The Brick Bay Folly 2026 is now open for entries from architecture students and recent graduates (within the last ten years) to create designs that explore the intersection between sculpture and architecture.

The annual competition allows teams to collaborate on the creation of experimental and innovative architectural follies, with the winning team receiving $30,000 in grants towards realising their proposed folly design. Entries are due by 9 am Monday, 16 June 2025.

Along with grant and sponsorship money, the selected winning team will receive mentorship and technical support from Resene, Cassidy Construction, Cheshire Architects, Structure Design and Unitec. The finished project is then displayed on-site for up to 48 months and will be photographed by Samuel Hartnett, and featured in Architecture NZ magazine.

The competition offers students and recent graduates a rare opportunity to create a conceptual small-scale piece of architecture that, if selected, they can then build.

The winning 2024 Brick Bay Folly, Femme-ly Velues, acknowledges the heritage of textile craft among women by referencing the stages of weaving across its three distinct elevations. The team was made up of Claire Ford, Elise Cautley and Jennifer Gao of Yellowhammer Services, Architecture HDT and Jack McKinney Architects, respectively, who joined forces to design a concept based on the fabric crafts they’d been taught by their mothers. Read about their winning submission here.

Full submission guidelines and information on how to submit your project can be found at brickbaysculpture.co.nz.

^{The 2026 Brick Bay Folly is supported by Resene, Cassidy Construction, Cheshire Architects, Structure Design, Unitec, ArchitectureNow, Architecture New Zealand, Samuel Hartnett and Brick Bay Sculpture Trust.}