Patios, decks and yards are great places to enjoy summer with family and friends. Transforming these spaces to incorporate gardens, quiet and recreational areas, pools, and dinning corners can be challenging. Arcbazar, a start-up company from Cambridge, MA, picks up the challenge of designing these customized outdoors living spaces by crowdsourcing 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 have already used Arcbazar for successful home remodeling, landscape and interior design projects. “We have helped clients build great kitchens, bathrooms, basements, but also fixing the house façade, renovate a porch, redo front yards and backyards, or just upgrade the curb appeal and create great outdoor living spaces.”

April M., a homeowner from Massachusetts needed help replacing an old porch. “I have a front entry porch in very poor condition that needs removal and replacing… Ideally, the finished porch and storefront facelift would result in a more modern feel.” April ran a competition at Arcbazar for four weeks, received seventeen submissions from all around the globe and ultimately opted for a design from Touyer Lee, a young architect from the US.

Kelly T. from California had a similar home project and wanted to “redesign a path leading up to the house entrance… Design should consider sustainability as a top priority with possible use of re-used materials, all native planting and maintain a light footprint.” Kelly’s project received nine proposals, with the winning design coming from Adam Green, an architect from Indiana.