Announcing the Arkiste Summer Challenge 2025: Design for Real Life, Create for Your Future!
Arkiste Editorial
Editorial team
Jul 1, 2025
Are you an architecture, interior design, or landscape architecture student or recent graduate who wants more than another school assignment gathering dust? Ready to work on projects that will impress future employers—and have a real impact? This summer, Arkiste is launching a competition built to boost your portfolio, your confidence, and your professional network. You can give us your take on one or multiple briefs.
Welcome to the Arkiste Summer Challenge 2025.
Why This Challenge Stands Out
Work on Real Projects: Each brief is designed to mirror the kind of challenges you’ll tackle in your career. Your ideas could help shape real places and communities!
Show Off Your Teamwork: One of our briefs are open to groups, letting you collaborate just like you would in a design studio.
Build a Stand-Out Portfolio: All submissions can be uploaded to your Arkiste profile, and are perfect for future job and internship applications.
Career-Boosting: Winners get real industry exposure, feedback, and professional connections.
Arkiste Summer Challenge Briefs
1. The 20m² Summer Escape (Deadline August 1)
Brief:
Design a tiny summer retreat for a creative soul, such as an artist, writer, or musician. Located in an urban park or on a rooftop. The space must not exceed 20 square meters and should include at least one sustainable feature. Your design should maximize space, reflect your chosen user’s personality, and function beautifully both day and night.
What to Submit:
Site selection: Brief description and image (photo, map, or sketch) of your chosen location
User persona: Introduce your “creative soul” client and their needs (about 100 words)
Design story: Thoroughly explain your concept, spatial organization, sustainable feature(s), and the experience of the space by day and night (about 300 words)
Drawings:
Site/context plan
Floor plan
At least two visualizations (renderings, collages, or sketches) showing day and night use
Sustainability note: Detail how your solution is environmentally conscious (about 100 words)
Optional: Section/perspective, material palette, or user flow diagram
Field Focus Tips:
Architecture: Highlight spatial innovation, structure, and how the retreat interacts with its urban setting. Consider how daylight, form, and access shape the experience.
Interior design: Emphasize layout efficiency, atmosphere, materials, and how the space nurtures creativity for your client. Explore furniture, color, and lighting details.
Landscape architecture: Focus on integrating the retreat into its outdoor environment, transitions from landscape to building, microclimate comfort, and planting around the structure.
2. Green Oasis: Reviving an Unloved Space (Deadline August 15)
Brief:
Find a forgotten, neglected, or underused public space in your city—a dull plaza, abandoned courtyard, empty rooftop, or leftover strip of land. Reimagine this space as a vibrant “green oasis” that brings people together, supports wellbeing, and reconnects nature with the city.
What to Submit:
Location selection: Before photo(s) and description of the site and its current problems (about 100 words)
Vision: Explain your goals for the space and who will benefit (about 100 words)
Design solution:
At least two “after” visuals (collage, render, or hand sketch) showing your transformed oasis
A site plan showing main interventions
List of proposed plantings or green elements
Explanation of how your design supports biodiversity, sustainability, and inclusivity (about 200 words)
Process: Describe your research or inspiration (about 100 words)
Field Focus Tips:
Architecture: Consider built interventions—like pavilions, shade structures, or innovative seating—that transform and activate the space.
Interior design: Explore ways to create welcoming outdoor “rooms” or experiences, using elements like materials, textures, lighting, and small-scale installations.
Landscape architecture: Lead with planting strategies, biodiversity, pathways, and ecological connections. Show how your design supports both nature and community.
3. Urban Resilience: Climate Smart Space (Deadline august 30)
Brief:
Choose a real urban site—street corner, alley, small plaza, schoolyard, or public space—at risk from a climate challenge such as heat, flooding, or poor air quality. Propose a small-scale, practical intervention that makes the site safer, more comfortable, and more resilient for everyday users.
