Call for Submissions: A’ Design Award & Competition 2023-2024 Invites Entries

The esteemed A’ Design Award & Competition for 2023-2024 is actively welcoming submissions through September 30. Don’t miss the chance to have your groundbreaking designs acknowledged globally! The winners will be publicly celebrated on April 15, and ArchEyes will proudly showcase our top selections from the awardees.

The A’ Design Award & Competition aims to serve as a catalyst for societal advancement by fostering innovation in design, science, creativity, and technology. As an entrant, you stand to gain far more than just an award; the accolade opens doors to unparalleled fame, prestige, and international recognition. Additionally, each participant will receive a preliminary evaluation, providing valuable insights into the potential success of their submission.

Your design will be meticulously evaluated by a diverse international jury comprised of esteemed academics, seasoned design professionals, and respected members of the press. With over a hundred categories to choose from, 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 an inspiring collection of exemplary designs from last year’s competition to jumpstart your creative process for this year’s submission.

Patina Maldives Hotel by Studio MK27

• Designers: Marcio Kogan, Renata Furnaletto, Diana Radomysler, Pedro Ribeiro
• Winner Category: Winner in Construction and Real Estate Projects Design Category, 2022 – 2023
• Inspiration: In the Maldives sand, skies and ocean, all architecture can do is humbly filter the lights, frame the views, creating different narratives as one strolls around the magnificent surroundings. Patina Maldives project was able to produce architecture that is much less important than nature. Contemporary, classic and elegant.

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 in 2014
• 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: 2021 – 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.”

Rice Wine Cultural Center by Wei Zhang and Kesuo Wu – gad

• Designers: Wei Zhang and Kesuo Wu – gad
• Winner Category: 2021 – 2022, Silver A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “The design makes full use of the landscape advantages of the site; the three-story building volume is stacked and retreated back from south to north, forming a number of roof terraces overlooking the Dashu River, creating more possibilities for the later use of the restaurant. Drawing on the strong functional adaptability of traditional wooden frame architecture and Domino architecture system, the scheme decided to take 4.8mx4.8mx4.8m cubic square as the basic module of the building.”

Kaisa Yuebanshan Community Center by Shenzhen TIANHUA & Kaisa Group

• Designer: Zheng Jian, Assistant Designer: Li Shengpeng, Du Bangguo, Xu Yixiang and Xue Ming
• Winner Category: 2021 – 2022, Gold A’ Architecture, Building, and Structure Design Award Winner
• Inspiration: “The designers have excavated the local culture of Zhongshan and absorbed the architectural layout and cultural connotation of the Chen Family Ancestral Hall. They hope that the Life Aesthetics Hall will also have a multi-dimensional space to accommodate the daily real public life of the crowd. Based on the warm climate of Lingnan, architecture and landscape are closely related.”

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 2023-2024 is open now.
The deadline for regular submissions is September 30, 2023. Results will be announced to the public April 15th.