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Beyond the Mall: Rethinking Retail Landscapes as Urban Public Space
Designaddvance 2026 invites participants to reimagine retail architecture as a civic catalyst - a place where commerce coexists with play, culture, movement, and everyday life. This year, with the theme "Beyond the Mall: Rethinking Retail Landscapes as Urban Public Space", take a bold design step towards the future of malls.
Registrations Open: May 6, 2026
Registrations Close: October 23, 2026
Submission Deadline: October 29, 2026
Design Challenge:
Reimagine the mall as an open, porous civic landscape woven into the city. Transform the inward-facing retail box into an accessible, socially active place where commerce, culture, recreation, and community coexist.
Challenge the conventional mall- rethinking its form, organization, and purpose. Put public life first. Create meaningful, usable spaces. Enable activity day to night, year-round. Blur inside and outside, public and private, while integrating movement, pause, and interaction.
This is not about adding a plaza, it’s about making the mall itself public space.
Design a mall that behaves like a city: open, connected, and alive
Site Strategy (Choose One):
The site may be located in any thriving urban city across the world, but must be situated within a dense, active urban context, supported by clear evidence and a strong justification for its selection.
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Retrofit Approach: Select an existing, real-world shopping mall or commercial complex (not hypothetical) that is currently underperforming, obsolete, or lacks public engagement.
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New Hybrid Proposal: Propose a new development on an underutilized urban site.
Look for strong potential for accessibility/connectivity (streets/transit/pedestrian flows)
NO REGISTRATION FEES FOR THE COMPETITION
Eligibility:
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The competition is open to Undergraduate and Postgraduate students, as well as recent graduates and young professionals from the fields of Architecture, Planning, Civil Engineering, and Design globally.
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Postgraduates and young professionals (who are practicing) are eligible, only if they are under 30 years of age as of the date of submission.
Team Composition:
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A maximum of three members per team is permissible.
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Participants may make teams with students from different academic years of study, colleges or even courses of Undergraduate or Postgraduate disciplines. However, at least one of the team members must be a student of architecture or a practicing architect.
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All team members to be under the age of 30 on the date of submission.
Timeline:
Registrations Open: May 6, 2026
Registrations Close: October 23, 2026
Submission Deadline: October 29, 2026
Awards:
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Cash Prizes for the top three winners of this architecture competition:
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1st: ₹ 75,000/-
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2nd: ₹ 50,000/-
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3rd: ₹ 25,000/-
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Top 10 entries to be published on our website.
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Top 3 winners get free entry to ARKANCE IN BIM for Design Program (120 Hours) worth ₹ 80,000/-
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All participants who have submitted the entries will get a discount voucher of 40% on the BIM for Design Program.
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E - Certificates for all participants who have submitted competition entries
Resources and Suggested Reading:
All Designaddvance 2026 registrants will get access free of cost to online Self-Learning Modules and Webinars by experts in sustainability, Industrialized Construction, BIM, energy simulation, and building innovations, conducted at regular intervals. This will help the teams understand concepts and best
practices for high performance design and construction. For more info, stay tuned at our Social Media Handles: arkancein & ethosempowers
Competition Partner
Technology and Knowledge Partner
