Buildner Reveals Winners of the Inaugural 'Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces' Architectural Competition
Buildner's first annual 'Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces' competition has concluded, celebrating groundbreaking designs that redefine existing structures. This international event invited architects and designers to reimagine small-scale buildings, typically around 250 square meters, located anywhere in the world. The core objective was to champion sustainable alternatives to demolition, focusing on reuse strategies that integrate contemporary social and environmental considerations. The competition encouraged innovative thinking across various scales and contexts, from precise urban insertions to imaginative rural transformations, all united by a commitment to resourcefulness and community benefit.
Detailed Project Insights
On December 22, 2025, Buildner proudly announced the recipients of its inaugural 'Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces' competition. The judging panel meticulously reviewed a diverse array of international entries, ultimately selecting three primary winners, several special award recipients, and honorable mentions. The projects that stood out most distinctly transcended conventional preservation approaches, proposing novel hybrid or shared-use typologies and exhibiting remarkable clarity and restraint in addressing environmental performance. Collectively, these winning works powerfully illustrate how small-scale adaptive reuse can act as a catalyst for extensive urban and social metamorphosis, highlighting the enduring importance of existing buildings in an era of escalating environmental concerns.
The First Prize was awarded to Parisima Davoudi of Raah Studio (United Kingdom) for 'Edge of Presence.' This project envisions a profound spatial intervention within a desolate brick kiln landscape. It integrates a subterranean shelter, a transitional zone of medicinal plants, and a linear market, transforming a marginalized area into a topography of renewal, emphasizing concealment, memory, and regeneration. Using elemental materials like sun-dried brick and reclaimed stone, the design makes a powerful statement about land, identity, and quiet resilience.
The Second Prize and Buildner Student Award went to Lee Hyunwoo and Lee Hyeonbok from Myongji University (South Korea) for 'SINKTOPIA.' This proposal re-envisions South Korea's vulnerable semi-basement dwellings (banjiha) as hubs of environmental innovation and social revitalization. By integrating a stormwater collection and purification system, the design converts these spaces into smart farms and micro-marketplaces, reopening sealed facades to create sunken courtyards and fostering climate resilience and urban equality through localized transformation.
Third Prize recipients Damian Świerzbiński and Kamila Jagieniak from the University of Fine Arts in Poznań (Poland) were recognized for 'It Started with Grain.' This project reimagines a derelict grain silo in Poland as a vertical public pavilion. It functions as both a historical archive and cultural commentary, guiding visitors through layers of meaning from botanical growth metaphors to immersive installations. The design reactivates the surrounding site with landscape elements and educational programs, embedding the proposal within Poland's socio-political past and ecological future.
The Buildner Sustainability Prize was awarded to Hwanseo Lee, Kuenwoo Park, and Hyeonjin Cho from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) for 'Phototropism Chimney.' This design transforms a disused warehouse in Lagonegro into a hybrid living and co-working space. Inspired by phototropism, the design optimizes light and energy flow through a central chimney, maximizing daylight, passive heating/cooling, and the reuse of embodied resources while respecting the building's historical integrity.
Several other submissions were highlighted for their innovative approaches: Jun-Kai Tseng (Taiwan) with 'Earthen Sanheyuan Regeneration,' transforming a traditional U-shaped courtyard house using recycled local materials; Chang Suo and Di Meng (United States) with 'Guest Station,' converting an abandoned gas station into a community public space; Yen-Yun Huang and Tzu-Pei Chiang (Pratt Institute, United States) with 'The Path (Taipei Theater),' reinterpreting an abandoned theater as a site where urban history and ecological processes coexist; and Nataliia Murashova and Mariia Knutova (Belgium) with 'Art Center / Guild Arts,' transforming a historic brick complex into a contemporary center for craft and artistic exchange.
Buildner has also announced the launch of 'Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces – Edition 2,' continuing its focus on small-scale adaptive reuse and inviting new proposals to further explore the reimagination of overlooked structures for modern purposes.
The 'Re-Form' competition illuminates a vital path forward for architecture and urban development. By showcasing projects that breathe new life into forgotten structures, it underscores the profound importance of adaptive reuse in fostering environmental stewardship, community resilience, and economic vitality. The winning entries serve as powerful reminders that sustainable design is not merely about constructing new buildings, but thoughtfully transforming the old, honoring history while forging innovative futures. This initiative inspires a re-evaluation of our built environment, urging us to see every abandoned space as a canvas for creative, sustainable intervention. It demonstrates that with vision and ingenuity, discarded places can become vibrant centers of activity, proving that true progress often lies in rediscovering and re-forming what already exists.