The best entries will make it onto a shortlist of 4-6 entrants, all of whom will receive a £1,000 honorarium for their time. Those shortlisted will be required to present their design to the jury the week beginning 4 September.
The winning playhouse and shortlisted proposals will appear online and in an AJ issue in September.
James Hardie will sit on the jury panel, which will also include representatives from the AJ and Berkeley as well as leading independent jurors such as renowned architect Will Alsop.
Rob Windle, James Hardie’s European commercial director, said: ‘Over the past decade, we have seen a real design shift taking place in the UK residential sector. The muted brick and block-style housing of the 1990s has been replaced with mixed-use building products and accents in next-generation smart materials such as fibre cement. The use of colour is also an increasingly important design consideration.
‘As a leading materials manufacturer, we passionately believe in developing products that will give architects the maximum design flexibility, not just in following the current design trends but in paving the way for future innovation.
‘For us, colour choice in facade design is a key part of this. Colour palettes are changing and we aspire to be providing the right tools to design homes that will last for generations to come.’
The deadline for submissions is 23 June.