This year’s Future of Shade, a competition put on by Sunbrella and Architizer, is open until May 14, inviting designers to compete for $10,000. Architects and designers are challenged to create new shade concepts in Sunbrella fabric, spanning three categories: Building Shade, Wellness Garden and Humanitarian.

Last year’s grand-prize winner, “Quasicrystals for Design,” by Alberto Adolfo, Fernandez Gonzalez and Carlos Benjamin​, Architect AF_A

The brands explain: “Light and shade are essential components of architecture. Sunlight can enliven a space, or it can make it unbearably hot and bright. The way architects and designers create shade for buildings, homes and public spaces transforms the way people use them.”

“The advent of cutting-edge technologies has enabled new building typologies,” they added. “Just as steel elevators and air conditioning have changed the built environment, fabric’s versatility opens up new opportunities for aesthetically pleasing shade structures that take building design and function to a new level.”

The competition is open to all firms and individuals (including students) involved in architecture, landscape architecture and design.