21
Jurors
The stage is set. The lights are on.
THE FOURTH MASTER COMPETITION
When reality itself is being rewritten,
what remains worth designing?
The stage is set. The lights are on.
THE FOURTH MASTER COMPETITION
When Reality Is Rewritten,
What Remains Worth Creating?
We are living in an era when "reality" is being rewritten. A photo may depict something that never happened. A voice may speak words that were never uttered. A person may not exist at all. As generative AI, deepfakes, virtual reality and algorithmic content reshape human perception, the traditional sense of "realness" is being quietly dissolved. Design — as one of humanity's oldest mediums between self and world — must answer anew: What deserves to be seen? What deserves to be believed? What deserves to be created?
In an age of infinite simulation,
design must decide what is still worth being real.
2026 ROCA Master Competition takes"The New Real · The New Real"as its theme, inviting creators worldwide to explore"reality"in its new frontiers of our era. This theme does not presuppose an answer, it invites each participant, through their work, to give their own answer.
Return to material, craft, body, presence — reaffirm the weight of the real in ways AI cannot replicate.
Embrace AI, algorithms, virtuality and synthetic media — reshape the real through the co-creation of human and machine.
Move between the real and the fictional, the traditional and the future, the local and the global — find narratives of our time in the overlap.
All entries enter the same judging process with equal access to awards.
The two tracks differ only in eligibility and fees.
Three creative tracks, seven submission categories.
Each entry must select one track and one category at registration.
In an age of infinite replication, synthesis and fabrication,
presence itself becomes a stance.
This track welcomes creations rooted in material, body, craft, and locality — using"non-AI-replicable"ways to answer"The New Real".
AI is not the opposite of reality,
but its new form.
This track encourages work using AI, algorithms and synthetic media — where what matters is not that AI was used, but that AI enabled an expression that was not possible before.
The most compelling works often exist between reality and fiction,
between craft and algorithm, between commerce and art.
The broadest of the three tracks, this space accepts hybrid, master-level work that resists easy categorization.
This category is the "exceptional space" we have deliberately preserved for this edition of PREMIO ROCA.
Over the past two decades, something has been quietly happening within design: once-clear disciplinary borders have been eroding. Industrial designers are now doing social intervention, graphic designers write algorithms, architects study material biology, and artists in turn use commercial products as medium. Today, the work most worth taking seriously is often exactly the work you cannot, at first glance, say "belongs to which category".
Traditional competition categories are still divided by medium: posters to posters, products to products, spaces to spaces. This works for most submissions, but it misses the most interesting ones — works that are simultaneously research, social, experimental, or that deliberately cross the training of the author's own discipline. Under any single traditional category they would seem "not pure enough, " but viewed together, they are often the people actually advancing design in this era.
In other categories we examine relatively objective dimensions: completion, craft, visual quality. In this category, we care about three things — whether the question the work raises is truly worth raising; whether the cross-disciplinarity is necessary to the work or merely decorative; and whether it opens, even slightly, new space for the practice of "design" itself.
The Master Track adopts a curated submission model — the directions within the seven core categories are carefully selected by the organizing committee to focus on the most theme-responsive contemporary creations.
The Open Track builds upon these seven categories and further opens the full professional spectrum, welcoming creators worldwide to submit across a richer range of media and disciplines.
This edition raises the professional bar,
inviting creators with substantial experience and depth of research.
Practicing designers aged 18+, independent designers, art directors, creative directors.
In-service faculty and supervisors at higher education institutions worldwide.
Master's, doctoral candidates, and recent graduates within one year of graduation.
Full-time undergraduate/college students. Master Track applicants must include at least 1 co-signing supervisor.
Design firms, studios, and cross-disciplinary teams (entered under the team name).
All works must be original to the applicant or team. Previously awarded entries from prior ROCA editions may not be resubmitted.
The awards are organized in three tiers — Top Honor"ROCA Master Award", Special Honor"The New Real Award", and five finalist prizes. A single work may receive awards across tiers, they are not mutually exclusive.
Centered on this edition's theme"The New Real · The New Real", the committee selects one work from each of the three creative tracks that best embodies the theme, as the Master Competition's"reality"- the highest response to the contemporary question.
The jury comprises 21 senior experts spanning Europe, Asia and the Americas — including ROCA Museum curatorial committee members, professors from the Barcelona Institute of Humanities & Arts, international design association directors, and leading design educators from institutions such as Tsinghua University, China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Politecnico di Milano, and Tokyo University of the Arts.
JPG / PNG, ≤ 20MB per file, ≥ 300dpi, longest side ≥ 3000px.
Submit renderings, floor plans, sections/elevations, and a bilingual (EN+CN) design statement. Optional video demo (≤ 500MB).
MP4 format, 1080P or higher, recommended duration 30 seconds to 5 minutes, file ≤ 500MB.
Must include a creation statement: tools used, prompt strategy, proportion of human intervention — emphasizing human-led creativity.
All works must include a bilingual (CN+EN) statement of at least 200 words each, explaining creation context, design thinking, and theme resonance.
Reality has not vanished — it is only waiting to be redesigned.
2026 — we await your answer.
