2026 BRIEF

Open call

The Antepavilion competition is open to everyone; no qualifications are required. We make available some specialist skills, particularly metalworking and structural engineering support. But the overriding requirement is that entrants must be able to make and install their work essentially themselves.

Brief

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Facilities

The winner of the competition, as usual, will have facilities at the Docks for any construction work required for installation of the winning entry.  Any lifting equipment necessary can be arranged and accommodated at the site.

Re-use

As with previous Antepavilion briefs, re-use of materials is encouraged. Available materials include some structural steel and timbers, including those used in Antechamber. Also, notably this year we have acquired a large quantity of reclaimed Red Louro lath cladding that has been very expensively removed and replaced in one of the hundreds of cases of blocks of flats that were recognised to be a fire risk only when Grenfell happened.  Some of these materials will be presented to entrants at the open days and many can be seen in the resources file.

Budget and Prize

One change for this year is that entrants are encouraged to consider the budget for the project more carefully. The long-standing budget for past Antepavilions has been £25,000 which is split into a £10,000 prize fund and up to £15,000 worth of materials, equipment and labour. Teams were always free to put a portion of the prize fund towards their production budget. This provision will not change for 2025 but it should be regarded as a cap on the funding available.  Big is not necessarily beautiful or poignant and thus entrants who can produce an installation that delivers the impact they aim to make on a lower budget are encouraged to make their proposals accordingly.  

Carefully considered budgeting is an essential element of the Antepavilion Competition. In a parallel initiative this year Antepavilion will again be using its newly available Southwark site, this time for supporting the development of some of last year’s shortlisted entries that needed too much further development to be selected by the judges as winners of the competition.  Entries in the 2025 competition will not be disadvantaged by working to the established budget rule.  However, any costs saved if a lower cost entry is selected as the winner will support the parallel work on the Southwark site.  So if two entries are considered by the judges to be of equal merit the lower cost of one over the other will be a decisive factor.  Where entrants propose a lower budget for their entries they may simply scale down both components of the usual 60:40 £25,000 budget equally. For example, if the budget for the build is £10K your prize will be £6,667.

Again as in the past the winning team will have access to machinery and craftsmen on site and at nearby commercial workshops.

Timetable

Closing date for entries is midnight on Friday 14 March.

Shortlisted entrants will be notified by Monday 31 March and invited to present their proposal in greater detail to the judges on Thursday 17 April.

Winners will be notified on Friday 18 April. 

Installation is to be completed over a period of no more than 6 weeks in June or July.

Opening event for the 2026 Antepavilion will be 1 August.

Process and Selection

So we can update you on resources and open days register your interest.

Entries to the Antepavilion competition should be submitted digitally using the online entry form.

Each entry should comprise a proposal title, team or individual name and two A3 boards showing the proposed work formatted as a single PDF document. The PDF should be named in the following format:

[name of proposal]_[name of Individual/practice/artist].pdf

The boards themselves must be anonymous. Please do not include the names or contact details of you or your team in the PDF, only as the file name and in the entry form. Additionally, do not include your proposed budget in the PDF, instead fill out the boxes on the form. Enter just your build budget, excluding the prize money.

Entries will be considered by a cross-disciplinary jury to be announced shortly including present and former resident artists at the Docks and the makers of previous installations on the platform. Three to five entries will be chosen for further development. A small bursary of £500 will be given to the shortlisted applicants to fund development of their final presentation. Structural engineering support will also be available to develop the shortlisted proposals at this stage if required.

All entries will be displayed at the opening party on 1 August

Open Days

Potential entrants are invited to view the site on one of three open days:

Sunday 26 January, 12pm - 3pm

Saturday 15 February, 1pm - 4pm

Sunday 2 March, 10am – 1pm

(Please email (admin@antepavilion.org) for specific information)

There is no need to book an attendance at open days but registering an interest in the competition is recommended so that those planning to enter can be circulated with updates.

Questions from entrants

Questions from entrants may be emailed to admin@antepavilion.org. Answers will be posted openly on the FAQ page.

Further Reading

A resource pack with specifications, drawings, photos, and history of the site and its surroundings will be uploaded shortly.