Call for Submissions: A’ Design Award & Competition 2024-2025 Invites Entries

The prestigious A’ Design Award & Competition for 2024-2025 is now open for submissions, with the deadline approaching September 30. Don’t miss the opportunity to have your innovative designs recognized on a global stage! Winners will be celebrated on May 1st, and ArchEyes will proudly feature our top picks from the awardees.

The A’ Design Award & Competition drives societal progress by promoting cutting-edge design, science, creativity, and technology. As an entrant, you stand to gain more than just a trophy; this award opens doors to international fame, prestige, and unparalleled recognition. Additionally, each submission includes a preliminary evaluation, offering valuable insights into your design’s potential success.

Winning the A’ Design Award brings unparalleled benefits, including global recognition and visibility through the award trophy, design exhibition, and yearbook publication. Winners gain access to exclusive networking opportunities at the gala night and are featured in the World Design Rankings, Designer Rankings, and Design Leaderboards. Extensive PR campaigns, press release distribution, and media partnerships further elevate your profile. Additionally, you’ll receive the Design Award Winner Logo, an honorific title, and inclusion in prestigious networks like the GOOD Network, BDCN, and the World Design Consortium, solidifying your status among the design elite.

An international jury of distinguished academics, experienced design professionals, and influential press members will assess your work rigorously. With over a hundred categories, the competition offers specialized accolades like the Good Industrial Design Award, Good Architecture Design Award, Good Product Design Award,  Good Communication Design Award, Good Service Design Award, or the good Fashion Design Award, among other categories.

In today’s feature article, we’ve curated a collection of outstanding designs from last year’s competition to inspire and fuel your creativity as you prepare for this year’s submission.

Marche Vison by Tomoya Akasaka

• Designers: Tomoya Akasaka
• Winner Category: 2024, Platinum A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “Rain and sunshine are vital elements that nurture a multitude of crops. Our expansive roofs, designed with the concept of the water cycle in mind, symbolize the absorption of energy through a curved surface extending over the ground. The structures supporting these roofs are inspired by the repetitive torii gates at the Akone Yashiro Shrine, located within the precincts of the Ise Grand Shrine. These gates stand as a symbol of prayers for abundant harvests, rich fishing yields, and thriving businesses. This symbolism is particularly fitting for a facility that focuses on promoting local produce.”

Nanbu Eye Gymnasium by Li Yang and Xu Haifeng

• Designers: Li Yang and Xu Haifeng
• Winner Category: 2024 Platinum A’ Design Award Winner for Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Category
• Inspiration: The gymnasium is conceived as a landscape building on the banks of the Jialing River, a brilliant gem on the Silk Road, where nature and humanity, technology and poetry meet. Sports and architecture symbolize power, but nature is soft, and the Nanbu Eye seems to be the medium between them. The collision and fusion of “soft” and “tough” burst out fresh energy, integrating sports into the natural environment, allowing people to strengthen their health in a relaxed and back-to-nature environment.

Tetris House by studio MK27

• Designers: Marcio Kogan, Carolina Castroviejo, Diana Radomysler, and Maria Cristina Motta
• Winner Category: Golden A’ Design Award Winner for Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Category
• Inspiration: There is continuity not only of the circulation between the inside and out but also of the materials, dissolving spatial limits.

Huanghesong Theatre Cultural Venues by Xuelin Wu

• Designers: Xuelin Wu, Hai Lin and Gao Li
• Winner Category: 2022, Platinum A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “Architecture is the integration of ecology and culture, and its shape is like the vortex of the Yellow River. Continue its concept in interior design, excavate the ritual and music culture of Central Plains culture, and deduce ancient music in space through modern means.”

Tender Soul of Ocean Lighting Installation by Whyixd

• Designers: Whyixd
• Winner Category: 2024, Platinum A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “The artwork finds its inspiration in Keelung’s ocean, nestled along the serene northern coast. This city is caressed by the damp, sea-infused air, where the salty breeze becomes a symbol and message from the ocean, touching every individual. In a silent understanding, the ocean and humanity seem to engage in a shared dialogue. ‘Tender Soul of Ocean’ delves into the profound separation between people and the sea.”

Muji Eco Pavilion in Emptiness Exhibition Space by Chenzhu Sun

• Designer: Creative Director:Chenzhu Sun; Design Director:Zhebin Hu,Wenqin He; Designer: Jiahong Luo, Zi Lan
• Winner Category: 2024, Platinum A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “MUJI’s “minimalist” philosophy is not simply about removing unnecessary decoration to achieve a simple appearance, but about creating an ultimate “emptiness”; that is pure and without any limitations in terms of usage methods and product images. Emptiness is a state of infinite freedom. An exhibition hall has been cleared can bring infinite creative beauty to life.”

