Outline

Task for Submission

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Theme2026 [Milan, Italy]
Neo-Città Studi Milano — Layers of History and Innovation

This is an international design competition for students to compete amongst each other in designing an innovative architecture, bridge and city design using BIM/CIM & VR technologies. Every year students compete for the top prize which is given to an outstanding work outlining a predefined theme in the aspect of design, innovative idea, and creativity. They plan and design their work based on the theme and then run a simulation. Their final model will be presented to the judges in a form of a script for evaluation.
Based on the theme of the year, applicants are asked to complete their works utilizing BIM/CIM data that combines at least two or more design results, such as VR simulation, transportation, bridge/tunnel/road structure, building structure, environment, disaster prevention/evacuation, etc. We would like you to use FORUM8's BIM software and VR technologies by all means and consider this competition as an opportunity to create your masterpiece.
We encourage students from different departments majoring in different field of studies to make a team to work on their model together to demonstrate that BIM/CIM can be used in various discipline. To assist students with the production of their work, we plan to carry out workshops and seminars. We will also support the students who will make use of software from now on.


Milan, with almost 2500 years of history dating back to the Roman Empire, became the economic hub of northern Italy's industrialisation from the 19th century onwards. Following the post-war development known as the Italian Miracle, it emerged as a global centre for fashion and design.  ...Read more

[Free rental software]

  • ■VR CG software UC-win/Road
    A 3D Realtime Virtual Reality Software available in multiple languages including Japanese, English, Chinese, etc. It can be used for various simulations such as traffic, roads, construction, environment, disaster prevention and evacuation.

  • ■UC-win/Road Assessment Plugin
    Environmental assessment plug-in enables to perform VR and simple assessment by using a variety of real-time simulation functions of UC-win/Road. It is possible to assess the green view rate and sunshine obstruction, and predict light reflection from solar panels.

■Seismic and structural analysis FEM software Engineer's Studio®

■Integrated BIM solution for building and civil engineering Allplan

■EXODUS/SMARTFIRE Analysis Support Service, Evacuation Analysis Support Service

Online Seminars

Juries
  • VDWC Head JudgeProf. Yasushi Ikeda

    Project Prof., Univ. of Tokyo, Faculty of Engineering, Dept. of Architecture, Architecture Information Lab.

  • Prof. Kostas Terzidis

    Prof., Tongji University, Design Creative Academy

  • Prof. C. DAVID TSENG

    National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

  • Assoc. Prof. Miho Mazereeuw

    Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Schedule
Entry Period

Wed. April 1 - Tue. June 30, 2026

Product license
free loan period

Wed. April 1 - Fri. Nov. 20, 2026

Preliminary screening / Notification of Qualification Results

Screening: Tue. July 7, 2026
Result notification: Fri. July 10, 2026

Submission period

Fri. Sep. 18 - Fri. Sep. 25, 2026

Nomination screening

Tue. Oct. 6 - Mon. Oct. 12, 2026

Announcement of Nominations

Tue. Oct. 13, 2026

Open Final Judging and Awards Ceremony

Thu. Nov. 19, 2026
Venue: Shinagawa Intercity Hall (MAP)

Prize

  • World Cup Award (1 work)

    Prize 300,000JPY

  • Excellence Award

    Prize 100,000JPY

  • Honorable Judge Award (About 4 works)

    Prize 50,000JPY

  • Nomination Award

    Souvenir

Up to 3 members from the area other than Kanto area and 2 members from overseas in each team are scheduled to be invited.

Guideline

Application Guideline
Overview
Cloud-based design competition for civil engineering and construction works with BIM/CIM and VR!
This is an international design competition for students to compete amongst each other in designing an innovative architecture, bridge and city design using BIM/CIM & VR technologies. Every year students compete for the top prize which is given to an outstanding work outlining a predefined theme in the aspect of design, innovative idea, and creativity. They plan and design their work based on the theme and then run a simulation. Their final model will be presented to the judges in a form of a script for evaluation.
Based on the theme of the year, applicants are asked to complete their works utilizing BIM/CIM data that combines at least two or more design results, such as VR simulation, transportation, bridge/tunnel/road structure, building structure, environment, disaster prevention/evacuation, etc. We would like you to use FORUM8's BIM software and VR technologies by all means and consider this competition as an opportunity to create your masterpiece.
We encourage students from different departments majoring in different field of studies to make a team to work on their model together to demonstrate that BIM/CIM can be used in various discipline. To assist students with the production of their work, we plan to carry out workshops and seminars. We will also support the students who will make use of software from now on.
Theme 2026

