Kindling announces 2024/25 competition theme

Kindling, the biennial student design initiative created by Reardon Smith Architects, MKV Design and HIX LDN, has revealed the theme of its 2024/25 competition – Sanctuary.

Through a competition supported by mentoring, Kindling challenges architecture and design students to envision future hotel spaces that address a specific issue or societal need, with the goal of elevating and advocating for ideas that ask a simple question in new ways: ‘What could we be doing for you?’

For its second edition, Kindling will explore what hotels – from existing spaces to structures yet to be conceived – might offer people who have been, for whatever reason, displaced from their homes and communities.

Students will be asked to propose schemes designed to welcome, nurture and help break down barriers, as well as to cater for the practical needs of those who are dislocated, by way of buildings and interior spaces that provide a sense of home, a sense of place and a sense of security.

Through its inaugural edition, Kindling highlighted the work of Ukrainian architecture and design students, who were asked to create concepts that reflected a time when hospitality replaced hostility. The students were supported via a mentorship programme overseen by Reardon Smith and MKV and the competition winners were flown to London to receive their awards in person as part of the annual AHEAD Europe ceremony.

“The displacement of people from their homes and communities, both temporarily and permanently, is happening in ever larger numbers around the world,” says Maria Vafiadis, founder and Managing Director, MKV Design. “I believe it is relevant to consider how we in the hospitality sector, which is a global industry dedicated at heart to giving succour and safety to strangers and neighbours, can shine a light on this universal tragedy. I hope to encourage our student participants to look beyond borders and think about the best of human values enshrined in hospitality settings.”

The Kindling organisers are now seeking to engage with leading colleges and universities across Europe with a view to launching the new programme in January 2025. They are also hoping to secure the active participation of at least one appropriate charity in creating an informed platform for the initiative. Meanwhile, HIX LDN will host an event on 28 November where the partners and sponsors will share more about the theme and the format of this year’s competition.

“Kindling is all about helping tomorrow’s architects and designers explore the potential of design to influence change by inviting them to consider an issue of our time in the context of a hospitality environment,” says Patrick Reardon, Executive Chairman, Reardon Smith Architects. “Given our new theme, the solutions may be temporary or permanent, newly built or repurposed, and students may work by themselves or collaborate with others, including those in different disciplines. What matters is the vision of their competition entries.”