Architecture Competition for Undergraduate Students

2,000 $ Total Prize + Internship Opportunity Freelance / Full time

The Story of the Wall

1400+ Participating Colleges

21,000+ Registrations

98+ Countries

1400+ Participating Colleges | 21,000+ Registrations | 98+ Countries

Submission Deadline: 18 Sept 2026

Design Challenge

This year, The Drawing Board takes participants to Chikkajala Fort, a historic ruined enclosure near Bengaluru. The site contains remnants of stone walls, pillared pavilions, a temple, and a large water tank, and is believed by many historians to have functioned as a Dharmachatra—a resting place for travellers and animals along an important trade route. Over time, urban development and road widening have eroded portions of the original enclosure, exposing the site to the pressures of the expanding city. The brief begins with a simple yet powerful question: What did the missing wall once protect?

Participants are invited to reimagine the site through a contemporary architectural intervention centred around an enclosure. The proposal must accommodate a Traveller Information Centre for Karnataka, a Cultural Hub, and an Urban Edge that engages with the city beyond. The challenge is not simply to design a wall, but to explore the relationship between past and present, movement and stillness, memory and development. Through architecture and landscape, in the approximate built area of 25,000 sq.ft., participants are encouraged to create a meaningful threshold between the fast-paced city outside and the enduring spirit of the place within.

Timeline

TDB 2026 Launch

15^th July (Monday)

Final Submission

18^th September (Friday)

Finalist Announcement

Dates to be announced. Stay tuned!

Masterclass

Dates to be announced. Stay tuned!

Finale

Dates to be announced. Stay tuned!

Jurors

Prof. Durganand Balsavar
Goa, India

Prof. Durganand Balsavar grew up in Goa and graduated from SA-CEPT Ahmedabad with an exchange Studio at ETH Zurich. After working in Zurich and Paris, Balsavar was invited as visiting faculty at CEPT and the atelier of B V Doshi.

Balsavar has been faculty for India Studios of Bartlett, Helsinki School of Architecture and involved in diverse cultural contexts - the Chandigarh Lab, IUAV Venice, Auckland, Indonesia, Nepal. He founded Artes-ROOTS Collaborative, which has been involved in an environment-appropriate architecture as a community participatory process. Artes ROOTS has engaged in a diverse range of projects from advocacy, policy, practice and research in future cities, disaster-mitigation , AMB-Barcelona UN Habitat III, Berlin Climate Policy 2050 Program, Future Cities Cambridge Univ-UK (VIT) Summit and several more. Balsavar has been a jury member at IIT-Gandhinagar, IIA National Awards and several other International competitions. The projects of Artes-ROOTS have been published in DOMUS, Routledge Press, MIT Press-Boston, CSE, Ekistics. Balsavar has written extensively on ecological architecture and its larger context.
He has curated the CoASocial READS Dialogues and has authored several publications. Artes ROOTS was nominated as best practices for participatory housing by UNDP. (www.artesroots.com)

Ar. Henri Comrie
Cape Town, South Africa

Henri Comrie is a minimalist architect and urban designer who enjoys working through complex problems to arrive at simple and logical solutions that hold wide appeal. This skill has been demonstrated in a series of awarded and internationally published projects that range from modest individual houses to city precincts.

He was listed in Taschen’s 40 architects under 40 and Wallpaper Magazine’s design directory, both representing reputable and independently vetted international shortlists of recognizable design talent.

Ar. Sachin Agshikar
Mumbai, India

Sachin Agshikar studied Architecture from Sir J.J. College of Architecture, University of Bombay and was awarded Gold Medal in 1991 for his final year design thesis.

Before setting up his own practice in 1999, he worked with Ar. Charles Correa for eight years.

He further worked as an associate to Charles Correa on Cancer Research Centre in Lisbon, R&D Centre for Mahindra & Mahindra, and Extension to Kala Academy and IUCAA

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FAQs

A. There is no registration fee for participating in TDB 2026. One can register self or with team of architecture student colleagues through the website thdrawingboard.in and designing a solution to the design challenge which you can get once you register.

A. Yes you can. TDB is a global platform.

A. Any full time or part time student who is currently studying in an academic year of an architecture college or has completed their final exams in June 2026 can participate.

A. Max 3.

A. Collaboration is the key! If you belong to different colleges, it does not matter. Go ahead and apply.

A. Sure. So long as the total group members do not exceed 3, feel free to update before final submission deadline.

A. The first stage will be design presentation limited to 4-A3 size sheets in PDF format only (no Auto-cad format) with maximum resolution upto 50mb only.

All floor plans, Sections & Elevation
3D views/ Perspectives
Any specific details if required.

A. You can use any softwares that you find useful to design the submission entry.

A. Please limit your submission to 4 pages.

A. The first stage will be design presentation limited to 4-A3 size sheets in PDF format only (no Auto-cad format) with maximum resolution unto 50mb only.

A. Oh no! Unfortunately, our team will not be able to process late entries.

A. You can watch TDB live presentations and juror lectures on a zoom link and/or on TDB’s Instagram page. The streaming link is posted on TDB’s Instagram page before the finale.

Design Challenge

Timeline

TDB 2026 Launch

Final Submission

Finalist Announcement

Masterclass

Finale

Jurors

FAQs

1. Is there a registration fee?

2. I am an international (non-Indian) architecture graduation student. Can I participate?

3. What is the eligibility for TDB?

4. How many students can be in a group - 1, 2 or 3?

5. Can students from different colleges/university form a group and register?

6. We already have registered as a group of two, but now want to add more members. Can we? group of two, but now want to add more members. Can we?

7. What are the submission requirements ?

8. Which softwares can I/we use to design my submission?

9. Is there any limitation for the number of A3 sheets ?

10. Which formats are supported for uploading TDB entries, what should be the file size?

11. I missed the deadline, is there still a way to submit my entry or project?

12. Where is TDB streamed online?