CartesianForms: Architecture Reimagined – Global AI Design Competition with a $120,000+ Prize Pool!

Topic: CartesianForms: Architecture Reimagined
Format: Online / Global
Early-Bird Registration: September 25 – October 20, 2026
Registration Deadline: December 6, 2026 – 23:59 UTC
Submission Deadline: December 13, 2026 – 23:59 UTC
Winners Announcement: December 23, 2026
Categories: Professional and Student
Participation: Individual or teams of up to 5
Eligibility: Worldwide, 18+
Total Prize & Benefit Value: $120,000+
Organized by: FORMAS.AI and PAACADEMY
Sponsored by: OpenAI
Media Partner: Parametric Architecture

CartesianForms: Architecture Reimagined

What should architecture carry forward?

CartesianForms: Architecture Reimagined is a global AI design competition inviting architects, designers, students, researchers, and creative practitioners to reconsider how architecture can inherit, transform, and pass on the conditions of a place.

Organized by FORMAS.AI and PAACADEMY, sponsored by OpenAI, with Parametric Architecture as Media Partner, the competition asks participants to select a 50 × 50-meter site anywhere in the world and develop an architectural intervention responding to what already exists there.

Rather than treating AI as a tool for producing a single spectacular final image, CartesianForms places emphasis on the architectural process itself: research, experimentation, iteration, testing, decision-making, and transformation.

Architecture is never finished by one generation. It is inherited, altered, and passed on.

Carlos Bañón/Co-Founder & Chief Design and AI Officer (CDAIO) of FORMAS.AI

The Challenge: One Place, Three Generations

Architecture rarely begins with a blank page.

Every site carries something forward: buildings, ruins, infrastructure, landscapes, materials, communities, cultural identities, histories, and patterns of occupation.

CartesianForms asks participants to choose a site and imagine its architectural evolution across three moments.

AI as Part of the Architectural Process

CartesianForms approaches artificial intelligence as part of a broader design workflow rather than as a replacement for architectural authorship.

Participants can begin with existing sketches, photographs, drawings, CAD files, Rhino or other 3D models, physical models, diagrams, renders, and videos.

FORMAS.AI serves as the competition’s shared design workspace, with FORMAS.AI, Cartesian by FORMAS, and OpenAI forming the shared AI and design environment.

Participants can use this environment to explore ideas, generate alternatives, develop geometry, test decisions, and communicate the evolution of their proposals.

Importantly, the process itself forms part of the submission.

Judges will therefore be able to examine not only what participants designed, but also how ideas developed, changed, and were selected throughout the project.

Suggested Design Process

There is no prescribed design path, but the competition proposes a workflow structured around eight stages:

1. Select — An existing building, structure or site
2. Research — Architecture, context, history and users
3. Define — What to inherit, and the central question
4. Explore — Ideas, alternatives and interventions
5. Test — Plans, sections, models and simulations
6. Develop — Design, geometry and editable 3D
7. Pass On — Room for the next generation of change
8. Communicate — The complete journey, told clearly

The competition shifts attention away from AI-generated imagery alone and toward the relationship between architectural reasoning, iteration, spatial development, and computational tools.

Who Can Enter?

CartesianForms is open worldwide to participants aged 18 and over.

There are two separately judged categories:

Professional

Open to architects, designers, studios, researchers, and other professionals working across architecture, design, and the built environment.

Student

Open to students currently enrolled in architecture, design, urbanism, landscape architecture, and related disciplines.

Entries may be submitted individually or in teams of up to five, in both the Student and Professional categories. All participants, including individual entrants, must be registered as part of their entry.

Submission Requirements

The final submission is intended to communicate both the architecture and the process used to develop it.

Participants are required to submit:

• A FORMAS AI Board documenting the design process
• 3D and spatial representation using Cartesian
• 3–5 final architectural visualizations
• A concise written project narrative
• Hero images prepared in 4:5, 9:16, and 16:9 formats
• Short videos of approximately 12 seconds in 4:5, 9:16, and 16:9 formats

Participants may additionally submit concept diagrams, sketches, 3D models, key iterations, alternative directions, architectural plans, sections, and elevations.

Final dimensions, file formats, board requirements, word limits, and upload specifications will be detailed in the final competition brief.

More Than $120,000 in Prizes and Participant Benefits

CartesianForms offers more than $120,000 in total prizes and participant benefits, combining OpenAI sponsorship, FORMAS.AI access and prizes, cash awards, ChatGPT access, PAACADEMY Pro memberships, and international editorial exposure.

