Healthcare Design announces that four teams are advancing to the final round of its 2026 Breaking Through conceptual design competition.
Now in its fifth installment, the Breaking Through program encourages healthcare design innovation by asking participants to present concepts that solve challenges anticipated in the future delivery of care. Participants are advised to forget the usual project restrictions tied to budget, schedule, and codes to create solutions that imagine what they’d design for healthcare if the rules didn’t apply.
For 2026, 55 teams submitted initial ideas for review by the jury of industry experts. From there, 21 were selected to move forward to the second round, where ideas were fleshed out in robust, visually rich presentations that covered the challenges their concepts solve and details of that solution.
In July, the jury met to review those semifinalist concepts, choosing four to advance to the final phase.
2026 Breaking Through Finalists
The finalists are:
- The Conscious Hospital, submitted by SmithGroup
- The Last Room, submitted by Perkins&Will
- Natalium: Reimagining the Architecture of Birth, submitted by EwingCole
- SAGE: Somatic Adaptive Guidance Environment – An Intelligent System for Hospital Settings and Beyond, submitted by STV, Inc.
The finalist teams will present their concepts in a keynote session at the 2026 Healthcare Design Conference + Expo, to be held Oct. 17-20 in New Orleans). During a keynote presentation at 2:15 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, HCD Conference audience members will choose the winning team, which will receive the $10,000 prize.
2026 Breaking Through semifinalists
The semifinalists of the 2026 Breaking Through conceptual design competition are:
- I.O.M.E. (Biologically Integrated Operational Medical Ecosystem), submitted by Grace Design Studios
- DANDELION, submitted by CannonDesign
- Destination Health, submitted by Hord Coplan Macht
- Focus on Care, submitted by HDR
- The Greenhouse, submitted by Bond North Consulting
- Guardian, submitted by HDR
- Humanity Reclaimed, submitted by RS&H
- LINC – Localized Integrated Nomadic Care, submitted by Boulder Associates
- Microbiome as Public Infrastructure, submitted by STV, Inc.
- PATH to Wellness, submitted by Architecture+
- Pulse Architectonics, submitted by RS&H
- ReGenesis, submitted by HDR
- Re-imagining the Margins, submitted by GBBN
- Second Nature, submitted by HGA
- TECHNOLATTICE, submitted by CannonDesign
- Thresholds of Care: Interstitial Spaces for Oncology Staff Well-Being, submitted by TPG Architecture, LLP
- VEIL as a Functional Façade for Child Development, submitted by HOK
Concepts from all semifinalists will be featured in HCD’s October issue.
Breaking Through winners’ coverage
The 2026 Breaking Through program is sponsored by Mannington Commercial and Construction Specialties.
In addition to the live presentations at the HCD Conference, the finalists and winner will be featured in HCD’s November/December issue. (Find coverage of the 2024 Breaking Through competition here.)
For updates and to register for the 2026 HCD Conference + Expo, visit here.
