2nd International Aesthetic Design Competition

About the Competition

2nd International Aesthetic Design Competition

IADC2027

Alanya University, Alanya, Antalya, Türkiye

Call for Design Projects and Ideas

https://competitions.iccaua.com/IADC

The International Aesthetic Design Competition (IADC2027) invites architects, urban designers, interior architects, academics, professionals, and professionally supervised student teams from around the world to submit outstanding architectural and urban design projects, concepts, and ideas that demonstrate the transformative role of aesthetics in creating better built environments.

Hosted by the Department of Architecture at Alanya University, IADC2027 provides an international platform for recognizing design excellence, creativity, innovation, cultural expression, environmental responsibility, and the meaningful integration of aesthetics into architecture and urban design.

Both conceptual/unbuilt projects and completed/built projects are eligible, and projects may be located anywhere in the world.

» IADC2027 at a Glance

» Competition Submission Process

To ensure a clear, transparent, and organized submission process, participants should complete the following stages in order.

Stage 1 — Download Competition Materials

Download the official competition documents, submission requirements, and templates here.

Stage 2 — Complete Registration Payment

Complete the required competition registration payment through the official payment page here.

Stage 3 — Submit Your Project

Submit the required project files and payment receipt through the official submission form here.

Important Submission Notes

Note 1: The three stages should be completed in the order indicated above.

Note 2: The registration fee must be paid before the project is submitted.

Note 3: One registration is required for each project, regardless of whether the project has one participant or a team of up to four participants.

Note 4: The payment receipt must be uploaded as a compulsory part of the project submission.

Note 5: Participants submitting more than one project must complete a separate registration, payment, and submission for each project.

Note 6: Project submissions sent by email will not be accepted.

» Purpose and Theme

Purpose — Aesthetic Design Ideas for a Better World

The purpose of the International Aesthetic Design Competition is to inspire, recognize, and celebrate the transformative power of aesthetic excellence in architecture and urban design.

IADC encourages designers to consider aesthetics not merely as visual decoration, but as an essential dimension of design capable of influencing spatial quality, human experience, cultural identity, environmental performance, contextual integration, and quality of life.

Through international participation, professional evaluation, publication, exhibition, and recognition of outstanding projects, IADC seeks to promote innovative approaches that combine beauty, functionality, creativity, culture, technology, environmental responsibility, and human-centered design.

Ultimately, IADC envisions a built environment in which aesthetic excellence contributes meaningfully to more inspiring, culturally responsive, environmentally responsible, and humane places.

Competition Theme

The central theme of IADC2027 explores the transformative role of aesthetics in architecture and urban design in addressing contemporary environmental, spatial, cultural, and social challenges.

Participants are encouraged to present creative and innovative projects demonstrating how aesthetic thinking can contribute to better buildings, public spaces, neighbourhoods, urban environments, and communities.

The competition welcomes contemporary and traditional approaches, experimental ideas, contextual solutions, technological innovation, adaptive reuse, regeneration, and environmentally responsive design.

» Main Goals and Objectives

IADC2027 aims to:

1.     Promote Aesthetic Excellence in architecture and urban design.

2.     Recognize Aesthetic Innovation and original design thinking.

3.     Foster Creativity through new approaches to the built environment.

4.     Cultivate Aesthetic Awareness among professionals, academics, and emerging designers.

5.     Elevate Design Standards through international comparison and professional evaluation.

6.     Enhance Environmental Responsibility by encouraging aesthetics to work together with sustainability, resilience, and environmental quality.

» Key Aesthetic Dimensions

Participants may address one or several of the following dimensions according to the nature of their project:

These dimensions are intended as guidance rather than limitations. Participants are encouraged to develop their own interpretation of aesthetic quality.

» Submission Classifications

Participants must select one of the following two classifications when submitting their project.

Both classifications are intentionally broad and accommodate aesthetic, cultural, environmental, technological, contextual, functional, and innovative approaches to design.

Participants should select the classification that most closely represents the principal scale and design intention of their project.

» Professional Category

For IADC2027, the International Aesthetic Design Competition will operate under a Professional Category only.

This structure has been adopted to strengthen the professional and academic value of competition participation, awards, certificates, publication, and international recognition.

Student Participation

There is no separate Student Category in IADC2027.

However, students are strongly encouraged to participate as members of teams supervised or led by an instructor, academic, architect, urban designer, interior architect, or other qualified professional.

This approach enables students to gain international competition experience while contributing to professionally guided projects that may support their academic and design portfolios.

» Eligibility Criteria

Participation in IADC2027 is international.

