House of Poetry
Competition Brief
House of Poetry is an international ideas competition organised by Young Architects Competitions (YAC) with the Municipality of Marradi, Italy. It seeks proposals to adapt Dino Campana’s house into a museum and cultural facility, combining exhibition spaces, literary research, community activities and improved access. The cash prize fund is €15,000. Registration closes on 13 December 2026; submissions close at noon GMT on 16 December 2026.
Intent and Design Scope
The architectural task is to make a historic domestic building work as a public cultural place. Proposals must address three connected areas: the existing house, its gardens and a new connection to the street. Within the house, the brief restricts intervention to interior works and prohibits demolition of structural elements. It permits changes to non-structural partitions and calls for reversible exhibition design.
The ground floor accommodates exhibition and multipurpose/archive spaces; the first floor houses the Centro Studi Campaniani and the Marradi Cultura – Dino Campana Foundation; the second floor and attic contain the house-museum. The garden programme includes a lightweight, reconfigurable 16 m² pavilion for reception, ticketing, a bookshop and small events. An elevated connection must link the upper garden to the street access identified in the supplied drawings. Accessibility, feasibility and respect for the historic fabric are explicit requirements.
Purpose and Eligibility
The municipality presents the project as cultural regeneration tied to Campana’s legacy. A real site and a municipal partner give the brief a defined context, but the reviewed documents do not promise a construction commission to the winner. Participants should distinguish the ideas award from a subsequent appointment or funded building programme.
Individuals and teams may enter, with no maximum team size and no mandatory professional registration. The rules contain an age inconsistency: clause 2.5 requires at least one member aged 18–35, while clause 3.1(e) refers to a member younger than 35, including for solo entries. Anyone relying on a participant aged exactly 35 should obtain written clarification before paying. Work or family relationships with jurors are grounds for exclusion. One fee covers one proposal; additional proposals require further fees.
Submission Requirements
| Material | Required format and content |
|---|---|
| A1 presentation board | One PDF, 841 × 594 mm, portrait or landscape, maximum 10 MB. Include the concept, drawings and three-dimensional views. Filename: A1_teamname_HP.pdf. |
| A3 album | One landscape PDF, 420 × 297 mm, up to seven pages, maximum 10 MB. Include a general plan at 1:250, relevant plans at 1:100 and at least one relevant section at 1:100. Filename: A3_teamname_HP.pdf. |
| Cover image | One JPG or PNG, 1920 × 1080 pixels. The brief illustrates the filename as cover_teamname_HP.jpg. |
Upload through the organiser’s team account. Text must be concise and in English. Neither personal names nor the team name may appear inside the submitted materials; the team name belongs only in the filenames. Entries must remain unpublished until results are announced. Clause 4.5 permits AI as an inspiration tool but excludes proposals that are merely algorithmic outputs: submissions must demonstrate architectural design through drawings. Site photographs and 2D/3D files are supplied by the organiser.
Organiser and Jury
YAC’s own history dates its establishment to 8 March 2013, approximately 13 years before this call, and reports more than 50 competitions. These are organiser-reported credentials, not an independent audit of every previous competition.
| Juror | Published affiliation |
|---|---|
| Massimiliano Fuksas | Studio Fuksas |
| Valerie Mulvin | McCullough Mulvin Architects |
| Tommaso Triberti | Municipality of Marradi |
| Vincenzo Latina | Vincenzo Latina Architetti |
| Paolo Zermani | Studio di Architettura Zermani Associati |
| Valentina Gianiculi | Municipality of Marradi |
| Walter Scarpi | Centro Studi Campaniani |
| Riccardo Nencini | Marradi Cultura – Dino Campana Foundation |
| Massimo Isola | Municipality of Faenza |
| Lapo Naldoni | Mario Cucinella Architects |
The panel combines architectural practice with municipal and literary institutions relevant to the building’s future use. Participants must direct questions to YAC at yac@yac-ltd.com and must not contact jurors about the competition.
Registration Fees
| Registration period | Base fee per team | Including stated 22% VAT |
|---|---|---|
| 21 September – 18 October 2026 | €65 | €79.30 |
| 19 October – 15 November 2026 | €85 | €103.70 |
| 16 November – 13 December 2026 | €115 | €140.30 |
Each registration window closes at 23:59 GMT. The totals above apply the VAT rate specified by the organiser. Registration tier does not change the submission deadline.
Prizes and Rewards
| Award | Published amount / recognition |
|---|---|
| First prize | €8,000 |
| Second prize | €4,000 |
| Third prize | €2,000 |
| Two Gold Mentions | €500 each |
| Ten honourable mentions | Non-cash recognition |
| Thirty finalists | Publication on the organiser’s website |
The rules state that prize amounts include taxes and bank commissions. Payment follows eligibility and identity checks and acceptance of the required rights-transfer declarations; the listed awards should therefore not be presented as guaranteed net payments.
Key Dates
| Milestone | Official deadline |
|---|---|
| Early registration closes | 18 October 2026, 23:59 GMT |
| Standard registration closes | 15 November 2026, 23:59 GMT |
| Final registration closes | 13 December 2026, 23:59 GMT |
| Submission deadline | 16 December 2026, 12:00 noon GMT |
| Jury convenes | 21 December 2026, according to the competition webpage |
| Results announced | 25 January 2027 |
The brief specifies GMT, equivalent to UTC for these timestamps. The submission deadline is midday, not midnight.
✦ ArchUp Competition Review
The brief’s architectural value lies in its constraints: inserting public access and cultural uses into a small historic house without treating the existing structure as disposable. The garden pavilion and elevated link make the proposal a circulation and landscape problem as well as an exhibition exercise. A convincing entry needs to resolve those relationships; an atmospheric museum image alone would leave the central task unanswered.
The named jury offers relevant architectural and local cultural perspectives. Municipal and foundation representatives can contribute knowledge of future use, while the architectural members can assess spatial and conservation decisions. Their presence supports the relevance of the panel, but does not by itself establish a funded route to construction or guarantee the quality of the judging process.
The most consequential participant issue is the rights provision. Clause 4.1 grants publication and distribution rights over submitted material. Clause 4.2 goes substantially further for cash-prize projects, describing acquisition of available intellectual and industrial rights and extensive powers to use, realise, adapt and transfer the work. It also uses both non-exclusive and exclusive language. That wording merits written clarification from the organiser; entrants should not assume they retain unrestricted commercial control. Prize payment is tied to acceptance of rights-transfer declarations.
ArchUp considers this a substantive adaptive-reuse design opportunity with a disclosed jury and programme, alongside terms that require careful consideration. The age inconsistency, full VAT-inclusive fee, rights scope and absence of a promised winner’s commission should all be weighed before committing design time. Organiser longevity and recognisable names do not remove those questions.
Final Thoughts
This call is best suited to participants interested in conservation, exhibition design and public accessibility who are comfortable entering an ideas competition on the published terms. Resolve the age and rights questions before registration, and allow time for all three submission files.
Registration Deadline
The countdown marks registration closure. Submit all files by 16 December 2026 at 12:00 noon GMT / UTC.
Prepared by ArchUp Radar under the ArchUp competition transparency policy. The organiser’s page and English competition brief were checked on 28 September 2026. Check the organiser’s current rules and FAQ before payment and submission.
