I have done a few competitions, among which there is this architecturecompetitions.com website that is expensive ($110 or so) to join each competition. Besides its relatively high fee, I have a few doubts about it and would like to hear your opinions.
1. No feedback at all after submission. You have to go to the website to find out that they actually announced the result...That seems very lack of care.
2. It constantly holds concept/idea competitions. You can find quite a few ongoing ones any time you go there. However, it does not seem any will get built because they are calling for concept submissions. That makes me wonder what's the point for us designers to pay the organizer in order to share our designs with them.
3. Publicity. I am not sure even if one wins, how valuable is their publication. Anyone knows.
I am also looking into a few other competition websites. I just can't help but wonder if anyone shares the feeling about this website as I do.
Bench
Dec 7, 22 12:36 pm
Wow, this seems totally shady...
monosierra
Dec 7, 22 12:49 pm
It's a remarkably lucrative gig. Get your friends to moonlight as jury, come up with some social media friendly brief with the right lingo and watch the fees roll in.
In general, I've noticed that "real" competitions organized by municipalities and other bodies actually looking for good ideas with a shot at construction do NOT charge fees. They are not short on money and are genuinely on the prowl for designs. They do not require fees to run themselves.
As for imaginary competitions that require fees, judge them by their publicity. If it does not offer a credible publication platform, then to hell with them.
Instead do your own projects, develop your own philosophy, and publish them on your own social media. Coming up with your own brief is a project in itself and forces one to come to grips with your view of the world and its design challenges.
Think of it this way: Should you design to please the jury, or use the project as an exercise to explore and express your specific design viewpoint?
Some of the most powerful self-initiated projects I've seen came from the fruit of the designers' struggles with their position as creators. What do I care about? What issues, approaches, workflows am I genuinely interested in? Sometimes these inner struggles could yield more rewarding projects than responding to yet another brief calling for dream hotels and stackable housing.
LMAO - An competition about why you're doing competitions. Soon they'll be having competitions to come up with competition briefs, these lazy bums ...
D Chou
Dec 8, 22 6:33 pm
ha, I never thought there could be a competition about doing competitions...Something feels off about it.
x-jla
Dec 9, 22 5:20 pm
Not a scam. It’s fantasy porn, and you are mentally masterbating to it.
Jay1122
Dec 9, 22 5:36 pm
Paid competitions are really lame. They pool the entrance fee. Pay the jurors some money. Pay the first prize some money. Bank the rest of the money. The person winning can put this " blah blah competition first prize" on their resume. Runs like a business.
Free competition real project but needs prequalification. These are nice but it will always be shortlisted to the big name starchitects with proven track records.
Free competition with no qualification requirements. Very rare. But worthy of doing.
monosierra
Dec 23, 22 2:06 pm
Yeah, that San Diego competition to design a new memorial was a rare breed. Free, with the political will and financial muscle to build the winning project, and all the attendant mainstream publicity that follows a real project.
D Chou
Dec 22, 22 11:33 am
Anyone has recommendations on good competition websites?
monosierra
Dec 23, 22 2:05 pm
Bustler is still the biggest aggregator around and it occasionally posts legit competitions by cities and NGOs but you might want to look up RFP/RFQ websites on municipal portals. Most of these aren't accessible without an account though.
smaarch
Dec 22, 22 11:03 pm
The design competitions I see today are a joke and will not participate in them. Over the years they have changed. I don't know exactly when they changed but definitely after 911. Open international competitions used to be about significant government projects. An Embassy maybe. The Plan of Washington DC was a competition. Now we get bee houses and a BnB somewhere. The submissions for 911 ended it.......
Flabbergasted
Oct 7, 23 7:05 pm
The competitions with detailed end-user program requirements and specific demographic and community needs analysis reports hunting for new solutions and design ideas often are legitimate, even if there is a modest entry fee of up to say 50 US Dollars or less. They are trying to solve pressing architectural, social and urban design problems. The competition gives their originators new ideas and strategies that may never have been considered before.