Theme 2026 [Milan, Italy]
Neo-Città Studi Milano
— Layers of History and Innovation

Milan, with almost 2500 years of history dating back to the Roman Empire, became the economic hub of northern Italy's industrialisation from the 19th century onwards. Following the post-war development known as the Italian Miracle, it emerged as a global centre for fashion and design.  ...Read more

VR data for the Competition Site

▲Città Studi area

  • ▲Politecnico di Milano

  • ▲Romanga Ave.

Application requirements
All participants involved in the creation of the submitted work must be students (working students, graduation research and production works created before graduation in the year 2025 are also eligible).
Entries must be submitted as a team of three or more people, and each member must clearly indicate the part of the work that they were responsible for.
Copyright of the submitted works

The copyrights to all data, works, and products created through this competition shall remain the property of the authors.

FORUM8 shall have the right to edit and process the data, works, and deliverables created by the author, and shall have the right to use them for secondary purposes, such as publishing and distributing them on its website, e-mail news, PR magazines, books, magazines, newspapers, etc., as part of external announcements, research presentations, sales activities, and public relations activities.

Judging criteria

The use of UC-win/Road is required for the production of the work. In addition, contestants must use at least one more FORUM8 software/solution to create their project. BIM/CIM data and posters explaining the results of these linkages and design/analysis will be submitted. Data and posters explaining these linkages and the results of design and analysis will be evaluated in terms of the degree of use of BIM/CIM and VR, creation period and quality, logic and technical skills, aesthetics and originality, and presentation techniques, and how the software was used to create a new design.

Open judging and award ceremony

Date: Thu. November 19th, 2026
Venue: Shinagawa Intercity Hall (MAP)

Nominated teams will be asked to participate in the open judging and give a five-minute presentation. If you do not participate, you will not be eligible for an award.
The winning award works will be selected through the final judging committee and judge on cloud via VR-Cloud® and the Award Ceremony will be held.
The competition result will be also announced on the FORUM8 website.

Entry and submission process
1. Entry registration

Please register and submit your work plan in English during the entry period (Wed. April 1st – Mon. June 30th, 2026).
Judging will be conducted anonymously. The name of the team or work should not identify the individual or group, such as the name of the country or school.
To register, please complete the page accessible from the button below with your team name, team members, etc.

Entry / Registration

Please click the link below to download the Entry form, *complete the form, and upload it.
*Make sure to present your work with an explanation of the overview of your work (in 100 words in English) and images.

Entry form

2. After entry is accepted

The following information will be sent to you by e-mail after the entry has been accepted.

- Entry ID
- URL to download the data and materials provided for the production of the work
- Information on how to apply for seminars you wish to attend

Free rental of product licenses

3. Preliminary Screening / Notification of Results

The preliminary screening will be held on Tue. July 7th, and the selection results will be announced on Fri. July 10th.

4. Work submission

Only teams that enter before the deadline and pass the qualifying round will be allowed to submit their works. Please submit your work by the submission deadline on Fri. September 25th, 2026 using the dedicated URL that will be sent to you at a later date.

[Documents to be submitted]

- Data created by the software solution used
UC-win/Road VR data (data that violates copyrights is prohibited.)
* Scripts (automatic presentation) need to be set in the UC-win/Road VR data. Please observe the following points.
- Create a 30-second main script to convey the main idea of the work, like a commercial.
- In addition, you may optionally create multiple scripts of about 15 seconds each, but please ensure that your work can be understood by watching the main script alone.
- Give your script a unique name.
- Cloud screening will be conducted at a resolution of 768x432. Please note the font size.

How to make your script (PDF, 523KB)

- "Data" created with FORUM8 software (2 or more data files)

- PDF file of A1 sized poster (oriented horizontally)
* In English
Please create your poster with margin of 10mm on the left, right, top and bottom.

