LDA has launched its 2025-26 Design Bursary competition for students. With the theme The Great Reclamation, a rethink of space dedicated to vehicles, with LDA challenging students to rethink a car park or road near where they live or study.
What if the UK was past peak car? And what if the way we built new settlements and invested in public transport meant fewer cars on the roads? What should we do then about our oversized roads and redundant car parks?
Space dedicated to parking, mainly used for private vehicles, is the most unproductive and dated use of valuable land. Reclamation at scale could make a massive difference to providing affordable new housing or community uses, improving biodiversity, cutting pollution, and creating doorstep play and landscapes to love.
And that reclamation is what this year’s LDA Design Bursary Challenge is all about.
LDA wants students to describe their intervention and why it is needed in 500 words, backed up by a plan, diagrams or visualisations, including a standalone ‘hero’ image.
Three students currently studying in the UK will receive a £2,000 bursary, plus four weeks’ paid work experience in one of our studios. Several bursary winners have gone on to join our team, so it really is a fantastic opportunity.
At least one bursary will be awarded to someone who has faced financial or other challenges to pursuing further education. Undergraduate and postgraduate students can enter, and judging will take experience levels into account.
The deadline for The Great Reclamation is midnight (London Time) on Friday, 20th February 2026.