Initiated by the United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), the House of No Waste competition (HØW) calls upon aspiring young architects, engineers, planners, scientists, and designers to engage in a global competition. The vision for the HØW Competition is to develop proposals for groundbreaking public projects that not only embody circular economy principles and human-centred design, but to also set a new standard for how we manage resources and avoid wasting resources in construction. Submissions can take the form of a building concept, an urban planning strategy, a building or material system, a construction technology or process, or a product relating to the built environment. Participants have the freedom to define a site, context, or target user group for their submission.
The deadline for timely submission of all entries to the competition is Monday, 1 December 2025, 14:00 CET. Project authors must be young professionals or students with a maximum age of 40 years at the opening of the competition (date of birth must be later than 31 August 1984). Participation of professionals in mixed, transdisciplinary teams is encouraged. Prize-winning projects of the HØW competition will receive UNU recognition and public promotion, as well as monetary prizes. The total net amount of at least 30,000 euros is allocated for prizes and acknowledgements, split between three main prizes and three acknowledgements. Participation in the competition is free of charge.
The official launch of the competition is on 1 September 2025. Until then, future participants can already register for the competition online at:
houseofnowaste.org
The jury is an independent consultant to UNU-FLORES and is composed of the persons listed below, each representing a continent around the world:
Tatiana Bilbao
Architect, Mexico City, Mexico
Barbara Buser
Architect, Basel, Switzerland
Momoyo Kaijima
Architect, Tokyo, Japan
Mark Lee
Architect, New York, USA
Zegeye Cherenet Mamo
Architect, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
Jane Wernick
Engineer, London, Great Britain
The advisory board provides advice in the preparation of the competition documents, the preliminary examination of submissions, and during the jury deliberations, without a vote, and consists of:
Prof. Marc Angélil
Architect, ETH Zurich, Los Angeles/Zürich
Prof. Manfred Curbach
Engineer, TU Dresden, Dresden
Prof. Edeltraud Guenther
Director of UNU-FLORES, Dresden
Prof. Dirk Hebel
Architect, KIT Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe
Dr. Yazid Ninsalam
Landscape Architect, RMIT University, Melbourne
UNU-FLORES, established in Dresden, Germany, in 2012, is one of thirteen institutes and programmes, located in 12 different countries, which together comprise the United Nations University. UNU-FLORES operates at the intersection of science, policy, and education to address complex sustainability challenges through a holistic understanding of resource interconnections. In 2025, as the United Nations University celebrates its 50th anniversary, UNU-FLORES is marking the occasion with the launch of the HØW competition. The project is guided by the principles of the European Union’s 9Rs for a circular economy: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, and Recycle, in line with the United Nations’ ambition for a pollution-free planet.
All relevant dates of the competition procedure:
- Competition launch......................... Monday, 1 September 2025
- Online Webinar 1.... Monday, 8 September 2025, 10:00 a.m. CEST
- Online Webinar 2.. Monday, 22 September 2025, 10:00 a.m. CEST
- Competition deadline. Monday, 1 December 2025, 2:00 p.m. CET
- Jury meeting.................................. TBA January/February 2026
- Online Exhibition (envisaged date).................................... 2026
For more information and to register for participation: houseofnowaste.org
Contacts:
Atiqah Fairuz Salleh, Advisor Strategic Initiatives (b.m.salleh@unu.edu)
Benjamin Hossbach, Competition Advisor (benjamin.hossbach@unu.edu)
Benedikt Crone, Project Manager (press@houseofnowaste.org)
Statements by the jurors:
“This initiative is crucial for rethinking how we build and live, placing care, circularity, and environmental responsibility at the centre of architectural practice.”
Tatiana Bilbao, Architect, Mexico City, Mexico
“House of No Waste – this reminds me of the house and mentality of my grandparents: Nothing was ever thrown away, since there might be a use for everything in the future! It is now up to the young generation to reinvent and go beyond what we have forgotten over the last 80 years to secure a prosperous future for mankind on this planet!”
Barbara Buser, Architect, Basel, Switzerland
Statements by the advisors:
“This is more than a competition – it’s an urgent call to redefine construction as a force for planetary repair, transforming waste into opportunity and shaping spaces that give back more than they take.”
Dr Yazid Ninsalam, Landscape Architect, Melbourne, Australia
“Redux – one of those rare adjectives used postpositively after a noun to qualify it – means ‘bringing back’. For architecture, redux refers to getting beneficial returns from the flows channelled throughout a building and its environment.”
Prof. Marc Angélil, Architect, Professor at Harvard University and Prof. Emeritus from ETH Zürich, Los Angeles USA / Zürich, Switzerland
“The House of No Waste challenges us to rethink what we discard – and what we take for granted. It’s time to stop wasting not only materials, but also potential, and wasting the chance to build a truly sustainable future. When we recognise how water, energy, space, and materials – among others – are interconnected, we can design buildings – and societies – that regenerate rather than deplete.”
Prof. Edeltraud Guenther, Director of UNU-FLORES, Dresden, Germany
