The Next House: USA Competition 2026

Competition Brief

Next House: USA Competition 2026 is a global call for designers, architects, and visionaries to come up with the reimagined American suburban house. It also invites to think up a home where the environmental and social factors are addressed and that is compact, modifiable, green, low cost, and considerate. One condition of the submission is to exceed 1,500 sq ft footprint plus redefine the concept of dwelling.

Intent

The first idea got to be a wide discussion among the city dwellers and the suburbs of the United States that live together in the 21st century. It wants to see designs that push our response to these situations and even bend them to our favor, meaning the climate challenges, social dynamics, and economic pressures.

Purpose

It is all a matter of winning the public over to the prototype of the future residential design that emphasizes on the new norms of living, such as sustainability, human-centered design, and contextual adaptability rather than the traditional architectural ones.

Requirements

The conceptual home should have the standard household of two adults plus one child living in it, still with 1,500 sq ft maximum area. However, the competition is open to all designers no matter their professional status; hence, students and incoming practitioners can participate too. It is specified that the submissions shall be original, concept-driven, prepared in English, and reflect the ideas that could be implemented across diverse climatic and geographical contexts of the US.

Jury

The competition is evaluated by an international jury of professionals selected for their expertise in architecture and design. All jury members assess submissions to identify proposals that align with the competition’s goals.

1. Roberto Bannura – Partner, Steven Holl Architects – SHA, China. Leads the Beijing office and has directed major cultural and urban projects in Asia and beyond.
2. Meryati Blackwell (Ati) – Principal at Marlon Blackwell Architects, USA. Works on civic and community projects with emphasis on contextual and human‑centred architecture.
3. Winka Dubbeldam – Founding Partner, Archi‑Tectonics, USA. Internationally recognised for award‑winning design and architectural education leadership.
4. Peter Gluck – Founder, GLUCK+, USA. Veteran architect known for architect‑led design‑build work and a broad portfolio of innovative built environments.
5. Michelle Kaufmann – Architect and Director, technology and design roles, USA. Focuses on sustainable, accessible design and emerging architectural technologies.
6. Jonathan Moody – CEO of Moody Nolan, USA. Leads a major firm with community‑focused design practice and commitment to equity in architecture.
7. Steven Rainville – Principal, Olson Kundig, USA. Known for craftsmanship and blended innovation in built work and research‑driven practice.
8. Hilary Sample – Professor and Co‑Founder of MOS, USA. Academic and practitioner with deep engagement in housing design and research.
9. Valerie Schweitzer – Founder, Valerie Schweitzer Architects (VSA), USA. Residential and resilient design leader with a nuanced approach to materiality and context.
10. Elizabeth Whittaker – Founding Principal, Merge, and Associate Professor, USA. Works at the intersection of practice and academy with focus on housing and social ecologies.

Fees Table

Rewards Table

Dates Table

✦ ArchUp Competition Review

The Next House: USA 2026 is a competition that invites people to create a prototype of a sustainable and versatile suburban house with an area of under 1,500 sq ft. The prize for the winner is up to 10,000 USD. The event is supported by a design platform with professionals, and unlike other similar contests, it gives the whole jury list with ten well-known architects, thus creating a more open process, although the specific evaluation criteria are not revealed. The rewards may seem to be reasonable but at the same time too low, given the amount of creativity and technical skill needed.

The competition can offer a lot to the artist’s portfolio, allow him or her to take part in applied research and so on, but it does not guarantee the construction or implementation of the winning project. The jury’s professional experience is quite impressive, it is a good combination of both practice and academic work.

Critical Conclusion

The Next House: USA 2026 Competition raises most of the important issues related to suburban architecture’s future by pushing the designers to think out housing typologies for today’s problems. It has a broad range of eligibility and an attractive thematic focus that could bring in different types of participants. Still, the tiered fee structure, according to which the registration costs increase depending on the prize or package choices, may serve as a financial barrier to independent designers and students alike. The detailed list of jury members boosts transparency, yet the lack of evaluation criteria declared to the public may prevent the entrants from knowing exactly the priorities in the assessment. The competition’s big prize pool and the presence of various award categories all make it more attractive, but the absence of guaranteed channels for the proposals’ real-world implementation leaves the impact of winning ideas as a mere speculation.

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