However, those Competition creators who have no real program worked out and perhaps ask you to design a new multi-family housing project or some strange useless highly theoretical building on any site you choose in a specific usually "trendy" City, country or rural area, with no defined requirements, for no demographic or ethnic group in particular, often without any defined size or spatial requirements of any sort, and then charge hundreds of Dollars or Euros to enter, are "bogus". They seem to be doing it for profits only and to sell some third-rate architectural books, written by obscure unknown academic authors! Bogus competitions appear to be great money makers, while stealing display copyrights to your work and offering very little in return. This latter sort of "bogus" competition maker will one day face legal challenges from the architectural public, I think.
Rong en
Apr 4, 24 12:29 pm
This is the real deal. Not only are they fleecing you for a 130 Euro entry fee, but then by submitting you are surrendering all your Intellectual Property Rights to them, so they can sell it as food for AI developers then churn out your ideas, as their Machine's own generated product. Now that is pretty sleazy. Where is a professional Ethics organization when you need it?
12.2. Upon providing the Submission to a Competition, the Participant and/or each member of the Participant Team grants to Organizer an unrestricted, worldwide, irrevocable and royalty-free, full license to the Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof as follows: publicly display by any means and in any media; to copy, modify, translate and/or adapt, archive and distribute for publicity purposes and use Submission and all information contained therein in any other ways (including for commercial purposes) without any further notice or remuneration to the Participant.
12.3. By transferring all Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof to the Organizer, the Participant (including each team member) agrees that the Organizer has the right to use the Submission and all information contained therein (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) in machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes) or transfer it to third parties who will use the Submission and all information contained therein these processes.The Participant (including each team member) agrees that as a result of machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes), the Submission or the information contained in it (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) may be partially or fully reproduced, copied and modified, and these results (including visual materials, designs) will be considered the result of a machine creation, which the Organizer or any other third party will be entitled to use for commercial purposes. The Participant (including each team member) waives all claims, demands and objections against the Organizer or any other third party in this regard.
Burried deep in the Competition agreement on another page, this says it all. ETHICAL? Not in the least.
Rong en
Apr 4, 24 12:40 pm
This is the real deal. Not only are they fleecing you for a 130 Euro entry fee but then you will be surrendering all your Intellectual Property Rights to them, so they can sell it to AI developers churn your ideas out as their Machine generated product. Now that is pretty sleazy. Where is a professional Ethics organization when you need them?
In This BUILDNER says it all:
12.2. Upon providing the Submission to a Competition, the Participant and/or each member of the Participant Team grants to Organizer an unrestricted, worldwide, irrevocable and royalty-free, full license to the Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof as follows: publicly display by any means and in any media; to copy, modify, translate and/or adapt, archive and distribute for publicity purposes and use Submission and all information contained therein in any other ways (including for commercial purposes) without any further notice or remuneration to the Participant.
12.3. By transferring all Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof to the Organizer, the Participant (including each team member) agrees that the Organizer has the right to use the Submission and all information contained therein (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) in machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes) or transfer it to third parties who will use the Submission and all information contained therein these processes.The Participant (including each team member) agrees that as a result of machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes), the Submission or the information contained in it (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) may be partially or fully reproduced, copied and modified, and these results (including visual materials, designs) will be considered the result of a machine creation, which the Organizer or any other third party will be entitled to use for commercial purposes. The Participant (including each team member) waives all claims, demands and objections against the Organizer or any other third party in this regard.
Rong en
Apr 7, 24 11:41 pm
I wanted to bring to your attention the fact that Buildner Competitions, a clearing house for architectural completions, engages in these business practices in relation to the Intellectual property rights of competition participants, which some may find unfair and unethical.
In order to engage in any competition hosted by this organization one must agree to surrender of a license to the Intellectual Property rights for their creative work. Buildner will then turn around and use, or sollicit these project concepts to other parties to train AI systems that churn out these solutions as their own.
