INSPIRELI Awards 11th Edition 2026

Competition Brief

INSPIRELI Awards 2026 is the 11th edition of what the organisers describe as the world’s largest global student architecture competition, open to participants from over 160 countries. The competition is organised by INSPIRELI, a Czech-based education platform, and is entirely free of charge. It operates as a multi-track competition: a main open-category award across three disciplines, plus two site-specific sub-competitions running simultaneously. The same project may be entered in multiple tracks, allowing participants to compete for several prizes with a single submission.

The competition has no fixed theme for the main award. Students submit any school or personal project across three categories: Architecture, Interior Design, and Urban Design. The philosophy of the competition is to give equal opportunity to students regardless of their social, economic, or geographic background, and to reflect the diversity of architectural challenges across different countries and continents.

Intent

INSPIRELI Awards positions itself as a platform for student visibility rather than a conventional design competition. Beyond the prizes, the competition aims to connect students with an international professional network, give them access to jury feedback, and create a pathway into the global architecture community. The competition’s university ranking system, which measures institutional performance based on student activity and international results, adds an additional layer of incentive for both students and academic institutions to participate.

Purpose

The main award recognises the best student project in each of the three categories. In parallel, two site-specific sub-competitions run within the same submission window: the Arsenal Memory Park competition, calling for the design of a 350-hectare urban complex in Tucumán, Argentina, announced by the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the National University of Tucumán; and the Florenc Bus Terminal competition, seeking a design for a temporary departure hall for the Florenc bus terminal in Prague, in partnership with developer Penta Real Estate. Both sub-competitions are evaluated separately and independently from the main award.

Requirements

Eligibility is open to full-time or distance-learning university students pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Architecture or related fields, including Engineering and Artistic disciplines. Individuals and teams may participate. Projects must be submitted in English. Each participant may request feedback from one jury member upon registration. All submitted images must be original work; photographs not created by the participant must not be included in the submission. The competition allows projects that have been previously submitted to other competitions.

Jury

INSPIRELI operates what it describes as the largest jury in the history of architecture, currently exceeding 1,200 members drawn from practicing architects and academic professionals across more than 130 countries. Judging is conducted through a three-round evaluation system based on the D21 voting method, a preferential voting mechanism designed by mathematician Karel Janecek, which the organisers state eliminates bias when evaluating large numbers of entries. A Featured Jury of senior architects nominates projects before the full jury vote. The jury composition for the 11th edition has not been individually published.

Finalist certificates are signed by the President of INSPIRELI Awards, the President of the African Union of Architects, the President of the American Institute of Architects Continental Europe, and the Chairman of the INSPIRELI Awards international jury.

Registration Fees

Prizes and Rewards

The €4,500 total prize pool covers one winner per each of the three main categories at €1,500 each. Arsenal Memory Park prizes are provided and paid by the competition announcer, not by INSPIRELI. Software sub-awards are sponsored independently by Graphisoft and Chaos.

Key Dates

✦ ArchUp Competition Review

INSPIRELI Awards is a well-established student platform with eleven years of operation and a genuinely global reach across 160 countries. Its zero-fee model and open-topic format make it one of the most accessible competitions available to architecture students worldwide. The jury of over 1,200 professionals is a credible structural asset, and the D21 voting system is a transparent attempt to manage large-scale evaluation fairly. That said, the jury is not individually published for the 11th edition, which limits transparency at the individual level. The €1,500 cash prize per category is modest relative to the scale of the competition and the depth of effort typically involved in a student project, though the non-cash benefits including feedback, community access, and finalist certification carry real professional value. The parallel sub-competitions for Arsenal Memory Park and the Florenc Bus Terminal add site-specific depth for students interested in urban design and public infrastructure, though participants should note that Arsenal prizes are funded by the Argentine university, not INSPIRELI itself.

Final Thoughts

INSPIRELI Awards 2026 is a credible, accessible, and well-structured opportunity for architecture students at any stage of their studies. The combination of a free entry, open-topic format, multinational jury feedback, and multiple simultaneous prize tracks makes it worth entering, particularly for students seeking international exposure early in their careers. Submissions close 15 June 2026 at inspireli.com.

Registration Deadline

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