Tabletop City — Street Relay 2.0 Competition 2026

Competition Brief

Tabletop City — Street Relay 2.0 (桌游城市·街励计划2.0) is an international open architecture and urban design competition launched by AIM International Design Competition, organised in partnership with the Beijing Changping District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Committee as the official host authority. The competition is the second edition of the Street Relay initiative, which has been the core brand of Changping’s urban renewal programme now in its fifth year. Submissions close 19 May 2026 at 20:00 China Standard Time.

AIM (Architectural Mission) is a Beijing-based competition organisation founded in 2010, with 16 years and 38 competitions, over 8,000 creative submissions, and more than 1 million people reached across architectural design, homestay, public art, and cultural creativity sectors.

Intent

The competition asks architects, designers, urban planners, curators, artists, screenwriters, and game designers to overlay a gamified layer onto the physical urban fabric of Changping District, Beijing. The central premise is that game mechanics — scripts, roles, competition structures, strategies, aesthetics — can be fused with the tangible elements of the city: shops, landmarks, spaces, culture, history, and urban texture. The aim is to redirect people from online to offline spaces, increase dwell time during city walks, and generate renewed foot traffic for small street-side businesses and long-overlooked urban corners. The competition treats the entire city as a game board and every visitor and resident as a player.

Scale Tracks

The competition is structured across three scales. The S-Track addresses small-scale interventions: a single site or node such as a park corner, courtyard, or neighbourhood checkpoint. The M-Track addresses medium-scale: a street block or cluster of adjacent spaces. The L-Track addresses large-scale: a linear route such as the 10-kilometre cycling loop, incorporating a network of connected game nodes. Participants may freely choose any location within Changping District; suggested sites are provided as reference only.

Purpose

Street Relay 1.0 delivered a series of curatorial interventions along Government Street through a competition-plus-curation model. Street Relay 2.0 shifts from static visual curation to dynamic participatory experience through gamified design. Outstanding submissions will have the opportunity to be implemented as real interventions in Changping’s urban fabric. The competition runs both an Open Competition track open to all participants and an Invitational Track directed at specialists in cycling and outdoor, senior-friendly, and child-friendly design.

Requirements

Each submission must include a completed entry form, a PDF document, and two A1 panels in JPG format. The submission must include written descriptions covering complete game rules, script setting, character design, and conceptual design of the game scenarios. Visual content includes but is not limited to master plans, enlarged partial plans, axonometric drawings, renderings, elevations and sections, checkpoint designs, game logic diagrams, game visual design, and mini-programme interface design. Optional additional materials include a project video and draft sketch photographs. Submissions can be made online at new.aim-competition.com or by email to info@aim-competition.com.

Jury

1. Shen Jianghai — Architect
2. Wang Defan — China’s earliest and most prolific producer of German-style board games; Founder, Jingyansi Board Games; Founder, Growth Puzzle Educational Board Games
3. Wang Xu — Founder, SMART Vacation Industry Expert Committee; Chair, AIM International Design Competition Organizing Committee; Executive Vice President, Boao Cultural and Creative Institute
4. Yin Zhi — Professor and PhD Supervisor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University
5. Zhou Rong — Architectural critic and urban researcher; PhD and Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University; Visiting Professor, Central Academy of Fine Arts; Co-founding Curator, Sanlian Humanities Urban Award
6. Zhou Xin — Founder, Yikeguan Brand; Senior Puzzle Game Product Designer; Advocate for Gamified Educational Products for Children
7. Government jury representative (name not published)

Registration Fees

No registration fee is specified on the competition page. Confirm current registration terms at new.aim-competition.com or by contacting info@aim-competition.com before registering.

Prizes and Rewards

Total prize pool: 180,000 RMB (~$24,800 USD). All prizes are pre-tax. USD approximations are indicative only. Outstanding submissions will additionally have the opportunity for real implementation in Changping District.

Key Dates

✦ ArchUp Competition Review

Tabletop City — Street Relay 2.0 is one of the more intellectually distinctive urban design competition briefs currently active. The gamification premise is not a superficial theme applied to a conventional spatial brief: the competition asks participants to think structurally about game mechanics, scripts, characters, routes, and rules as design tools for activating urban space, which is a genuine disciplinary challenge that sits at the productive intersection of urban design, experience design, and cultural programming. The real-site context in Changping District, with its specific street fabric, cycling loop, food market surroundings, and documented urban renewal history across five years, gives the brief a specificity and civic dimension that generic pavilion or installation competitions cannot offer. The government-backed organiser structure provides institutional credibility and genuine implementation potential for outstanding submissions, which is a significant differentiator. The jury’s unusual composition, combining an architectural critic from Tsinghua, a senior board game designer, an urban planner, and a children’s game product designer, is appropriate and considered for this specific brief rather than a generic panel of architects. The total prize pool of 180,000 RMB is substantial and competitive for a Chinese-based open competition. The competition’s limitation for international participants is practical rather than conceptual: the site is Changping District, Beijing, and the submission deadline of 19 May 2026 leaves limited time for participants without direct access to the site to develop a grounded proposal. For designers who can engage seriously with the Changping context through research, the brief rewards genuine interdisciplinary thinking across architecture, urban design, game theory, and cultural programming.

Final Thoughts

Tabletop City — Street Relay 2.0 is a government-backed international urban design competition with a total prize pool of 180,000 RMB including a 50,000 RMB grand prize, and real implementation potential for outstanding proposals in Changping District, Beijing. Submission deadline is 19 May 2026 at 20:00 CST. Register at new.aim-competition.com or contact info@aim-competition.com.

Registration Deadline

Brought to you by the ArchUp Editorial Team

Inspiration starts here. Dive deeper into Architecture, Interior Design, Research, Cities, Design, and cutting-edge Projects on