What to Submit:
Site details: Name/location, before photo(s), and description of climate challenges (about 100 words)
Design concept: Clearly explain your intervention and why you chose it (about 200 words)
Drawings:
Site plan or annotated photo
Visual of your proposed intervention (sketch, render, or collage)
Diagram or note showing how your solution addresses the climate risk
Community impact: Explain who will benefit and why your project is achievable (about 100 words)
Sustainability note: Highlight if your idea is low-cost, replicable, or uses recycled/natural materials (about 100 words)
Field Focus Tips:
Architecture: Address how new structures or modifications can protect from climate risks—like canopies, shading devices, or shelters. Show how architecture can support urban resilience.
Interior design: Think about microclimate comfort, tactile experiences, or small-scale interventions for spaces like transit stops or schoolyards. Materials, surfaces, and color can make a big impact.
Landscape architecture: Tackle site-wide challenges: rain gardens, tree planting, permeable surfaces, and green infrastructure. Use your skills to boost environmental performance at all scales.
4. Community Impact: Design for Real Change (Deadline August 30) (Group Project)
Brief:
Team up (2–4 students, any mix of architecture, interior, or landscape disciplines) and identify a real-life site or problem in your community that could benefit from thoughtful design. This might be an underused public square, a small business needing a renovation, a park with accessibility issues, or an empty plot with untapped potential.
Work together to propose a practical and creative design intervention that addresses actual user needs. Consult at least one real user (neighbor, shopkeeper, parent, local group, etc.) for feedback or insights. Focus on solutions that are achievable, affordable, and locally relevant. Highlight collaboration by showing how each team member contributed to the project.
What to Submit:
Team details: Names, roles, and description of team collaboration (about 100 words)
Site/problem selection: Description, location, and before photo(s) (about 100 words)
User insights: Summary or quotes from your conversation(s) with a real user (about 100 words)
Design story: Fully explain your solution, design decisions, and its community impact (about 300 words)
Drawings:
Site/context plan or map
At least two visuals (sketches, renders, diagrams, collages) showing your proposed intervention
Process: Summarize your team’s process, including challenges, learnings, and next steps (about 150 words)
Bonus: Highlight if your project is sustainable, inclusive, or especially community-driven
Field Focus Tips:
Architecture: Take the lead on site analysis, spatial planning, and proposing structures or layouts that solve user needs.
Interior design: Dive into how people experience the space—focus on comfort, accessibility, flow, and creating a sense of belonging.
Landscape architecture: Guide the team on site selection, green strategies, and the bigger environmental context. Propose interventions that connect people with place and nature.
What You’ll Gain
Winning the Arkiste Summer Challenge means more than a line on your CV. Here’s what’s waiting for you:
Recognition: Get your work in the spotlight—on Arkiste, social media, and beyond.
Official Achievement: Receive a beautiful diploma (digital and print) and special Arkiste digital badges for your portfolio and LinkedIn.
Expert Connections: Enjoy portfolio reviews and feedback from leading architects and designers.
Swag & Surprises: Rock exclusive Arkiste merch
Portfolio-Ready Projects: Every brief is crafted to add real value to your CV and help you stand out when job hunting
Community & Opportunity: Join an inspiring network of peers, mentors, and industry professionals. Grand winners get to help shape next year’s competition!
Who Can Enter?
All students (and recent grads) in architecture, interior design, or landscape architecture
Individual and group submissions welcome (see briefs for details!)
Key Dates
Challenge opens: July 1, 2025
Submission deadline:
August 1 (The 20m² Summer Escape),
August 15(Green Oasis: Reviving an Unloved Space),
August 30 (Urban Resilience: Climate Smart Space and Community Impact: Design for Real Change)
Winners announced: October 15, 2025
How to Enter
Sign up on Arkiste.com, create your profile and make sure you tell about yourself and your professional aim.
Choose your brief (you can submit multiple)—and read the full requirements for each
Upload your project as a new project entry, tagging #ArkisteSummerChallenge on the description
Tell your story: We want to see your process, sketches, and “before and after” visuals where possible
Ready to Level Up This Summer?
Design something real. Collaborate. Connect. Show future employers what you can do!
Got questions? DM us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or email us at [hello@arkiste.com].
We can’t wait to see your ideas—and help you take the next step in your design career.
Stay creative,
The Arkiste Team
Arkiste Editorial
Editorial team