Buildner is pleased to announce the results of The Home of Shadows #4, an international architecture ideas competition exploring how light and shadow can shape domestic space through a home designed without artificial lighting.
Participants were challenged to reconsider how domestic space could be organized and experienced when artificial lighting was entirely removed from the architectural equation. Rather than treating light as a supplementary condition, the competition encouraged proposals in which sunlight itself became a primary architectural material shaping atmosphere, orientation, privacy, and inhabitation.
The competition produced a diverse range of submissions, revealing the richness and complexity of designing through shadow as much as through light. Across the entries, participants explored how natural illumination could structure domestic life through courtyards, recessed volumes, filtered apertures, reflective surfaces, and layered spatial sequences. Many proposals treated the home not simply as shelter, but as a device for perceiving changing environmental conditions throughout the day and across seasons. Light became a means of revealing texture, framing landscape, and creating atmospheres that shifted between intimacy, exposure, warmth, and retreat.
A significant number of projects demonstrated strong sensitivity to landscape and topography, embedding dwellings within forests, volcanic terrains, cliffsides, deserts, and rural settings through carefully controlled relationships between enclosure and openness. Some entries relied on excavation and partially buried spaces to create gradual transitions between darkness and illumination, while others used expansive roof planes, terraces, and deep overhangs to filter sunlight and establish calm, protected environments. Several proposals drew from vernacular architecture and climatic strategies, reinterpreting traditional spatial principles through restrained contemporary languages rooted in materiality and environmental responsiveness.
Material expression also played an important role throughout the competition. Many participants explored how texture, mass, and surface could amplify the perception of light and shadow, using stone, brick, concrete, timber, and earth-toned materials to intensify atmospheric depth and tactile richness. Rather than relying on technological spectacle, numerous projects demonstrated how subtle architectural gestures — the depth of a wall, the orientation of a courtyard, or the placement of a skylight — could fundamentally shape the emotional quality of domestic space.
The Home of Shadows #4 highlighted the many ways architects continue to explore the relationship between light, shadow, and dwelling. Across the submissions, participants demonstrated how natural light can influence atmosphere, spatial organization, material perception, and the daily experience of inhabitation. Together, the projects showed that even within a simple residential program, the careful orchestration of light and shadow remains a powerful tool for creating meaningful architectural experiences.
First prize was awarded to Taekhoon Lee (South Korea) for Below the Shadows. Second prize went to Marc Izaguerri Serrano (United Kingdom) for Lava, and third prize to David Costantino Cirocchi (Spain). The Student Award was presented to a team from MSA, Münster School of Architecture (Germany), and the Sustainability Award to Alexander Fong Kit Kindlen-Cheung (Austria). Honorable mentions and shortlisted projects are available on the competition website.
1st Place
Below shadows
Taekhoon Lee
South Korea
“The reason I participate in architectural competitions is to challenge and discipline myself. As I mentioned earlier, I have personal goals, but the path to achieving them is still somewhat unclear. That’s why competitions appeal to me, they allow me to keep thinking, creating, and producing without pause. They also offer the added benefit of helping me quickly grasp emerging trends. :)”
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JURY FEEDBACK summary
“Below the Shadows” proposes a semi-buried dwelling embedded within a dense forest landscape, where light, shadow, mass, and geometry become the primary architectural elements shaping the spatial experience. Organized around a series of sunken courtyards and controlled openings, the house develops an introspective domestic environment that prioritizes retreat, stillness, and sensory atmosphere over outward exposure.
2nd Place
LAVA
Marc Izaguerri Serrano
United Kingdom
“Architecture competitions offer a refreshing break from the constraints of day-to-day practice. They allow for a more open and experimental approach to design, free from many of the practical limitations we usually face. It’s a space where creativity can take the lead, and new ideas can be explored more freely.”
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JURY FEEDBACK summary
‘Lava’ proposes a dwelling carved into a volcanic landscape, where excavation, compression, and controlled openings are used to establish a close relationship between architecture, terrain, and light. Organized around a central courtyard, the house develops a sequence of interconnected spaces shaped by varying ceiling heights, framed views, and carefully positioned apertures that bring daylight deep into the interior. The proposal relies on a restrained architectural language composed of massive volumes, simple geometries, and a material palette closely tied to the volcanic character of the site. Rather than emphasizing formal complexity, the project focuses on atmosphere and spatial continuity, using the movement of sunlight throughout the day to define changing perceptions of space, shadow, and enclosure. Through the combination of subterranean placement, zenithal openings, and strong integration with the surrounding topography, the dwelling establishes a calm and immersive domestic environment rooted in the specific environmental conditions of the landscape.