The overall package includes $75,000 in OpenAI sponsorship, more than $34,500 in FORMAS.AI access, and a $5,000 cash prize pool.

Awards are divided between Professional and Student categories, with first-, second-, and third-place prizes alongside additional recognized projects.

Six projects, three from each category, will also receive Honorable Mentions.

Three additional projects will receive Most Popular Choice Awards, based on public engagement throughout the competition.

Selected projects may also receive editorial exposure through Parametric Architecture.

Professional Awards

1st Place

The Professional first-place package has a total stated value of $22,515, including:

• $1,500 FORMAS cash prize
• $18,000 in OpenAI credits
• FORMAS PRO access for up to five team members for three months
• Three six-month ChatGPT seats
• PAACADEMY Pro benefits

2nd Place

The second-place package has a total stated value of $18,015, including a $1,000 FORMAS cash prize, $14,000 in OpenAI credits, FORMAS PRO access, ChatGPT access, and PAACADEMY Pro benefits.

3rd Place

The third-place package has a total stated value of $12,730, including a $750 FORMAS cash prize, $10,000 in OpenAI credits, ChatGPT access, and PAACADEMY Pro benefits.

Professional projects ranked 4th–10th will also receive recognition and ChatGPT access.

Student Awards

1st Place

The Student first-place package has a total stated value of $4,015, including:

• $1,000 FORMAS cash prize
• FORMAS PRO access for up to five team members for three months
• Three six-month ChatGPT seats
• PAACADEMY Pro benefits

2nd Place

The second-place package has a stated value of $3,515, including a $500 cash prize alongside FORMAS PRO, ChatGPT, and PAACADEMY Pro benefits.

3rd Place

The third-place package has a stated value of $2,230, including a $250 cash prize alongside ChatGPT and PAACADEMY Pro benefits.

Student projects ranked 4th–10th will also receive recognition and ChatGPT access.

Participant Benefits

Beyond the competition prizes, registered participants can access additional FORMAS.AI and PAACADEMY benefits to support the development of their entries.

Complimentary FORMAS.AI Access

The first 500 registered projects across the Student and Professional categories will receive complimentary FORMAS.AI access for November 2026.

Each project receives one complimentary access allocation, regardless of team size, including solo entries. The access is assigned to the lead participant named during registration.

Participants who want to start earlier, add team members, or continue using the platform after November can also receive 40% off FORMAS access, redeemable until December 31, 2026.

Students may additionally apply for individual access through the FORMAS Campus Program, currently priced at $19.90 per month, subject to institutional verification. Alumni email addresses are not eligible for the Campus Program.

Official Competition Workshop by FORMAS

A free five-hour FORMAS workshop will take place on November 15, 2026, giving participants an introduction to the competition environment while exploring the latest AI-driven workflows shaping architectural design and production.

Beyond preparing participants for CartesianForms, the workshop will cover advanced workflows for production-ready architectural visualization, design iteration, and storytelling through image and video generation. It will also explore emerging approaches to agentic, precise 3D modeling using FORMAS.AI, Cartesian, ChatGPT Astra, and GPT-6.1 Sol.

Participants will learn how these tools can work together across the design process, from developing and iterating architectural ideas to generating precise 3D geometry and communicating projects through compelling visual narratives.

Further curriculum details will be announced.

Competition Timeline

• September 25, 2026 — Competition launch and registration opens
• September 25 – October 20 — Early-bird registration
• October 21 – November 15 — Regular registration
• November 16 – December 6 — Late registration
• November 22 — Five-hour FORMAS workshop
• December 6, 23:59 UTC — Registration closes
• December 13, 23:59 UTC — Final submission deadline
• December 13–15 — Eligibility and initial review
• December 16–19 — Jury review
• December 20–21 — Jury comments and final scoring
• December 22 — Final verification
• December 23, 2026 — Winners announced

Registration Fees

Registration is priced per team member and varies according to the registration period.

Each registration covers one project, which may be entered individually or by a team of up to five participants.

The first 500 registered projects will also receive complimentary FORMAS.AI access for November 2026, with one allocation provided per project.

Designing What Comes Next

CartesianForms asks participants to think beyond the architecture of a single moment.

Instead of beginning with an empty site and ending with a fixed object, the competition frames architecture as part of a longer sequence, something inherited from one generation, transformed by another, and eventually handed forward.

The question at the center of the competition is therefore deliberately simple:

What should architecture carry forward?

Registration for CartesianForms: Architecture Reimagined is now open worldwide.