Puerta de Madrid Design Competition
Brief
Puerta de Madrid is a single-stage, anonymous urban-planning competition commissioned by Consorcio Urbanístico Leganés Norte. It seeks preliminary-design-level planning ideas for land to be incorporated into the consortium’s development area in Leganés, Madrid. The selected approach is expected to coordinate urban form, landscape, mobility, infrastructure, environmental performance and social sustainability rather than propose an isolated building.
Purpose, site and eligibility
| Item | Official requirement |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Produce sustainable and innovative planning proposals with enough definition to guide a future general and detailed planning instrument for the new Puerta de Madrid area. |
| Location | Land within the future action area of Consorcio Urbanístico Leganés Norte, Leganés, Madrid, Spain. |
| Competition form | Open, anonymous, single-stage project competition under Spanish public-procurement law. |
| Who may enter | Spanish or foreign natural or legal persons, individually or as a temporary consortium, with legal capacity and no applicable public-contracting prohibition. Non-EU companies must also satisfy Article 68 of Spain’s Public Sector Contracts Law. |
| Professional qualification | The author or authors must hold an architecture or civil-engineering qualification, or an equivalent qualification carrying the relevant professional rights. |
| Future team | No full multidisciplinary team is required merely to submit the competition proposal. Winners must, however, commit to assembling the minimum team required if they proceed to the later planning-services contract. |
This is a public procurement procedure, not a speculative ideas call. Entrants should verify their capacity to contract in Spain before investing in the physical submission, especially when applying from outside the European Union.
Submission requirements
| Component | Required specification |
|---|---|
| Package | One opaque, sealed package identified only by a freely chosen motto and containing two sealed envelopes: technical documentation and administrative documentation. |
| Boards | Three DIN A1 panels, 594 × 840 mm, mounted on white 5 mm foam board and marked only with the motto. |
| Minimum drawings | Overall plan in its immediate urban context; elevations and sections; connectivity, uses, urban integration and open-space diagrams; massing; and images or other representations explaining the urban proposal. Models are not accepted. |
| Written report | Descriptive and justificatory report of no more than ten DIN A3 pages, identified only by the motto. |
| Digital copy | A physical USB reproducing the panels and report as PDF files, preferably no larger than 10 MB each. Metadata must not reveal authorship. |
| Administrative envelope | Official proposal/notification form, the European Single Procurement Document and the multiple responsible-declaration form; additional documents apply to joint entries. |
| Language | Spanish, or documents accompanied by an official Spanish translation. |
| Delivery | Physical submission to the designated Community of Madrid registry or by post to the Subdirección General de Consorcios Urbanísticos, following the official clauses. Electronic competition submission is not offered. |
Schedule
| Stage | Published date | UTC |
|---|---|---|
| Call published | 1 September 2026, 09:35 | Portal time zone not stated. |
| Latest official update reviewed | 1 October 2026, 13:06 | Portal time zone not stated. |
| Registration | No separate registration stage is announced. | The complete physical proposal must arrive by the submission deadline. |
| Submission deadline | 6 November 2026, 23:59 | The official page publishes the hour but does not identify a time zone. |
| Jury decision | Within three months after the submission period closes. | Exact date not announced. |
The official portal gives 6 November 2026 at 23:59 without naming a time zone. The countdown below therefore uses 23:59 UTC as an editorial reference only; for a physical delivery, entrants should follow the registry/postal rules and allow a substantial margin.
Fees, prizes and possible implementation
| Item | Published amount and approximate USD |
|---|---|
| Entry fee | No participation fee or provisional guarantee is published. Refund terms therefore do not apply; entrants bear their own production and physical-delivery costs. |
| First prize | €15,000 excluding VAT (about USD 16,809). |
| Second prize | €10,000 excluding VAT (about USD 11,206). |
| Third prize | €5,000 excluding VAT (about USD 5,603). |
| Total prizes | €30,000 excluding VAT; €36,300 including VAT. |
| Possible later service contract | Estimated at €504,618.07 excluding VAT (about USD 565,475) for drafting and supporting approval of the planning and environmental instruments. |
USD equivalents use EUR 1 = USD 1.1206, the European Central Bank reference rate for 9 October 2026, and are indicative. The three prize winners may be invited to a negotiated procedure for the later service contract, but appointment is not automatic. The authority may decide not to open that procedure for justified reasons, and if a prize winner receives the contract, its prize is treated as an advance against the professional fee.
Jury and evaluation
| Jury seat | Published expertise / appointment route |
|---|---|
| Chair and secretary | Appointed by the contracting authority on the consortium’s proposal. |
| Consortium nominees | An architect in urban planning; a civil engineer in planning and urban infrastructure; an environmental-assessment specialist; and a sustainability specialist. |
| Municipal nominee | An architect or civil engineer proposed by Leganés City Council. |
| Professional bodies | An architect proposed by the Official College of Architects of Madrid and a civil engineer proposed by the Madrid branch of the professional college for civil engineers. |
| Names | Individual juror names are not published in the documents reviewed. |
The 100-point assessment gives 20 points to environmental response; 15 points each to overall urban quality, mobility/connectivity/accessibility, urban identity and social sustainability, and infrastructure networks; and 10 points each to innovation/strategic contribution and technical, temporal and economic feasibility. A proposal must reach 60 points for an award, and the jury may leave one or more prizes unawarded.
Organiser, rights and publication
Consorcio Urbanístico Leganés Norte is the public contracting entity, listed under the Community of Madrid’s regional ministry responsible for environment, agriculture and interior. Its documented functions include planning housing needs and preparing, managing and implementing urban-planning instruments within its remit. The reviewed call is identified as file LGN_2026_CS_02; it does not present this as a recurring competition edition or cite prior competition outcomes.
Authors retain their inalienable moral rights. Winners grant the administration exploitation rights for the commissioned work, while all admitted entries may be reproduced, published and exhibited for competition publicity; non-winners retain intellectual property but grant those publicity rights and may request continued anonymity. Prize winners may not publish the studies or documents without the contracting authority’s express permission. The clauses do not promise reimbursement of submission costs.
✦ ArchUp Competition Review
The competition’s professional value lies in the direct link between an urban proposition and a potential planning commission. The scoring also treats climate adaptation, the Butarque stream corridor, green infrastructure, mobility and social mix as core planning questions rather than decorative sustainability claims. The named institutional seats cover the main disciplines needed for a project of this scale.
The main constraint is procedural: three mounted A1 panels, a printed report, a USB and a two-envelope anonymous package must be delivered physically in Spanish or with an official translation. That burden is materially higher for international teams. The later €504,618.07 service contract is a possibility, not part of the prize itself, and the authority can decline to proceed. Entrants should also weigh the broad publication rights and the restriction on winners’ subsequent disclosure.
Reviewed on 11 October 2026 against the official procurement page and administrative competition clauses for file LGN_2026_CS_02.
Related competitions — Editorial team selection
For other competitions connecting design with public delivery, readers may compare the WDC 2028 Busan Pavilion International Design Competition and the William Gladstone School New Academic Wing.
Time remaining for submission
6 November 2026 · 23:59 UTC (editorial reference; the official time zone is not stated).
Official competition page
Check the live procurement record, clauses and physical-delivery instructions before submitting.
