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BUILDING BLOCKS Schools Challenge 2026
The Brief: Imagining the Buildings of Tomorrow
“Design a building of the future. It has to be a place where people can live, work or study. It can be any size, shape or colour, and made of any material you want.”
Inspiring the Next Generation of STEM Leaders
That is the brief for our BUILDING BLOCKS Schools Challenge, given to 240 Year 5 students.
It’s a competition that wraps around our acclaimed BUILDING BLOCKS Insights event, where 9 and 10-year-olds from local schools descend on Newcastle Helix to be inspired about a world of STEAM and the future it holds on their doorstep.
What’s New for the 2026 Challenge?
The Schools Challenge is launched in the classrooms using a short film to introduce the students to the Innovation District. The Engagement Director of Newcastle Helix, Charlie Charlton, stands in front of the vacant plot where the children can let their architectural imagination go wild.
For 2026, there were a couple of additions to the competition. Inception meetings were held alongside Primary School teachers and representatives of the Strategic Authority’s North East Ambition team. It emerged that sustainability is a growing part of the primary school curriculum, and the Schools Challenge provided a perfect opportunity to further embed this into lessons.
Bringing Children’s Hopes to Life on Paper
Images were provided to the teachers of sustainable elements of buildings at Helix, from the living wall of The Core to the former beehives on the roof of The Lumen, and from external planting at the Biosphere to environment monitoring on the glass of the USB.
Inspired by the Challenge and the freedom of expression, we received more than 300 hand-drawn activity sheets. Using coloured pencils, the students designed their buildings of the future, complete with written descriptions of particular features and explaining their choice of materials.
A New Partnership with Ryder Architecture
All these entries were then judged independently by people working in building management across Helix. Often described as their “favourite day of the year”. The drawings often bring the home lives of the children to life on the page: with their choice of rooms for a young family, places to worship, security, and play.
For 2026, the BUILDING BLOCKS Schools Challenge has a new partner – Ryder Architecture. This team of multi-award-winning architects has agreed to collaborate on a new, exhilarating element to the competition. They will choose one design that answers the brief and fits the concept of the Innovation District, and then transform that design into a real-life 3D visualisation for display at Helix.
We were honoured to be joined on the judging panel by Ryder Trainee Architect Lewis Noble and Design Assistant Grace Cameron, who each offered expert insights into the design entries.
“It was amazing to see so much creativity, and care for the planet coming through… to see the influence of their home lives and their communities. It was wonderful.”
Grace Cameron
Celebrating Our 2026 Winners
Each judging team chose their top 3 entries from each of the 8 school classes and the design with the most points was announced as the winner for that class. Each went on to receive a Mi-Box Live – the award-winning Maths Challenge board game showcased at BUILDING BLOCKS Insights.
In addition, Lewis and Grace chose a winner for the ‘Ryder Prize’ from all the entries. That winner was Fatima of Hawthorn Primary School.
“It really responds to Helix in its context. It feels like it’s embedded in the actual area.”
Lewis Noble, on Fatima’s winning design
We visited her class to announce the winning designs and reveal the very special next steps with Ryder Architecture. Our film shows the immediate joy amongst Fatima’s classmates for their friend’s success, and her own amazement that her design will become a reality in miniature.
“I always think what am I going to do when I get older… now I want to do a job related to STEM.”
Fatima
The Ryder team are now busy using their 3D software to create a model of Fatima’s building of the future, ready for it to be unveiled later this year. In the meantime, congratulations to the following winners of BUILDING BLOCKS Schools Challenge 2026:
Congratulations to everyone who took part from Hawthorn Primary School, Moorside class 5M, Moorside class 5LJ, St Jospeh’s, St Paul’s, Walkergate, Wingrove class 5LC and Wingrove class 5TB. Your imagination, care and enthusiasm blew us all away!
Up next… Fatima’s Building of the Future brought to life.