This practice seems highly suspect and I am sure most participants have never read clauses 12:2-12:3 of their mandatory agreement.
As this practice infringes on and damages the rights of young designers and architects and will over time harm the business of practicing architects, you may want to consider participating in any competition they post. For your reference here are the details of the agreement terms from Buildner.
12.2.Upon providing the Submission to a Competition, the Participant and/or each member of the Participant Team grants to Organizer an unrestricted, worldwide, irrevocable and royalty-free, full license to the Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof as follows: publicly display by any means and in any media; to copy, modify, translate and/or adapt, archive and distribute for publicity purposes and use Submission and all information contained therein in any other ways (including for commercial purposes) without any further notice or remuneration to the Participant.
12.3.By transferring all Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof to the Organizer, the Participant (including each team member) agrees that the Organizer has the right to use the Submission and all information contained therein (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) in machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes) or transfer it to third parties who will use the Submission and all information contained therein these processes.The Participant (including each team member) agrees that as a result of machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes), the Submission or the information contained in it (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) may be partially or fully reproduced, copied and modified, and these results (including visual materials, designs) will be considered the result of a machine creation, which the Organizer or any other third party will be entitled to use for commercial purposes. The Participant (including each team member) waives all claims, demands and objections against the Organizer or any other third party in this regard.
Rong en
Apr 10, 24 3:42 am
What they don't want you to know is that at least one of these competition hosts, mentioned here, will go on to steal your submission IP Rights sell it to a 3rd party, or feed it themselves to AI systems that will curn out your "idea" as their own. Plus charge you up to 130 Euro for the privilege. Beware of the competition terms 12:2 - 12:3
vividkreations
Apr 12, 24 10:13 am
As of my last update in January 2022, I don't have specific information about whether architecturecompetitions.com is a scam or not. However, to determine its legitimacy, you can look for reviews and feedback from other users who have used their services. Additionally, check if the website provides clear contact information, terms of service, and payment security measures. Always exercise caution when dealing with unfamiliar websites, especially those involving financial transactions.
t a z
Apr 12, 24 11:17 am
Check this box →□← to confirm you are not an AI bot
I have done a few competitions, among which there is this architecturecompetitions.com website that is expensive ($110 or so) to join each competition. Besides its relatively high fee, I have a few doubts about it and would like to hear your opinions.
1. No feedback at all after submission. You have to go to the website to find out that they actually announced the result...That seems very lack of care.
2. It constantly holds concept/idea competitions. You can find quite a few ongoing ones any time you go there. However, it does not seem any will get built because they are calling for concept submissions. That makes me wonder what's the point for us designers to pay the organizer in order to share our designs with them.
3. Publicity. I am not sure even if one wins, how valuable is their publication. Anyone knows.
I am also looking into a few other competition websites. I just can't help but wonder if anyone shares the feeling about this website as I do.
Wow, this seems totally shady...
It's a remarkably lucrative gig. Get your friends to moonlight as jury, come up with some social media friendly brief with the right lingo and watch the fees roll in.
In general, I've noticed that "real" competitions organized by municipalities and other bodies actually looking for good ideas with a shot at construction do NOT charge fees. They are not short on money and are genuinely on the prowl for designs. They do not require fees to run themselves.
As for imaginary competitions that require fees, judge them by their publicity. If it does not offer a credible publication platform, then to hell with them.
Instead do your own projects, develop your own philosophy, and publish them on your own social media. Coming up with your own brief is a project in itself and forces one to come to grips with your view of the world and its design challenges.
Think of it this way: Should you design to please the jury, or use the project as an exercise to explore and express your specific design viewpoint?
Some of the most powerful self-initiated projects I've seen came from the fruit of the designers' struggles with their position as creators. What do I care about? What issues, approaches, workflows am I genuinely interested in? Sometimes these inner struggles could yield more rewarding projects than responding to yet another brief calling for dream hotels and stackable housing.