Beach Cabin on the Baltic Sea Hospitality by Peter Kuczia

• Designer: Peter Kuczia
• Winner Category: 2021 – 2022, Gold A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “The building is located in the north of Poland, in a climate zone where temperatures are moderate for most of the year. The winter garden contributes to passive solar energy harvesting through its glazing and to improving the energy balance of the building. In this way, the building not only opens beautiful views of the scenic landscape but also has ecological advantages.”

City Above the Clouds Multifunctional Office by gad

• Designer: Project Director: Zhang Wei, Lead Designer: He Zhen, Architects: Wu Xiaodong, Zheng Weijian
  
• Winner Category: 2021 – 2022, Gold A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “Inspired by keywords such as ideal city and future community, the architects created a futurist architectural form that focuses on openness, cooperation, and sharing. The idea of architects is to balance life and work. Attract the youth from online to offline to communicate with others and embrace nature, and provide a community living space. From the combination of office and commercial businesses to the sharing of production resources, creating a new way of working and living is what we need.”

Nanning Tanjing Display Center by Shanghai PTArchitects

• Designer: Hu Qiao, Li Lin
  
• Winner Category: 2021 – 2022, Gold A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “Located in the Core Living Area of Wuxiang Lake, Nanning, Guangxi Province, Tanjing Display Center enjoys easy traffic access and complete surrounding facilities. Upholding the concept to show respect for history and reverence for the land, architects have integrated the diverse cultural veins of Nanning to create Tianjin community facility series under “One City, One Tanjing”. Throughout Tanjing architecture series, there is no consistent style or aesthetics, the only connection lies in the living environment that people feel is closely related to the current urban conditions.”

The Westin Miyako Kyoto Chapel Renovation by Takenori Katori and Fumi Habara

• Designers: Takenori Katori and Fumi Habara
• Winner Category: Interior Space and Exhibition Design Category, 2020 – 2021
• Inspiration: As a show of respect to the abundant natural surroundings, rock and wood take center stage in this sacred space imbued with a traditional Japanese aesthetic. we utilized as much of the existing framework as possible while also incorporating elements of traditional shrine and temple architecture, adding a wooden ceiling lattice interwoven with indirect lighting that evokes sunlight pouring through the branches of trees and highlights the beauty of the shadows and gradations that are created as light falls through the multi-layered lattice.

House in Repino Residential by Shamsudin Kerimov

• Designers: Shamsudin Kerimov and Ekaterina Kudinova
• Winner Category: Architecture, Building and Structure Design Category, 2020 – 2021.
• Inspiration: The main source of inspiration was the unique natural environment of the region. For the project, the natural materials were chosen: stone characteristic to the local environment, wood, and metal. All of them will change in time for architecture to fuse with the natural environment.

Wandering in the Woods Kindergarten by L and M Design Lab

• Designers: Wandering in the Woods
• Winner Category: Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design Category, 2020 – 2021.
• Inspiration: The original structure resembled a liner with limited space and poor sunlight. Out of considerations of structural stability and costs, the design keeps the entire structure and create an atrium running vertically through three stories. The design guarantees that all classrooms receive natural light from both sides. Columns become trees and beams become bridges to form abundant spatial effects. Taking advantage of the original structure, the atrium transforms the “liner” into a “woodland.”;

Be Water Lamp by Fernando Correa

• Designer: Fernando Correa
• Winner Category: Lighting Products and Lighting Projects Design Category, 2020 – 2021
• Inspiration: The design is inspired by the continuous, soothing and hypnotic effect the sunlight reflected on the moving surface of water makes against vertical walls, under bridges and boats’ hulls. Other chromatic possible variants emitted as the lamp’s water original effect are: Fire with the ardour of its flames, Air represented by the phenomenon of the northern lights (aurora borealis) and finally Earth inspired by lavender fields in Provence transforming and characterizing the surrounding environment.

Samaranch Memorial Museum by Archiland

• Designer: Archiland, HAO design（New York）, COWI, Kragh & Berglund and TADI
• Winner Category: 2019 – 2020, Gold A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: The original intention is to build a green building that commemorates Mr. Samaranch and inherits the Olympic spirit. It was transformed through the five Olympic rings: the main building presents two intersecting circles, and the other three circles transform into a sunken courtyard. The “8” shape commemorates the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The “S” shape stands for “Samaranch”; the third is that the shape symbolizes Infinity and eternity.