Contact for inquiries and questions

FORUM8 Co. Ltd. Tokyo Head office Virtual Design World Cup Section
Shinagawa Intercity A-21F, 2-15-1 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 108-6021
TEL:03-6894-1888 FAX:03-6894-3888
E-mail:bim@forum8.co.jp
URL:http://www.forum8.co.jp/english/

Available software
Duration of free rental of product license

Wed. April 1 to Fri. November 20, 2026

* The rental duration, license restrictions and format provided will depend on the individual product.
* Rental licenses allow the use of all the functions that each applicable software offers, but they cannot be used for purposes other than the competition.

Available software

(Planned rental products)
◎:Required software
○:Please select at least two software products with a white circle in front.

UC-win/Road
(including Aimsun Linkage, VISSIM Linkage, Micro Simulation Player, Parking Lot, Assessment, Tsunami, Debris-Avalanche, Point Cloud / As-built drawing management plugins)

Allplan
Integrated Civil Construction BIM Solution

Engineer's Studio®
3D Plate Dynamic Non-linear Analysis

Shade3D

UC-1 Series
Civil engineering design CAD (Pier 3D bar arrangement, Abutment design 3D bar arrangement, BOX Culvert, 3D bar arrangement CAD, Parking Drawing System, Vehicle Trajectory Mapping System, UC-1 BIM/CIM Tool, etc.)

UC-1 Cloud Auto Design Series

DesignBuilder
Building Energy Consumption Calculation

EXODUS / SMARTFIRE Analysis Support Service, Evacuation Analysis Support Service *1

Wind and Heat Movement Analysis Support Service *1

○Municipality solution *2

○Parking solution *2

○VR city planning system *2

Super computing cloud *2

*1 Simplified analysis service with BIM data is provided.
*2 Various solution/service (analysis/rendering, etc) are available for a limited time for application in BIM. Advance counseling about the purpose of use is required.

Online Seminars

Applicants can also participate in training and seminar (free or paid) on this software held by FORUM8.

Past Award-Winning Works

  • The 15th World Cup Award

    OOZ, National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)

    The Road
  • The 15th Excellence Award

    Echoist, National Institute of Technology, Toyota College (Japan)

    Trace of Homid
  • The 15th Honorable Judge Award
          Architectural Informatics Award (Prof. Yasushi Ikeda)

    AIroha, National Institute of Technology, Tokuyama College (Japan)

    patasky
  • The 15th Honorable Judge Award
          Meta-Trope Award (Prof. Kostas Terzidis)

    Beast, HANOI ARCHITECTURAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Vietnam)

    Time walk with the Beasts
  • The 15th Honorable Judge Award
          Future Vision Award (Prof. C. DAVID TSENG)

    Dreamer, VNU University of Engineering and Technology (Vietnam)

    Skylife Walk
  • The 15th Honorable Judge Award
          Ephemeral Vision Award (Assoc. Prof. Miho Mazereeuw)

    Zoo Link, National University of Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

    Mikoshi no Michi
  • The 14th World cup Award

    Ocean, Nihon University (Japan)

    Marine Amoeba
  • The 14th Excellence Award

    LUCKY CLOVER, National University of Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

    Trifolium Bay
  • The 14th Honorable Judge Award
          Architectural Informatics Award(Prof. Yasushi Ikeda)

    Caffeine and nap, National University of Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

    Floatropolis
  • The 14th Honorable Judge Award
          Perplexity Award(Prof. Kostas Terzidis)

    MTKL, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) (China)

    Spades Minato Town
  • The 14th Honorable Judge Award
          Future Vision Award(Prof. C. DAVID TSENG)

    The Lunar Emissary, University of Engineering and Technology – Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-UET) (Vietnam)

    Future Eye
  • The 14th Honorable Judge Award
          AI spiritual Award(Assoc. Prof. Takehiko Nagakura)

    HOCHIKIs, Nihon University (Japan)

    Again, starting in Boston with AI Cylinder.
  • The 15th Nomination Award

    N²K,National Institute of Technology, Tokuyama College (Japan)

    MEGURU
  • The 15th Nomination Award

    Palette, Nihon University (Japan)

    Flavor Palette
Awards Ceremony (Virtual Design World Cup (VDWC) The 15th Student BIM&VR Design Contest on Cloud / November 2025)
Contest History