Kidzink Design Challenge 2026
Design for the Unknown
The Brief
The UAE has a plan. By 2117, humans will live on Mars. Not just visit. Live. Children will be born there, grow up there and build their futures there. It will be the most extraordinary chapter in human history, and it starts with a question nobody has fully answered yet: how do you educate a generation that has never known Earth?
Design a learning space for a child who has grown up on Mars. Your space should help them understand, experience and connect with the world they have never known. You are not designing a science lab or a replica of an Earth classroom. You are designing something entirely new.
Think carefully about what learning actually needs. Not just desks and screens. Consider texture, light, sound, material, movement and memory. Every decision your team makes must serve the learner.
The strongest designs will show evidence of real thinking about the learner's experience. We want to see empathy, originality and a clear design rationale. What does your space feel like to be inside? Why did you make the choices you made? What problem are you solving that nobody else thought to solve? Bonus points if your solution understands that on Mars, sustainability is not a value. It is a survival condition.
A one minute video where your team explains the concept in your own words, on camera. Alongside that, your product — a floor plan, a model, a concept board or a prototype. Any format, any material. Your call entirely.
Teams of 2 to 4 students, Year 3 to Year 9. One entry per team.
Submission closes in
A child is born on Mars. They have never seen rain. Never felt grass. Never been outside. Their world is sealed, artificial and red. Your challenge: design the learning space that gives them everything they've never known.
Student Submissions
Every entry is a window into a different future. Browse what other teams are building.
Judging Criteria
Designs are judged on four things. All of them matter.
Does the design respond specifically to a Martian child's experience? Generic classroom layouts will not score well. Every decision must be justified by the brief.
We want ideas we have never seen before. What does your team bring that no one else would think of? Surprise us.
The space must feel emotional and considered, not just functional. Think about how a child would feel moving through your design.
Your 1 minute video must clearly explain the concept in your own words. Panels judge what they can understand, not just what they can see.
Sponsors
This challenge is made possible by the organisations supporting the next generation of designers.
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