.
100%
https://bustler.net/competitio...
LMAO - An competition about why you're doing competitions. Soon they'll be having competitions to come up with competition briefs, these lazy bums ...
ha, I never thought there could be a competition about doing competitions...Something feels off about it.
Not a scam. It’s fantasy porn, and you are mentally masterbating to it.
Paid competitions are really lame. They pool the entrance fee. Pay the jurors some money. Pay the first prize some money. Bank the rest of the money. The person winning can put this " blah blah competition first prize" on their resume. Runs like a business.
Free competition real project but needs prequalification. These are nice but it will always be shortlisted to the big name starchitects with proven track records.
Free competition with no qualification requirements. Very rare. But worthy of doing.
Yeah, that San Diego competition to design a new memorial was a rare breed. Free, with the political will and financial muscle to build the winning project, and all the attendant mainstream publicity that follows a real project.
Anyone has recommendations on good competition websites?
Bustler is still the biggest aggregator around and it occasionally posts legit competitions by cities and NGOs but you might want to look up RFP/RFQ websites on municipal portals. Most of these aren't accessible without an account though.
The design competitions I see today are a joke and will not participate in them.
Over the years they have changed. I don't know exactly when they changed but definitely after 911.
Open international competitions used to be about significant government projects. An Embassy maybe. The Plan of Washington DC was a competition. Now we get bee houses and a BnB somewhere.
The submissions for 911 ended it.......
The competitions with detailed end-user program requirements and specific demographic and community needs analysis reports hunting for new solutions and design ideas often are legitimate, even if there is a modest entry fee of up to say 50 US Dollars or less. They are trying to solve pressing architectural, social and urban design problems. The competition gives their originators new ideas and strategies that may never have been considered before.
However, those Competition creators who have no real program worked out and perhaps ask you to design a new multi-family housing project or some strange useless highly theoretical building on any site you choose in a specific usually "trendy" City, country or rural area, with no defined requirements, for no demographic or ethnic group in particular, often without any defined size or spatial requirements of any sort, and then charge hundreds of Dollars or Euros to enter, are "bogus". They seem to be doing it for profits only and to sell some third-rate architectural books, written by obscure unknown academic authors! Bogus competitions appear to be great money makers, while stealing display copyrights to your work and offering very little in return. This latter sort of "bogus" competition maker will one day face legal challenges from the architectural public, I think.
This is the real deal. Not only are they fleecing you for a 130 Euro entry fee, but then by submitting you are surrendering all your Intellectual Property Rights to them, so they can sell it as food for AI developers then churn out your ideas, as their Machine's own generated product. Now that is pretty sleazy. Where is a professional Ethics organization when you need it?
12.2. Upon providing the Submission to a Competition, the Participant and/or each member of the Participant Team grants to Organizer an unrestricted, worldwide, irrevocable and royalty-free, full license to the Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof as follows: publicly display by any means and in
any media; to copy, modify, translate and/or adapt, archive and distribute for publicity purposes and use Submission and all information contained therein in any other ways (including for commercial purposes) without any further notice or remuneration to the Participant.
12.3. By transferring all Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof to the Organizer, the Participant (including each team member) agrees that the Organizer has the right to use the Submission and all information contained therein (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) in machine
learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes) or transfer it to third parties who will use the Submission and all information contained therein these processes.The Participant (including each team member) agrees that as a result of machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes), the Submission
or the information contained in it (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) may be partially or fully reproduced, copied and modified, and these results (including visual materials, designs) will be considered the result of a machine creation, which the Organizer or any other third party will be entitled to use for
commercial purposes. The Participant (including each team member) waives all claims, demands and objections against the Organizer or any
other third party in this regard.
Burried deep in the Competition agreement on another page, this says it all. ETHICAL? Not in the least.
