ArchDaily Student Project Awards 2027: Making the City

ArchDaily Student Project Awards 2027 asks students to address a specific urban need through Making the City. Organised by ArchDaily with Dropcity in Milan, the programme connects a design proposal with the possibility of building a partial prototype.

Five key facts

Type: student design award. Eligibility: enrolled students in years 1–6 of eligible design disciplines. Deadline: 31 January 2027, 23:59 CET. Cost: an active paid Campus subscription is required; there is no additional entry fee. Prizes: three awards of US$1,500 plus prototype and travel support under stated conditions.

Brief and submission

Propose a spatial intervention, device or system grounded in a local urban condition. Architecture, urban planning, landscape, interior and product design students may enter, including master’s students; PhD and postdoctoral researchers are excluded. Entries are assessed within years 1–2, 3–4 and 5–6. A collaborative project uses one submitting account.

Submit in English: a 15–50-character title, a 500–1,500-character abstract and 10–15 standalone JPG or PNG images, each within 10 MB and 6,000 × 6,000 pixels. Avoid presentation panels, overlaid text and author credits on images. One project is allowed per participant and submissions cannot be revised. AI-generated projects are prohibited; any supporting AI imagery must not replace human design, writing or execution.

Awards, costs and jury

Each winning project receives US$1,500. Travel to Milan covers one representative per team. Dropcity supports a three-to-four-day prototype build and presentation during Milan Design Week, with materials paid directly up to €3,000 per project. This is not a cash materials grant or a commission to construct the entire proposal; excess costs, visas and insurance require attention. Check the current Campus subscription price before paying.

The organisers describe an independent external jury and conflict-of-interest safeguards. Named jurors were not published in the reviewed 2027 documents. Assessment addresses relevance, critical thinking, communication and contextual, social and resource responsibility. Longlisting is planned for mid-February, shortlisting for early March and winners for mid-March 2027.

Rights and ArchUp assessment

Students retain copyright while granting a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence for publication and promotion. Physical prototypes remain student property but must be collected within 14 days after the exhibition at the student’s expense, otherwise the stated archiving or disposal provisions apply.

ArchUp editorial assessment: the strongest educational opportunity is testing how an urban idea performs as a physical intervention. Applicants should prioritise a clearly evidenced local need and a buildable fragment over ambitious imagery alone. Year-group assessment is useful, while the paid access requirement and unpublished jury names merit consideration before entry.

Related student opportunity: iF Design Student Award 2027. Sources reviewed: ArchDaily 2027 award overview, terms and conditions, competition brief and official open-call announcement. Poster: ArchDaily / Dropcity. Checked 13 November 2026.