The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is pleased to announce the launch of an open design competition in partnership with Taylor Wimpey. The competition, which is part of Taylor Wimpey’s long term initiative Project 2020, is seeking architects worldwide to develop new, innovative ideas and create the house typology of the future.

Taylor Wimpey is one of the largest homebuilders in the UK, building a wide range of homes from apartments to five bedroom houses.

Project 2020 aims to explore and evaluate the potential trends of future homes, asking those taking part to enhance and improve the existing typology helping to build a prototype for the future that is innovative and fully reflects customer lifestyles and expectations.

Together with the winning team, Taylor Wimpey will work to develop the winning designs with a view of building a prototype which could then be potentially replicated across Taylor Wimpey’s wider standard portfolio of homes.

Pete Redfern, Chief Executive of Taylor Wimpey said: “We continually review our product offering to ensure we are able to reflect our customer aspirations and market trends. Looking longer term, however, we need to look ‘outside the box’ to explore and evaluate new innovations in design, architecture, technology, materials and methodology so that we can create our product range for 2020 and beyond; and we are doing exactly this with our Project 2020 initiative and design competition.”

Glenn Howells, from Glenn Howells Architects who is part of the judging panel, commented: “This competition is an important one. It is an exciting opportunity to explore new house types that respond to 21st century living integrated with new, highly efficient construction techniques. I am particularly keen to be involved as Taylor Wimpey is looking to potentially replicate the winning designs in its future house type range.”

The initial phase of the competition will require teams to submit designs anonymously, in digital format only. Five concept designs will then be shortlisted to participate in the second phase. Each shortlisted designer will receive an honorarium of £6,000 + VAT. The winning team will receive an additional £10,000 + VAT prize.

For further information about how to enter the competition please visit: http://www.ribacompetitions.com/taylorwimpey

The closing date for first stage entries is Tuesday 14 June 2016 by 2pm.