La Pyramide Architecture Competition 2026

Competition Brief

La Pyramide is an international open architecture competition organized by IDOARCH, calling on architects, students, and designers worldwide to propose an adaptive reuse strategy for La Pyramide — a 62-meter brutalist landmark in Abidjan’s administrative district, Côte d’Ivoire. Designed by Italian architect Rinaldo Olivieri and engineer Riccardo Morandi between 1968 and 1973, the 15-story concrete structure was originally conceived as a mixed-use hub of boutiques, offices, and public spaces, and was considered an engineering marvel of its time. Known locally as “The Lady of the Plateau,” the building’s rhythmic concrete geometry and hollow-core design allowed natural light and ventilation to circulate through its interior — a deliberate response to Abidjan’s tropical climate. Over decades, humidity, aging infrastructure, and rising maintenance costs led to its gradual decline. The competition treats La Pyramide not as a failed project but as a significant example of African Modernism, and challenges participants to rethink its future as a functional, living part of the city.

Intent

The competition invites participants to propose a program that breathes life back into the building, making it genuinely habitable. The brief calls for a design that respects and works within the existing structure — rehabilitation and adaptive reuse are the primary tasks, and any formal changes must be conceptually justified. Beyond the building itself, the design must address social and urban integration, bridging the formal business district of Le Plateau with the wider city of Abidjan.

Purpose

The competition is a conceptual open call with no direct construction mandate. Its purpose is to generate design ideas for the future of one of West Africa’s most recognizable modernist structures. Winning and notable entries will be featured across architecture websites, magazines, and platforms. The competition also serves as a platform for IDOARCH, a newly established competition organizer, to build its community and reputation within the international architecture competition circuit. You can explore similar adaptive reuse architecture competitions on ArchUp for comparison.

Requirements

The competition is open to all — students and professionals alike, individually or in teams of up to four members. Submission requirements are as follows:

• File formats accepted: PDF, JPG, or PNG
• Maximum combined file size: 20 MB
• One project per participant or team per competition (additional entries require an additional fee)
• All design criteria are provided in the downloadable competition brief

There is no anonymity requirement stated. Participants register via the IDOARCH website and submit digitally.

Jury

The jury listed for the La Pyramide competition includes six named members drawn from IDOARCH’s broader jury community:

1. Issa Diabaté – President and CEO of Koffi and Diabaté Architects. Yale-graduate architect and co-founder of Koffi and Diabaté Group. Recognized for his work in African urbanism, sustainable design, and real estate development. Has collaborated with IKEA and participated in international biennials.
2. Lucia Oberfrancová – Research assistant and teacher at Hochschule Wismar. PhD in architecture from the Slovak University of Technology, specializing in ecological and experimental design, earth-sheltered architecture, sustainable building, and energy assessment.
3. Mouaz Abouzaid – Founder and Design Principal of VERFORM. Cairo-born architect with over two decades of experience leading a multinational studio across Egypt, Europe, and the Middle East. Curated the Egyptian National Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Three-time recognition among the region’s top architects.
4. Maria Stasevich – Architectural Designer and Founder of OBLIK. Operates at the intersection of design and digital communication. Leads OBLIK, a studio focused on professional storytelling and content strategy for global architecture practices and design brands. Her work has been published in international architecture and design magazines.
5. Saul Kim – Architect and Adjunct Professor at Kaywon University of Art and Design. His research and teaching focus on experimental architectural methodologies, spatial theory, and digital computation.
6. Thierry Gedeon – Architect based in Paris. Holds a Master’s degree in Architecture with honors from ENSA Paris-Malaquais and an HMONP qualification. His practice is grounded in a dialogic approach to architecture, rooted in building traditions and site history.

IDOARCH maintains a wider pool of jury members across its competitions. The full community includes additional professionals such as Paula Quintero (Foster + Partners), Maged Elbanna (computational designer, Hamburg), Johana Mendoza Rodriguez (Olson Kundig), Ruben Jodar (Hochschule Wismar, formerly Zumthor and MVRDV), and Afaf Badran (founder of Darbellabbana, Cairo), among others. It is not specified which of these serve specifically on the La Pyramide jury beyond the six listed above.

Fees

Rewards

Dates

✦ ArchUp Competition Review

La Pyramide is organized by IDOARCH, a newly launched competition platform with no documented prior editions or established track record at the time of this publication. The jury for this competition includes six named members with verifiable credentials, most notably Issa Diabaté — a Yale-graduate architect and co-founder of Koffi and Diabaté, a firm with significant standing in African architecture and urbanism — whose inclusion is directly relevant to a competition centered on an Ivorian landmark. The remaining jury members range from practicing architects and academics to a design communication specialist and a computational designer, a mix that is professionally credible but uneven in direct relevance to brutalist heritage and adaptive reuse. The cash prizes — 600, 300, and 100 euros — are modest relative to the conceptual depth the brief demands, and the primary reward for most participants will be visibility through publication. The entry fee structure, starting at 5 euros with 50 free spots, positions this as an accessible, low-barrier competition. There is no built outcome or design contract attached — this is a portfolio-building and ideas exercise. For students and early-career designers interested in African modernism and adaptive reuse, the thematic focus on La Pyramide is genuinely compelling, and Diabaté’s presence on the jury adds contextual credibility. Those seeking career-defining recognition or substantial financial reward should calibrate expectations accordingly. Compare similar conceptual design competitions on ArchUp for broader context.

Final Thoughts

IDOARCH is a new entrant in the architecture competition space. The platform has no documented history of past competitions, winner announcements, or published results — which is a legitimate consideration for participants deciding where to invest their time and effort. That said, the La Pyramide competition is built around a subject of real architectural and cultural significance: a major brutalist structure in Abidjan, designed by Olivieri and Morandi, that represents a formative chapter in post-independence West African urbanism.

The choice of Issa Diabaté as a jury member is the strongest aspect of this competition’s credibility. As a Yale-trained architect who co-founded one of Côte d’Ivoire’s leading practices and has engaged with African urbanism at an international level, his participation is contextually appropriate and professionally meaningful.

The prize structure is minimal. A total cash prize pool of 1,000 euros across three winners, supplemented by software subscriptions and platform access, reflects the organizer’s early-stage resourcing. The free entry provision for the first 50 participants lowers the financial barrier, but the time investment required for a serious adaptive reuse proposal for a 62-meter, 15-story brutalist building should not be underestimated.

The brief itself is well-constructed — it identifies a real building, provides historical context, and sets clear design objectives around habitability, structural respect, and urban integration. For participants interested in African modernism, brutalism, and the adaptive reuse of heritage structures, the intellectual content of the brief offers genuine design development value regardless of the outcome. You can explore more adaptive reuse and heritage architecture competitions on ArchUp.

Registration Deadline

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