Memorial to the Sixth Extinction — Open International Ideas Competition 2026
Competition Brief
The Memorial to the Sixth Extinction is an open international ideas competition organized by the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at the University of Western Australia, in collaboration with Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL), one of Australia’s most recognized landscape architecture and urban design practices. The competition is free to enter, open to students and professionals in any design-related discipline worldwide, and carries a prize pool of $15,000 AUD. The submission deadline is 1 November 2026. The competition is held in memory of Professor Richard Weller, a leading thinker in landscape architecture and global biodiversity at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Western Australia, whose scholarship directly shaped the intellectual framing of this brief.
There have been five major extinction events in Earth’s history. The fifth was the obliteration of the dinosaurs by an asteroid approximately 65 million years ago. For many plant and animal species today, humans are now the greatest threat to their survival. This is known as the sixth extinction, and its ledger is the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The unrestrained destruction of animal habitats for cities and food production is described in the brief as the equivalent of a slow-motion asteroid. The competition holds this paradox at its center: only the human has the capacity to prevent a real asteroid hitting Earth, and yet the human is the cause of an extinction event unfolding in slow motion across every continent.
Intent
The challenge is to create a physical memorial to the Sixth Extinction — a global event that has happened, is happening, and is yet to happen — one that does not remember or edify the human subject as most memorials do, but rather questions the human as nature’s self-appointed executioner. The brief asks participants to rethink the memorial as a form: not a monument to human achievement or human loss, but a spatial device that holds the viewer accountable to a process of destruction that is ongoing, distributed, and caused by ordinary human behavior rather than by singular catastrophic acts.
The memorial design can be any size and can be sited anywhere in the world. Participants are free to select the scale, material, site, program, and medium of the proposal. The brief does not restrict entries to any typology or discipline: architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, installation, sculpture, monument, earthwork, or any other design form is eligible.
Purpose
This is an open ideas competition with no built commission. Winning proposals receive cash prizes from the $15,000 AUD pool. The competition also connects to the broader research and advocacy work of AUDRC on biodiversity, ecological design, and the urban condition. Previous AUDRC competitions — including “Future Climate Future Home” and “Business as Unusual: imagining a future Australian city” — demonstrate an established track record of research-grounded design competitions with published results. Full competition details are available in a flip-book brief at audrc.org/competitions.
Requirements
Open to students and professionals in any design-related discipline worldwide. No nationality, age, or professional qualification restrictions. Individual or team entries accepted. The memorial can be any size and sited anywhere. Full submission requirements are detailed in the competition brief available via the AUDRC website at audrc.org/competitions and the flip-book at heyzine.com/flip-book/8b810b42b2.html. Contact: audrc.info@gmail.com.
Jury
- Laurie Olin — Founder of OLIN Studio; Professor of Practice, University of Pennsylvania. One of the most celebrated landscape architects in the United States, known for landmark public projects including the National Mall Grounds in Washington D.C., Bryant Park in New York, and major civic spaces across North America and Europe. OLIN’s work is defined by its integration of ecological thinking, historical awareness, and spatial generosity.
- Julian Bolleter — Director, Australian Urban Design Research Centre, University of Western Australia (Jury Chair). Leading researcher in urban design, landscape urbanism, and ecological design in the Australian context. Author of multiple books on Australian cities and biodiversity.
- Jacky Bowring — Memorial design specialist; Professor of Landscape Architecture, Lincoln University, New Zealand. One of the foremost international scholars on the theory and practice of memorial design, with published work on melancholy, loss, and spatial memory in landscape.
- Peter England — Tony Award-nominated theatre and arena spectacular live production designer. Brings expertise in experiential design, spatial narrative, and large-scale audience engagement to the jury panel.
- Catherin Bull — Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Melbourne; Adjunct Professor, Queensland University of Technology. A foundational figure in Australian landscape architecture education and practice with decades of influence on the field’s development.
- Sara Lynn-Rees — Architect and lecturer, Monash University; Chair, Australian Institute of Architects First Nations Advisory Group. Brings Indigenous design thinking, decolonial spatial practice, and First Nations perspectives to the evaluation of a competition that fundamentally questions the human relationship to land and species.
Registration Fees
| Category | Fee |
|---|---|
| All participants — students and professionals, all disciplines, all nationalities | Free |
Prizes and Rewards
| Award | Prize Pool | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Prize pool distributed across winners | $15,000 AUD total | Prize distribution across categories not yet specified. Publication of results through AUDRC. Connection to AUDRC research and advocacy network. Memorial to Professor Richard Weller. |
Key Dates
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Competition Announced | 16 June 2026 |
| Registration and Submission Deadline | 1 November 2026 |
| Results | After 1 November 2026 (date TBC) |
✦ ArchUp Competition Review
The Memorial to the Sixth Extinction is one of the most intellectually and ethically serious open design competitions currently available in the international calendar. It is organized by AUDRC at the University of Western Australia, a research center with a documented track record of academic-quality design competitions, in partnership with TCL — a practice whose landscape and urban design work is internationally recognized. The jury is exceptional: Laurie Olin is among the most distinguished landscape architects alive, with a body of civic work that spans the National Mall in Washington D.C. to Bryant Park in New York. Jacky Bowring is arguably the world’s foremost academic specialist in memorial landscape design. Sara Lynn-Rees brings First Nations design thinking to a brief that at its core questions the human relationship to land and non-human species. This is a jury assembled with intellectual specificity rather than generic prestige, which gives the evaluation framework genuine depth. The brief itself is one of the most philosophically demanding available in any design competition: designing a memorial that does not edify the human subject but questions the human as nature’s executioner requires a conceptual inversion of the memorial form that demands genuine critical and spatial intelligence rather than formal elaboration. The complete freedom of scale, site, material, and typology means proposals can range from an intimate installation to a landscape-scale earthwork, and from architecture to film, installation, or text-based spatial work. The $15,000 AUD prize pool is real and the free entry removes financial barriers entirely. The competition is held in memory of Richard Weller, whose scholarship on biodiversity and ecological urbanism is directly referenced in the brief’s intellectual framing — this is not a marketing gesture but a genuine tribute to a foundational figure. For architects, landscape architects, urban designers, artists, and researchers working at the intersection of ecology, memorial culture, spatial ethics, and the human relationship to extinction, this competition is one of the most genuinely important open calls of 2026.
Final Thoughts
The Memorial to the Sixth Extinction demands more of its participants than most open competitions: it asks for a genuine conceptual position on the human relationship to extinction, a spatial form that can hold that position without reduction or sentimentality, and the courage to propose a memorial that does not comfort the human viewer but implicates them. The freedom of scale, site, material, and medium is total, which makes this as much a critical and philosophical challenge as a design one.
The submission deadline of 1 November 2026 gives participants approximately four and a half months from the current date to develop a proposal. Full details are available in the flip-book brief at audrc.org/competitions. Contact the AUDRC at audrc.info@gmail.com for submission questions.
Registration Deadline
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