Winners Announced for the Shaping Spaces Together — Design Competition

Participants were challenged to transform and enhance a local public space that is overlooked or poorly maintained.

Winners Announced for the Shaping Spaces Together — Design Competition
Credit: Kyle Christopher Panganiban, Maricon Jian Dela Cruz, Carmela Isabelle Beltran

How do we design for impact? In a world bustling with innovation, we often overlook the potential within our own communities. The Shaping Spaces Together — Design Competition was a chance for designers from around the world to harness their community’s spirit and design something with local value.

Designers were challenged to transform and enhance a local public space that is overlooked or poorly maintained. The goal was to add value, foster social wellbeing and enhance people’s lives through your design.

As part of the competition, participants first gathered feedback, using Engage, from the community who will use the space. They then designed a solution based on this feedback. Lastly, they surveyed that community again to see how successful their design was.

Grand Prize Winner

Congratulations to Kyle Christopher Panganiban, Maricon Jian Dela Cruz, and Carmela Isabelle Beltran for their winning competition entry!

Their design for the Dela Costa Community Center in Rodriguez, Rizal, Philippines was a practical yet innovative solution to an empty lot. The new community center has the potential to transform the entire area both and provide for economic growth.

The judges found their entry to be an excellent example of listening to the community and creating a solution that truly addressed concerns and desires.

See the full design here.

2nd Place (Tie)

This competition produced 2 runner-ups from the judge's scoring. Each entry showed a skillful inclusion of community outreach and design mastery.

Congratulations to Brian Wenzel, Ian McLaughlin, Allison Furlan, and Michael McHugh from Pivot North Architecture.

Their design for an underutilized traffic island may seem humble at first but it is exactly the type of design intervention that can begin to reshape an entire block and neighborhood. The Pivot North Architecture team demonstrated that they listened to community input and set the stage for larger impact.

See their full design here.

Congratulations to Claire Bandy from Claire Bandy.Architect

Claire's design of a simple corner park is a perfect example of how small spaces can transform an entire neighborhood. The design is straightforward, inviting, and clearly grounded in what the community desired.

See their full design here.

Designer's Choice Award

As part of this competition, we held a public voting session where fellow designers could vote for their top 3 designs. We had over 300 verified votes from designers around the world.

Congratulations to Özge Hocalar & Saba Ahmed Farheen from ÖSA Lab for winning the Designer's Choice Award.

Their design is a vibrant transformation of an underutilized passageway in a shopping center. The ÖSA Lab created a bold and active space to draw in customers, display art, and convert this ignored area into a hangout space.

See their full design here.


Want to enter a design competition?

Engage is a new tool for anyone to gather feedback. Use it to harness the wealth of knowledge within your community and gather important insights.

We have new competitions to explore how community engagement can inspire, connect, and enrich lives. 

View our competitions here.

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