Riyadh hosts the final challenge "Designathon" With the participation of a group of international designers

The Architecture and Design Arts Authority brought down the curtain on the fourth edition of the “Designathon” challenge, which was hosted by the capital, Riyadh, in the non-profit Mohammed bin Salman City (MiSK), amid wide international participation that exceeded 2,400 applicants, and more than 600 contestants from designers and creatives.

The CEO of the Architecture and Design Arts Authority, Prince Nawaf bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf, confirmed that “Designathon” has become an influential global platform for enhancing the role of design as a sector. Pivotal to national development, noting that the challenge contributes to empowering talents and building capabilities to face urban, environmental and technical challenges, and at the same time reflects the development of the design scene in the Kingdom and consolidating its position on the map of global architecture and design.

He explained that the Authority is working through the “Designathon” to build a sustainable creative system, by providing a stimulating environment that supports innovation and transforms ideas into developable projects, which is reflected in improving the quality of life, and enhances the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in raising the competitiveness of cities. And the development of the creative economy.

The challenge witnessed the presentation of innovative design solutions within three main tracks: “Design for All,” “Technology in Design,” and “Design from Place,” where participants relied on design thinking and participatory design methodologies, which contributed to raising the quality of the projects submitted and producing solutions that are applicable in reality.

126 teams qualified for the final stage, presenting their projects before a specialized jury that included an elite group of experts, who evaluated the works according to standards. minutes, and the winning teams were chosen for the first three places in each track.

At the conclusion of the challenge, the winning teams were honored with financial prizes exceeding 525 thousand Saudi riyals, distributed among nine teams, with three places in each track, where first place received 100 thousand riyals, second place received 50 thousand riyals, and third place received 25 thousand riyals, in addition to additional prizes presented by the event partners in appreciation of innovation and quality of design solutions.

And in the track “Design for All” team “MUDD” won first place for its project “Mud”, while team “VENTAA” came second for its project “VentaLoop”, and team “ArchMade” came third for its project “Mayda'ah”. CATALYST” won second place for the “Mamshak” project, while “THE HEROES” team won third place for the “Hero’s Journey” project.

In the “Design from Place” track, the “Pure Carpet” team won first place for its project of the same name, followed by the “Sameem” team in second place, then the “Al-Shaddad” team in third place for the “Bint Al-Shaddad” project.

The “Designathon” provided participants with a cognitive experience. Integrated through dialogue sessions and specialized workshops, presented by more than 45 mentors and experts in various fields of design, it focused on activating the participatory design methodology as a practical framework for work, and contributed to developing participants’ skills and enhancing their ability to innovate solutions with a sustainable impact.

The fourth edition comes as an extension of the successes of the challenge in its previous sessions, as the third edition in 2025 recorded a global achievement by entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest design hackathon in terms of number Participants, in a clear indication of the growing interest in the field of design and its increasing role in the cultural and creative scene in the Kingdom.