The importance of architectural competitions for the architect

The importance of architectural competitions for the architect

A creative architect loves to challenge and take in architectural competitions, and architectural competitions are important to your career.

Why should you compete in architectural competitions?
I’ll give you 5 reasons why architecture competitions are important to your career:

The importance of architectural competitions for the architect

1- Exercising creativity

Whether you are a student or a practicing architect, you should look for opportunities to exercise your creativity and experiment with new concepts.

No matter what stage you are at in your career, there will always be restrictions on your creativity,

and whether it is due to the client, budget, deadlines, or programs that you may use, in your office or university, you will always face restrictions that prevent you from exploring your creativity.

And in the long run, it may deplete your creativity and become somewhat frustrated.

Architecture competitions give you the opportunity to break out of your daily routine and test the new concepts and ideas that you have,

the ability to make mistakes and learn from them, something that you cannot do in the real world without losing your job or getting a bad grade in class.

Of course, you cannot succeed in any profession without making mistakes along the way and competitions give you that opportunity.

And in the field of architecture, creativity is important, so be sure to review your creative muscles, to find the creative killer idea,

sometimes it is useful to have previous examples of work, and the more you have creative ideas out of the ordinary, the better.

2- Portfolio Enhancement

It is better if you treat your wallet as if it were your baby, you must protect it, feed it and allow it to grow big and strong.

Portfolios are a business asset in your life and are vital to getting a job at any stage of your career.

Here, competitions are another opportunity to add to your portfolio and show your skills that you have not yet been able to display in your practice.

If you want to give yourself the best possible chance to get a job, your entry into the competition may be a prominent feature in your portfolio that is proving pivotal in getting your dream job.

Although you may find yourself not winning every competition, participation is what matters by showing that you are ready to add to your practice.

Using contests to add to your portfolio will also show that you have confidence in your ability and that you are willing and able to pit yourself against others.

As for younger designers, during your time at university, it is natural that you do not have the time or opportunity to gain experience within a company,

and thus competitions may be the opportunity to create a portfolio that represents you as a designer and what you aim to explore further, as a practicing architect.

3- Building Self-Confidence

Confidence comes and goes, whether this confidence is in your ideas or in the ability to present in front of groups of people as a student or enter into a life-changing meeting as a practicing architect;

Throughout your career, confidence will always fluctuate because of the challenges or problems you may face.

Contests can provide a boost in self-confidence and the opportunity to receive feedback from a panel of professional judges without pressure from your boss or teachers.

Presentations for clients, groups of people, and architects are essential in sharing ideas, selling a project and collecting feedback.

Contests also provide you with another opportunity to build your confidence in presentations, develop your experience and increase your understanding of architecture.

This confidence can then be fed into your studio business, your colleagues, and the peers around you.

For you as a student, building self-confidence gives you the opportunity to enter the world of engineering with a great platform to build on.

In your quest to find what you truly love about architecture, having confidence in your ideas is the first step in creating great projects.

4- Competitions are good practice

If you put everything you have in a contest and don’t win, does that mean you failed?

Of course not, experience is everything, and basically, the more projects and competitions you participate in,

the more experience you gain as a practicing architect.

Architecture is a very competitive field and competitions are available to put new skills into practice and another occasion to put your pencil on paper.

5- Opportunity to obtain the required recognition

In this competitive field, gaining self or studio recognition may raise yourself above associates in the race to attract the biggest clients and projects.

And if you become a winning contest participant, you immediately give yourself the recognition required and show that you are serious about what you do.

The increase in the number of clients and local or even worldwide recognition also adds to the long list of positives in participating in competitions.

The beauty of the contests is that you may face two, a few hundreds, or even thousands of people depending on the level of competition,

which means that you have an opportunity to present your work to a huge number of competitors.

There are many positives in entering architecture competitions, from exercising your creativity to gaining international recognition,

it is very important to take the competitions into account and I hope we have given you some incentive to compete.

The importance of architectural competitions for the architect