This is the real deal. Not only are they fleecing you for a 130 Euro entry fee but then you will be surrendering all your Intellectual Property Rights to them, so they can sell it to AI developers churn your ideas out as their Machine generated product. Now that is pretty sleazy. Where is a professional Ethics organization when you need them?
In This BUILDNER says it all:
12.2. Upon providing the Submission to a Competition, the Participant and/or each
member of the Participant Team grants to Organizer an unrestricted, worldwide,
irrevocable and royalty-free, full license to the Intellectual Property Rights of the
Submission and/or any part thereof as follows: publicly display by any means and in
any media; to copy, modify, translate and/or adapt, archive and distribute for publicity
purposes and use Submission and all information contained therein in any other ways
(including for commercial purposes) without any further notice or remuneration to the
Participant.
12.3. By transferring all Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part
thereof to the Organizer, the Participant (including each team member) agrees that the
Organizer has the right to use the Submission and all information contained therein
(including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) in machine
learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes) or transfer it to third
parties who will use the Submission and all information contained therein these
processes.The Participant (including each team member) agrees that as a result of
machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes), the Submission
or the information contained in it (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other
creative results) may be partially or fully reproduced, copied and modified, and these
results (including visual materials, designs) will be considered the result of a machine
creation, which the Organizer or any other third party will be entitled to use for
commercial purposes. The Participant (including each team member) waives all
claims, demands and objections against the Organizer or any other third party in this
regard.
I wanted to bring to your attention the fact that Buildner Competitions, a clearing house for architectural completions, engages in these business practices in relation to the Intellectual property rights of competition participants, which some may find unfair and unethical.
In order to engage in any competition hosted by this organization one must agree to surrender of a license to the Intellectual Property rights for their creative work. Buildner will then turn around and use, or sollicit these project concepts to other parties to train AI systems that churn out these solutions as their own.
This practice seems highly suspect and I am sure most participants have never read clauses 12:2-12:3 of their mandatory agreement.
As this practice infringes on and damages the rights of young designers and architects and will over time harm the business of practicing architects, you may want to consider participating in any competition they post. For your reference here are the details of the agreement terms from Buildner.
12.2.Upon providing the Submission to a Competition, the Participant and/or each member of the Participant Team grants to Organizer an unrestricted, worldwide, irrevocable and royalty-free, full license to the Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof as follows: publicly display by any means and in any media; to copy, modify, translate and/or adapt, archive and distribute for publicity purposes and use Submission and all information contained therein in any other ways (including for commercial purposes) without any further notice or remuneration to the Participant.
12.3.By transferring all Intellectual Property Rights of the Submission and/or any part thereof to the Organizer, the Participant (including each team member) agrees that the Organizer has the right to use the Submission and all information contained therein (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) in machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes) or transfer it to third parties who will use the Submission and all information contained therein these processes.The Participant (including each team member) agrees that as a result of machine learning processes (Artificial Intelligence learning processes), the Submission or the information contained in it (including the solutions, designs, concepts and other creative results) may be partially or fully reproduced, copied and modified, and these results (including visual materials, designs) will be considered the result of a machine creation, which the Organizer or any other third party will be entitled to use for commercial purposes. The Participant (including each team member) waives all claims, demands and objections against the Organizer or any other third party in this regard.
What they don't want you to know is that at least one of these competition hosts, mentioned here, will go on to steal your submission IP Rights sell it to a 3rd party, or feed it themselves to AI systems that will curn out your "idea" as their own. Plus charge you up to 130 Euro for the privilege. Beware of the competition terms 12:2 - 12:3
As of my last update in January 2022, I don't have specific information about whether architecturecompetitions.com is a scam or not. However, to determine its legitimacy, you can look for reviews and feedback from other users who have used their services. Additionally, check if the website provides clear contact information, terms of service, and payment security measures. Always exercise caution when dealing with unfamiliar websites, especially those involving financial transactions.
Check this box →□← to confirm you are not an AI bot