3rd Place
What is the shape of light ?
David Costantino Cirocchi
Spain
“I find is a way to keep researching new ways of architecture while challenging myself and seeing what the world has to offer.”
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JURY FEEDBACK summary
The project conceives the dwelling as a continuous spatial sequence shaped by light, shadow, movement, and gradual transitions rather than conventional rooms and fixed boundaries. Organized as an elongated linear form embedded within a rolling landscape, the house unfolds through a procession of compressed and expanded spaces where walls curve, narrow, and open in response to changing orientations and daylight conditions.
Buildner Student Award
Light of the Site
Claudio Schröder, Chengying Wang, Fabian Leo Bous, Miao Kang
Germany
“We participate in competitions because we want to challenge ourselves to work independently outside of university and develop a concept entirely independent from professors and their opinions. We can freely choose a topic of current interest and express our individual values through architectural design.”
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JURY FEEDBACK summary
“Light of the Site” proposes a forest dwelling where architecture is shaped through the measured control of light, shadow, and visual framing rather than formal excess. Positioned carefully within a sloping wooded landscape, the house develops as a restrained longitudinal volume sheltered beneath an expansive roof plane that mediates between enclosure and openness.
Buildner Student Award
Ikara-Flinders House
Alexander Fong Kit Kindlen-Cheung
Austria
“I enjoy architecture competitions because they offer a chance to explore ideas in a focused and playful way. I was drawn to the smaller scale and the conceptual challenge of this competition, which was an opportunity to engage in something specific and bespoke. I see competitions as a great way to explore my own processes, refine skills, and improve how clearly I can represent ideas. They are a valuable way to keep learning, experimenting, and growing as a designer.”
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JURY FEEDBACK summary
The proposal imagines a dwelling embedded within the Australian landscape where architecture is shaped almost entirely through the modulation of natural light, material texture, and environmental exposure. Conceived around the principle of eliminating artificial lighting during daytime occupation, the house relies on carefully calibrated openings, layered brick surfaces, recessed terraces, and shifting spatial depths to capture and diffuse sunlight across the interior.
HONORABLE MENTION
Light Box
Sascha Röhren
Germany
“I participate in architecture competitions as a way to explore architectural ideas beyond the constraints of everyday practice. Competitions offer the freedom to focus on fundamental questions of space, atmosphere, and concept, while sharpening design thinking and clarity. They also provide an opportunity for personal development and reflection, allowing architectural ideas to be tested, refined, and communicated with precision.”
HONORABLE MENTION
Rooted in Light
Vera Nassir
Israel
“I participate in architecture competitions because they provide a valuable platform for independent architectural exploration, critical thinking, and conceptual development. In academic and professional contexts, design processes are naturally shaped by tutors, briefs and clients . Competitions offer the opportunity to develop a proposal through a more personal and autonomous architectural vision. For me, they are a way to test ideas, take thoughtful creative risks, and refine the values that guide my work as an emerging architect.”
HONORABLE MENTION
RoofFold: Folded Light
Seulmir Yu, Geonhee Park, Donghyeon Lee
New Zealand
HONORABLE MENTION
Fragments of Light
Hesham Muhammad Younis Hassan Ahmed
Egypt
“I believe that architectural competitions are one of the best ways to hone your skills, challenge yourself, and explore without boundaries. This belief extends deeply to our incredible team as well—the very soul of our studio. I am passionate about nurturing their creativity, providing them with engaging projects, and giving them the space to explore new design narratives, something that becomes much easier through participation in architectural competitions. This approach helps our team thrive and, in turn, infuses every client project with fresh thinking and truly distinctive outcomes.”
HONORABLE MENTION
Heliotropic House
I Gyeom Jung
South Korea
“Just as climbers ascend a mountain because it is there, architects participate in competitions because there are questions worth contemplating and researching. I also take part in this process to gain new insights, refine my ideas, and share the results with others. I have been inspired by the works and writings of many people, and I have continued to my architectural journey based on those influences. With the hope that my ideas may, in turn, inspire someone else, I will continue to pursue architecture.”
HONORABLE MENTION
Carved Light
Natasha Jasmin Lopes Rodriguez Florencio, Janquiel Lessa Florencio Rodriguez
Brazil
“Because it’s the best way to test your creativity to the fullest without limitations.”
SHORTLISTED PROJECTS
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