecturecompetitions.com