Piks Construction Toy by Oppi

• Designers: Hansel Schloupt (CEO & Product designer), Bastien Schloupt (COO), Dr. M.B. (Child Psychiatrist specialized in ADHD) and Chrystelle Payet (Child Teacher & Educational Consultant Specialist)
• Winner Category: Toy, Games and Hobby Products Design Category, 2020 – 2021.
• Inspiration: Piks has been designed thanks of two sources of inspiration: the collaboration with educational specialists and the need to provide kids new open-ended way to play. Because of our commitment to offer a toy that develops concentration skills, we decided to seek inspiration from the field of education, more precisely from kids’ concentration disorders ADHD. By making design research – consulting child psychiatrists or occupational therapists – we were able to identity a list of the most important children’s cognitive needs to increase.

Interpretation Centre of Romanesque Exhibition Centre by spaceworkers

• Designers: Henrique Marques, Rui Dinis, Rui Rodrigues, Rui Miguel, Sérgio Rocha
• Winner Category: 2019 – 2020, Gold A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: Based on the concepts of Romanesque architecture in Portugal, the building aims to be a transitional element between the present and the distant past. In a simple way, the volumetric proposed contains the principals of unity within diversity, appearing under the form of several volumes with different heights and dimensions, demonstrating the diversity that Romanesque buildings have left us. Therefore, each volume ceilings reinterprets one of the roof types used in Romanesque architecture.

Evd Office by Yang Bing and Hao Liyun

• Designers: Yang Bing, Hao Liyun
• Winner Category: Interior Space and Exhibition Design Category, 2020 – 2021.
• Inspiration: The designers created a U-shaped area that combines with one long side and the five large windows, allowing natural light to filter in and diffuse freely. The entrance protrudes towards the foyer, due to the consideration of fire control regulations. Its position and width for evacuation bring new opportunities for organizing spatial pattern and form. The overall spatial design starts here.

House for Parents Residence by Masakatsu Matsuyama

• Designer: Masakatsu Matsuyama
• Winner Category: 2019 – 2020, Silver A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: As a traditional daily custom in this island, people gather and stay under the shadow of large trees. We aimed to create architecture that celebrates the culture of the region and leads to re-emerge the spirit of traditional life on the island. The space under the large roof, which is supported by thin steel columns, provides a shady and cool, comfortable interior that suite the severe climate on the southern island.

Newme Medical Beauty Hospital by Jiang and Associates Creative Design

• Designer: Jiang and Associates Creative Design
• Winner Category: Interior Space and Exhibition Design Category, 2020 – 2021.
• Inspiration: On this project, the inspiration should come from user needs, not metaphysical emotional sustenance. After researching the market, we found that the proportion of men and women in the medical beauty market will become more evenly amount in the future, so the inspiration was the gender neutral sensory experience. The arch is an excellent geometric shape that combines strength and softness. The gender orientation is entirely determined by the details and materials used in the arch. Thus the inspiration from the analysis led to the completion of the project.

Pluto Task Lamp by Heitor Lobo Campos

• Designer: Heitor Lobo Campos
• Winner Category: 2019 – 2020, Gold A’ Lighting Products and Lighting Projects Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: Pluto was inspired by telescopes, which use tripods and dynamic but stable forms. But instead, I sought to design a light that focuses on the earth instead of the stars.

Sada Bike Hubless Foldable Bike by Gianluca Sada

• Designers: Gianluca Sada and Luca Scudieri
• Winner Category: 2019 – 2020, Platinum A’ Vehicle, Mobility, and Transportation Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: Demanding mobility-related service has its consequences on society: street congestion of metropolitan hubs is the everyday challenge commuters have to face, and it is a source and stress and delays. «You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.» R.Buckminster Fuller Promoting and enabling virtuous behaviors for smart mobility, intermodality, sustainability for the environment are the values driving Sada Bike

Riposo Coffee Set by Mikhail Chistiakov

• Designer: Mikhail Chistiakov
• Winner Category: 2019 – 2020, Silver A’ Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware, and Cookware Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: The concept is based on an approach to classical subjects from functionalism and strict geometry. This project was inspired by the manifestos of the Russian avant-garde, the German Bauhaus, and constructivism: what is functional and convenient is also beautiful.

Hera Sailing Yacht by Nicola Mondini

• Designer: Nicola Mondini
• Winner Category: 2019 – 2020, Bronze A’ Yacht and Marine Vessels
  Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: Hera is a concept sailing yacht inspired by J-Class vessels, the single-masted racing sailboats built in the 1930s to compete in the America’s Cup. This concept is a futuristic interpretation that celebrates these peak racers through innovative materials and innovative shapes.

Registration to A’ Design Award & Competition 2024-2025 is open now.
The deadline for regular submissions is September 30, 2024. Results will be announced to the public May 1st