Deadline: October 22, 2026
Open Chair — Global Design Competition 2026
CREATHLON Competitions, in partnership with Aibuild
International / Global
- Registration Deadline: October 22, 2026
- Submission Deadline: November 6, 2026 (23:59 GMT)
- Winner Announcement: January 12, 2027
- Furniture Design
- Product Design
- 3D Printing / Digital Fabrication
- Open Design
- Open to students, graduates, professionals, makers, and interdisciplinary teams worldwide
- May enter individually or as a team
- Anonymous judging: only the project title may appear on submission boards — no personal names, company names, or logos
- No software restrictions; any design tool may be used
- Additional materials (e.g., wood, metal) may be combined with 3D-printed parts
- Physical construction of the chair is not required, but the design must be printable and assemblable
- Early Bird (July 13 – August 6, 2026): £5 Individual / £10 Team
- Regular (August 7 – October 4, 2026): £15 Individual / £25 Team
- Late (October 5 – October 22, 2026): £25 Individual / £35 Team
- 1st Place: £600 + Certificate
- 2nd Place: £300 + Certificate
- 3rd Place: £100 + Certificate
- Mentions (5): Certificate
- Jury panel composed of experts from Aibuild, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), and Phenomena Laboratory
Open Chair is a global design competition by CREATHLON Competitions, inviting architects, designers, makers, and digital creatives to rethink how furniture is designed, made, and shared. Participants are challenged to design a full-scale chair that can be 3D printed at home using a standard desktop FDM printer (max print bed ~W220 × L220mm × H250mm). The design must be broken down into printable parts, each fitting within typical printer dimensions, and assembled with minimal tools or additional components. The competition champions three principles: clarity over complexity, logic over excess, precision over decoration. This is not a speculative object or digital sculpture — it is a real chair designed to be downloaded, printed, assembled, and used. Submission requirements include: (1) Two STL files — one showing the fully assembled chair, one containing all individual printable parts (numbered and coordinated with assembly instructions); (2) A2 Board (landscape, JPG) — clear visualizations (renders, diagrams, exploded views, or sketches) and a clear assembly guide, project title only; (3) Project Description (PDF, max 500 words) — covering design idea and intent, printing and assembly process, stability and usability, embodiment of open-source spirit; (4) A2 Poster (portrait, JPG) — a single striking image with project title, no text or annotations. All files combined must not exceed 15MB. Judging criteria include: Printability & Fabrication Strategy, Assembly & Construction Logic, Functionality & Structural Intent, Design Quality & Expression, and Accessibility & Reproducibility. Competition partner Aibuild provides free credits and tools for participants to explore.
