iNTA 2025 Design Competition

Design Innovations for Housing in the Tropics

An International Competition on Climate-Responsive Housing in the Tropics

Overview:
In coordination with the 9th International Conference of the International Network for Tropical Architecture (INTA), the 2025 iNTA Design Competition invites designers, architects, engineers, students, and interdisciplinary teams to submit climate-responsive housing projects for tropical regions that address the unique environmental, cultural, and social challenges of tropical climates.

Designs should embody the conference’s themes of resilience, sustainability, action, and adaptive reuse focusing on the integration of environmental performance with architectural expression. Housing proposals should demonstrate sensitivity to local culture, materials, and community needs, while advancing strategies for climate adaptation and mitigation.

Entrants are challenged to rethink tropical housing as an ecological interface, a cultural artifact, and a platform for community action. The competition calls for innovative, resilient, and sustainable roof designs that respond to the unique challenges of tropical climates while embracing local culture, materials, and community needs. Designs should reflect the conference’s themes of resilience, sustainability, and action, focusing on the intersection of environmental performance and architectural expression.

Theme:
Entrants are challenged to rethink tropical housing as an ecological interface, a cultural artifact, and a platform for community action. Housing in tropical regions must respond to extreme weather, promote natural ventilation, harness renewable energy, enable water management, and foster healthy livable environments. Submissions should also reflect regional identities and social priorities, embracing both traditional knowledge and innovation.

Competition Objectives:

Inspire climate-responsive housing designs suited to tropical environments.

Promote the integration of local materials, vernacular knowledge, and contemporary technologies

Address resilience to extreme tropical weather conditions (cyclones, heavy rainfall, drought, high heat).

Explore the roof’s potential in energy generation, water collection, biodiversity, and community use.

Demonstrate housing’s potential for energy generation, water collection, biodiversity enhancement, and community engagement.

Emphasize recycling, reuse, and circular design principles to minimize environmental impact and maximize resource efficiency

Eligibility:
Open to professionals, students, and teams from around the world in architecture, engineering, design, and allied disciplines. Multidisciplinary collaboration is strongly encouraged.

Submissions must have been completed within the last five years, including unbuilt design submissions, and should either be located in a tropical/subtropical region (defined as between latitude 23° north and south) and/or addressing extreme tropical/subtropical extreme weather-related conditions (e.g., coastal storm events, extreme drought).

Award Categories:
Multi-family Housing (Awards for Built and Unbuilt Designs in each category below)