Patios and decks are the ideal places to enjoy the warm long days of summer with family and friends. Many homeowners dream of entertaining in a beautiful and relaxing space equipped with functional modern commodities. Often, the plan is to integrate the new space outside with the inside living area, and bring out comfortable seating areas, TV and audio sets, small kitchens, full grilling and fire pits, and gardening areas. Many of these plans become DIY (do-it-yourself) projects because of the small scale. However, many remain unfinished because of the complex nature of tricky layouts of most home backyards.

Arcbazar, a start-up company from Cambridge, MA, takes up the challenge of designing customized outdoors living spaces by crowdsourcing such and similar architectural design projects. Each project is launched online and designers worldwide compete and submit solutions for the new space. Clients can then choose the solution they like most based on their initial evaluation criteria. “Our goal is to make high-end design possible to regular homeowners with everyday small-scale home remodeling projects. We want our clients to be able to create their dream spaces in an easy, affordable and fun way”, says Ana Batista, co-founder of Arcbazar.com. Hundreds of clients around the globe have already used Arcbazar for successful home remodeling, landscape and interior design projects. “We have helped clients build great kitchens, bathrooms, basements, living paces and landscapes.”

Eugene F., a homeowner from Massachusetts needed to create a fine-looking and tranquil deck and patio space. “We need a design that allows us to entertain outdoors, has a decent size romantic fire, has comfortable seating for larger groups, has overhead protection from weather and possibly some side wind protection. I also need to be able to grill near the door to my house.” Eugene run a competition at Arcbazar for four weeks and received five submissions, ultimately opting for a design from Touyer Lee, a young architect from the US.