Healthcare Design magazine’s biennial conceptual design competition, Breaking Through, takes center stage at the Healthcare Design Conference + Expo, Oct. 17-20, during the keynote session on Monday, Oct. 19, at 2:15 p.m. Four finalist teams will pitch their visionary concepts live before the conference audience, which will vote in real time to determine the winner of the program’s $10,000 grand prize.
Now in its fifth edition, Breaking Through pushes healthcare design innovation by challenging participants to envision innovative concepts that solve anticipated challenges in the future of healthcare delivery. Free from the usual constraints of budgets, schedules, and building codes, teams are encouraged to explore what healthcare environments could become if the rules didn’t apply.
2026 Breaking Through competition process
That spirit of imagination is back for 2026, and this year’s field is bigger and bolder than ever. Fifty-five teams submitted initial ideas for review by a jury of industry experts. From there, jurors selected 20 semifinalists to move forward to the second round, where ideas took shape through robust, visually rich presentations that covered the challenges their concepts solve and the details of that solution.
Jurors then advanced four concepts to the final phase of the program. This phase requires the teams to further refine their concepts and visuals and present them live in a keynote session at the HCD Conference + Expo. After 10-minute presentations from each team, conference attendees will vote in real time for their favorite concept, and the winning team will walk away with the $10,000 grand prize.
Meet the 2026 Breaking Through finalists, semifinalists
The four teams advancing to the final round of the 2026 Breaking Through competition 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.
Before the finale, explore the 16 semifinalist concepts, each one a window into what’s possible when healthcare design has no limits.
Breaking Through sponsors
The Breaking Through finale will be held at 2:15 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19.
Thank you to all the participating teams and to our program sponsors, Construction Specialties, Mannington Commercial, and Wilsonart Engineered Surfaces, for making this competition possible. For coverage of the finalists and the concept named the 2026 Breaking Through winner, check out HCD’s November/December issue.
For more information on the 2026 HCD Conference schedule and to register, visit hcdexpo.com.
