Baumit Design Competition 2026: Müşterekmekan Intergenerational Living Space

Baumit Türkiye has opened the fifth edition of the Baumit Design Competition (Baumit Mimari Tasarım Yarışması), its architectural competition for undergraduate students, this year under the theme Müşterekmekan: Intergenerational Healthy Living Space (Nesiller Arası Sağlıklı Yaşam Alanı in Turkish). The competition was announced on 5 October 2026, World Architecture Day, and applications close at 12.00 on 26 March 2027. Taking part is free.

Instead of a building aimed at a single age group, entrants are asked for a common living environment where children, teenagers, adults and older people share the same social setting, or in the words of the brief, a place where everyone from 0 to 100 can feel they belong. The space should mainly serve daytime use while also offering some temporary accommodation, and it should work for around 300 people at the same time. Indoor, outdoor and semi-open areas are to be planned together, with the goal of reducing age-related isolation and building mutual support between generations.

Participants choose their own site and may propose either a new building or the reuse of an existing one, explaining its physical and social context and its relationship to the city. The jury wants each design file to explain how healthy living is approached and to discuss building materials, comfort, building biology, structure and energy efficiency, as well as flexible uses that can adapt over time. Green spaces, social facilities, communal centres, permaculture plots and healthy mobility are given as examples, but the brief stresses that the real task is creating the relationships that let generations spend time together and learn from each other.

Who can enter and how

The competition is open to undergraduate students who are citizens of Türkiye or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, studying at universities in Türkiye or abroad. Students can enter alone or in teams of up to three, and the individual entrant or team leader must be an architecture student; the jury encourages teams mixing disciplines. The competition language is Turkish. Each entry is a single PDF of up to 20MB with nine pages: eight portrait A3 sheets plus the same sheets joined into one 42 x 237.6 cm horizontal poster. Work must be original and must not come from a studio course or workshop. Questions can be sent through the competition website until 27 November 2026 and will be answered on 11 December.

Prizes and jury

Three equal prizes give their winners a trip to Morocco with the jury, with travel, accommodation and organisation costs paid by Baumit Türkiye. Three equal honourable mentions receive TRY 25,000 each. Results will be announced on 19 April 2027, followed by an award ceremony, colloquium and exhibition in April 2027. The jury is chaired by Aydan Volkan and includes Ahmet Tercan, Burak Ünder, Derya Tezel, Esra Aydınoğlu, Kerem Erginoğlu and competition coordinator Kurtul Erkmen.