• Participants may submit projects individually or as teams of up to four members.
• At least one member of each team must be studying or hold a degree in Architecture, Urban Design, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, or another closely related built-environment discipline.
• Students may participate within professionally or academically supervised teams under the current Professional Category.
• Participants from all countries and regions of the world are welcome.
• There are no age restrictions.
• Participants may submit more than one project; however, each project requires a separate registration, payment, and submission.
• All registered team members must have made a genuine contribution to the submitted work.
• Projects must comply with the originality, authorship, anonymity, and ethical requirements of IADC.

» Eligible Project Types

Building Category

Any architectural or building category is permissible.

Projects may include residential, cultural, educational, commercial, hospitality, healthcare, institutional, recreational, mixed-use, public, experimental, or other architectural typologies.

Building / Project Condition

Both conceptual and existing projects are eligible, including:

• Conceptual design proposals
• Unbuilt projects
• Built projects
• Academic design projects
• Professional projects
• Adaptive reuse
• Renovation
• Regeneration
• Interior architecture
• Façade and building-envelope interventions
• Public-space projects
• Urban regeneration
• Neighbourhood and district-scale proposals

» Site and Scale

There is no predetermined competition site.

Projects may be located in any country or geographical context worldwide.

There are no prescribed minimum or maximum:

• Site dimensions
• Building areas
• Project scales
• Building heights
• Urban areas

Participants are free to determine the site and scale most appropriate for communicating their design concept.

A project may address a real, existing, hypothetical, speculative, historical, urban, rural, or natural context.

» Submission Requirements

Each complete IADC submission requires three compulsory components:

1. Project Description

A project description in English, submitted in Microsoft Word format and limited to 200 words.

The description should briefly present the design concept, aesthetic approach, contextual response, and principal qualities of the project.

2. Project Poster

A maximum of one A2 horizontal poster:

 .Pdf format — maximum 20 MB

Participants may use drawings, plans, sections, elevations, photographs, visualizations, diagrams, analytical graphics, explanatory text, and other relevant design materials.

3. Payment Receipt

The official payment receipt must be uploaded as the third compulsory submission document.

One registration/payment applies to one project, regardless of the number of participants associated with that project.

» Important Poster Requirements

Project Content: Participants may organize drawings, diagrams, photographs, visualizations, plans, sections, elevations, analytical graphics, explanatory text, and other relevant design material according to the specific requirements of their project.

Project Title: The project title must appear clearly at the top of the poster. Participants may determine its exact position within the upper section.

Registration Number Area: The designated registration/project number area located at the bottom-right of the official poster template must remain unchanged and empty. This area will be completed by the IADC administration where required.

Anonymous Submission Is Mandatory

PARTICIPANT NAMES, TEAM MEMBER NAMES, UNIVERSITY NAMES, COMPANY NAMES, LOGOS, EMAIL ADDRESSES, OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION THAT MAY IDENTIFY THE PARTICIPANT MUST NOT APPEAR ANYWHERE ON THE JURY POSTER.

Failure to maintain anonymity may result in disqualification.

» Originality, Ethics & Intellectual Property

Every submission must constitute the original work of the registered participant or team.

Plagiarism, false authorship, unauthorized reproduction, falsification of information, infringement of third-party rights, or attempts to influence jury members may result in disqualification.

Participants retain the intellectual-property and authorship rights to their designs.

By submitting a project, participants grant IADC permission to reproduce and display submitted materials for legitimate competition-related purposes, including:

competition publication, exhibitions, the official competition book, the IADC website, result announcements, academic communication, archives, and promotion of the competition.

Ownership of the underlying design remains with its author(s).

» Fairness, Transparency & Jury Independence

IADC is committed to maintaining a competition process based on:

Anonymous evaluation
Equal treatment of participants
Published evaluation criteria
Jury independence
Conflict-of-interest management
Confidentiality during evaluation
Respect for intellectual property
Professional and ethical conduct

Participants must not directly contact jury members regarding their projects before the official results are announced.

» Before You Submit

Please make sure that:

1.     Your registration has been completed.

2.     The competition fee has been paid.

3.     Your payment receipt is available.

4.     You have selected ARCHITECTURE or URBAN DESIGN.

5.     Your project description does not exceed 200 words.

6.     Your poster is A2 horizontal and in .PDF format.

7.     Your poster does not exceed 20 MB.

8.     Your project title appears at the top.

9.     The registration-number area remains blank.

10. No participant-identifying information appears on the poster.

11. Your submission represents original work.

12. All required files have been checked before final submission.

» Official Competition Platform

For complete competition regulations, submission requirements, important dates, awards, announcements, and updates, participants should refer to the official:

International Aesthetic Design Competition

IADC2027 — Aesthetic Design Ideas for a Better World
Alanya University | Alanya, Antalya, Türkiye