The RAW Festival: Better Raw Than War 2026

Competition Brief

The RAW Festival is an open architectural call organised by ICARCH (International Center for Architecture), inviting designers, architects, and students worldwide to submit works responding to the theme of “RAW.” The concept draws on a simple but provocative observation: read from right to left, the word “war” becomes “raw.” The festival positions rawness as a philosophical and architectural counter-position to the world’s obsession with polished luxury and material excess.

ICARCH describes the initiative as an effort to build a global digital archive of raw architecture, accessible to anyone in the world, with the potential to generate a constellation of physical events, including exhibitions and presentations, wherever interest exists.

Intent

The festival invites submissions of architectural works or strategies that qualify under the theme RAW. The organiser references Zaha Hadid’s own declared aspiration toward a raw, earthy architecture as an example of how rawness cuts across formal and stylistic boundaries. The call is deliberately open: any work, any size, any format that responds honestly to the theme is welcome.

Purpose

All submitted works will be published on the ICARCH website. A curated portfolio of the best works will be sent to architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu in China for consideration for inclusion in the Venice Biennale the following year. The festival is structured as a digital archive and potential springboard toward one of architecture‘s most prestigious international platforms.

Requirements

Submissions are open to all architects, designers, and students globally with no restrictions on project scale, format, or completion date. Work must respond to the RAW theme. Submissions are sent digitally to info@icarch.us. Participants must register by 15 May 2026 through the ICARCH website and submit their work by 1 June 2026.

Jury

There is no formal jury panel for this call. Submitted works are reviewed by ICARCH, and a selection of the best works will be forwarded to Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, the Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese architects, for consideration toward Venice Biennale inclusion. Wang Shu is the founder of Amateur Architecture Studio and the 2012 Pritzker Laureate.

Registration Fees

Category	Fee
All participants	No fee stated

No registration fee is mentioned anywhere in the official call. Participants should confirm directly with ICARCH via info@icarch.us before submitting.

Prizes and Rewards

Reward	Detail
Cash prize	None
Selected works at the discretion of Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu	All accepted submissions
Portfolio forwarded to Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu	Best selected works
Potential Venice Biennale consideration	Selected works at discretion of Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu

Venice Biennale inclusion is not guaranteed. The portfolio will be sent to Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu for their independent consideration. No further details on the selection criteria are published.

Key Dates

Milestone	Date
Registration deadline	15 May 2026
Submission deadline	1 June 2026
Following the submission deadline	Following submission deadline

✦ ArchUp Competition Review

The RAW Festival is an informal, non-fee open call organised by ICARCH, a small independent architectural organisation. Transparency is limited: there is no jury, no published selection criteria, no cash prizes, and no guarantee of any outcome beyond website publication. The headline incentive, a portfolio forwarded to Pritzker Laureate Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu for potential Venice Biennale consideration, is compelling on paper but entirely at the discretion of two architects who have made no public commitment to the initiative. The conceptual framing is genuinely interesting, positioning rawness as an architectural and political stance, and the total absence of entry fees removes any financial barrier. For practitioners already working within themes of raw or unfinished architecture and material honesty, the cost of participation is essentially zero. The ceiling, however, is uncertain.

Final Thoughts

The RAW Festival asks little and promises little in concrete terms, but the conceptual ambition is real, and the potential connection to the Venice Biennale gives it an unusual ceiling for a free, open call. For architects whose work already speaks to themes of rawness, materiality, and resistance to excess, this is a low-risk submission worth making.