Designaddvance 2026: Beyond the Mall
ARKANCE IN Private Limited
📌About the Event
Beyond the Mall is an international architecture and design competition that asks participants to reimagine the traditional shopping mall as an open, civic, people-first urban space. The theme, “Beyond the Mall: Rethinking Retail Landscapes as Urban Public Space,” focuses on transforming retail spaces into vibrant places where commerce, culture, recreation, movement, and community life can coexist.
ℹ️ Event Details
- Theme: Beyond the Mall: Rethinking Retail Landscapes as Urban Public Space
- Event Type: Architecture and design competition
- Mode of Conduct: Online registration and submission-based competition
- Participants can register online and download the design brief from the official competition website.
- Core Challenge: Reimagine the mall as public space
- Participants must transform the conventional inward-facing mall into an open, connected, socially active civic landscape.
- Site Strategy: Choose one approach
- Retrofit Approach: Select an existing real-world shopping mall or commercial complex that is underperforming, obsolete, or lacks public engagement.
- New Hybrid Proposal: Propose a new development on an underutilized urban site with strong accessibility, transit, pedestrian, or connectivity potential.
📅 Important Dates
- Registration Opens: 6 May 2026
- Registration Closes: 23 October 2026
- Submission Deadline: 29 October 2026
🎯 Eligibility & Rules
- Eligibility: Open globally
- Open to undergraduate students, postgraduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals from Architecture, Planning, Civil Engineering, and Design.
- Age Limit: Below 30 years
- Postgraduates and practicing young professionals are eligible only if they are under 30 years of age as of the submission date.
- Team Size: Maximum 3 members
- Team Rule: Architecture member required
- Teams can include members from different academic years, colleges, or disciplines, but at least one team member must be an architecture student or practicing architect.
- Design Rule: Mall should work like a city
- The proposal should create a mall that is open, connected, active, and integrated with public life, rather than just adding a plaza or landscaping element.
🏆 Prize Details and Value
- 1st Prize: ₹75,000 cash prize
- 2nd Prize: ₹50,000 cash prize
- 3rd Prize: ₹25,000 cash prize
- Total Cash Prize Pool: ₹1,50,000
- Top 10 Recognition: Top 10 entries will be published on the website
- BIM Program Benefit: Top 3 winners get free entry to the ARKANCE IN BIM for Design Program, a 120-hour program worth ₹80,000
- Participant Benefit: All participants who submit entries get a 40% discount voucher for the BIM for Design Program
- Certificate: E-certificates will be given to all participants who submit competition entries