Symbiocene: Architecture for a Biodiverse Future 2025 , Indien

 

Human activity has pushed the planet into an era of mass biodiversity loss. Expanding cities, deforestation, climate change, and industrial growth continue to fragment habitats and disrupt ecosystems. The built environment, often viewed as an ecological burden, is at the core of this crisis. But architecture also holds the potential to reverse it.

 

What if buildings were not just shelters for humans, but living frameworks that support multiple species? What if future cities could function as ecosystems, where flora, fauna, and humans coexist symbiotically?

 

This competition invites architects, students, designers, and visionaries to reimagine architecture’s role in shaping a biodiverse future through speculative and imaginative proposals.

 

Competition Launch: 1st September 2025

Registration deadline: 30th November 2025

Submission deadline: 10th December 2025

Result Announcement: January 30th 2026

 

Architecture as Ecosystem — Designing for Biodiversity Futures

 

Participants are invited to speculate on a future where architecture and ecosystems are inseparable. The challenge is to design spaces, structures, or environments that restore, support, and expand biodiversity, redefining the relationship between humans and nature.

 

Propose an architectural vision for a future where biodiversity thrives alongside human existence. Projects may be buildings, urban interventions, or speculative ecosystems that explore multispecies cohabitation.

 

Guiding questions:

How can architecture become an agent of ecological regeneration?

How might built forms integrate with natural cycles like migration, pollination, or water filtration?

What would a multispecies city or habitat look like in a biodiverse future?

Could architecture act as a living, adaptive organism?

 

Participants may select from the following speculative scenarios or propose their own:

The Vertical Wilderness (Urban Megacities) – Skyscrapers as forests, rooftops as habitats, facades as pollinator fields.

The Rewilded Ruins (Post-Anthropocene Landscapes) – Abandoned human cities transformed into biodiversity hubs.

The Floating Biome (Rising Seas) – Amphibious, floating structures that double as marine ecosystems.

The Desert Bloom (Arid Futures) – Architectural systems seeding biodiversity in barren deserts.

The Sky Gardens (Aerial Futures) – Suspended habitats where humans, birds, and insects coexist.

The Underground Sanctuary (Subterranean Futures) – Subsurface ecosystems cohabited by fungi, roots, insects, and humans.

 

The competition seeks to push architectural imagination beyond human-centered design, exploring futures where architecture becomes symbiotic, regenerative, and ecologically alive. The goal is to inspire new design languages that contribute to biodiversity resilience, shifting from an anthropocentric to a symbiocentric worldview.

 

Top 3: Publication | Certificate of Recognition | Jury Report | Interview | Free Memberships in architectural communities, forums, or libraries & more

Honourable mention: Publication | Certificate of Recognition

Special Mention: Publication | Certificate of Recognition

Shortlisted Entries: Name & project title listed in competition results | Certificate of Participation

 

EARLY REG.: 1st Sept – 15th Sept | 10 USD

STANDARD REG. 1: 16th Sept – 30th Sept | 12 USD

STANDARD REG. 2: 1st Oct – 15th Oct | 15 USD

STANDARD REG. 3: 16th Oct – 31st  Oct | 18 USD

STANDARD REG. 4: 1st Nov – 15th  Nov | 20 USD

LATE REG.: 16th Nov – 30th Dec | 25 USD

 

5% Discount: Available for university student (individual or team participants).

10% Discount: Available for universities that register 10 individual or team participants.

20% Discount: Available for universities that register 20 individual or team participants.

 

Vision & Originality:

• Boldness of the speculative concept

• Creativity in imagining a biodiverse future

 

Ecological Integration:

• How effectively the proposal fosters biodiversity

• Integration of natural cycles and multispecies interactions

 

Design Innovation:

• Novel use of form, space, and materiality

• Speculative use of technology or systems thinking

 

Narrative Strength:

• Clarity of the written concept

• Depth of ecological and architectural reasoning

 

Visual Communication:

• Quality and effectiveness of drawings, renders, or diagrams

• Strength of the ecosystem diagram in explaining interactions

 

Follow the video link below:

 

• Open to architects, designers, students, artists, and visionaries worldwide.

• Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.

• No professional qualifications required.

 

For any inquiries or further information, please contact us at:

• Email: info@archiolcompetitions.com

• Website: www.archiolcompetitions.com

• Competition Link: www.archiolcompetitions.com/competitions/symbiocene-architecture-for-a-biodiverse-future