Average
Based on 26 reviews
Arcbazar.com3.5Honesty, pricing, process and quality scores appear once 5 customers have rated them.
Arcbazar.com is the #1 crowdsourcing marketplace for architectural, interior and landscape design projects.At arcbazar, anyone can initiate a design competition. Remodelling jobs, additions, retail, office spaces, landscape, or any other architectural project. The client describes the project, uploads images and basic info. He sets the award, the timeline, and ranks all entries. Arcbazar distributes the awards, and hands the project to the client. We offer designers new opportunities to unlock their design potential, and give clients easy access to multiple high-end design solutions at a lower cost.In other words Arcbazar is a business model that connects space owners and designers through architectural competitions. Space Owners benefit because they get multiple design solutions at an affordable cost. Designers benefit because they win cash, improve their portfolios, and step into the professional world through real and exciting design challenges.
Arcbazar.com (arcbazar.com) has 26 customer reviews on Folks Told, with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5.
26 approved reviews, newest moderated first
Bradley H.
ArcBazaar gets you amazing results because their process is superior to both traditional and online architecture solutions. The network of experienced designers provides more ways of envisioning what you could have, which gets you closer to what you want.
Nora R.
Arcbazar is a terrific concept that mostly delivers. Their customer service has largely been one person, busy but well-intentioned and generally capable of handling issues. I'm told they're upgrading it, which would be an improvement. And there are some technical limitations which bring it down from five stars to four in my view. I would love to see what Arcbazar could do with a truly robust, fully-featured web platform, because it's already pretty terrific even with a relatively basic one. The heart of its greatness is, of course, the designers. Advanced students and young professionals worldwide, in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and interior design compete to show you what they can do with YOUR specific, personal project. You assign winners, who divide up your prize money according to a formula (with AB getting a cut off the top), but no matter who wins, you get to keep all the ideas, images, etc to use as you see fit. You can also invite your winner (or, in theory, anybody else you wish from your competition) to continue on working with you and your building team to realize your design. I have run four contests through AB so far. Two were just for fun -- I wanted to see what my basic ideas would look like in the hands of professional designers -- and two were put into practice. For the latter, I didn't use any one design exactly as the architect gave it to me... instead, I took the features I liked best from several, and melded them together into something not quite like any of the designs. But the best designs helped me solve problems that I didn't have the knowledge to handle myself, such as how to arrange all the necessary features of a bathroom plus plenty of storage in a tiny and slightly oddly-shaped space. I have lived with the spaces I designed based on my AB contests for several years now and I'm very happy with them. I couldn't have done so well without my AB designers.
Michelle W.
The designs I got for my yard were far better than anything I could have imagined. Their site is easy to use and the price of the competition was very reasonable. I will use this service it again for my next project
Alex P.
Most efficient way at sourcing a multitude of rapid design ideas.
Anderson T.
It is a very, very nice tool. Efficient way to have a 1st cut of a project with multiple inputs. It would be great to have 1) a bit more clarity/consistency in pricing and timing of projects, 2) easy way to move to a detailed project that combines bits and pieces of those you like...
FB
Thanks to Arcbazar I got some awesome designs for my project. The idea of bringing architecture contests to the crowd is fantastic and the whole team at Arcbazar is doing a great job to make this happen. Special thanks also to Ana who was really kind in supporting me with some issues. I can fully recommend!
Anonymous
Let me share my experience from the designer point of view. I signed up as a designer and won 2nd prize on July 6 2023, the total project prize is $1000, for second prize i got $291, I followed their steps for withdrawing the money, but it never got to my account. I tried contacting them via email but never got any reply. I’m starting to think that this is a scam for the designers that signed up, we won the prize but never get the prize. As for the client, they were asked to pay in front first to them as organizer, but the money that should have been distribute as a prize for the designers that already submit design products for the client, never got distributed to the designers that actually won the contest. So its no problem for the client because they got the product, but not for the designers who actually submit their ideas and won the contest but never got paid. I hope my experience can help designers who is signing up in arcbazar to be more careful. Thanks.
Reply from Arcbazar.comJul 13, 2023
Hello, sorry hearing your complaint. We always pay our designers- we never left any designer unpaid, otherwise our system would not work. However to some countries like Turkey quick payment systems like PayPal do not work - due to some government restrictions. Therefore we use WesterUnion and they require often more time. For amounts that are larger we also do direct bank wires but the fee form the US is $45, therefore to keep the fee less for designers we use WesternUnion. But if designers ask for direct wires we do them instantly. If you prefer that way please get in touch with [email protected] and we would be happy to do it that way.
Beau D.
I have used Arcbazar for both my workplace and my home. I really like the creativity that you see come across from designers in different parts of the world. I think the best strength of this approach is seeing all of the great ideas, picking the one that's closest to your vision, but also incorporating small details from other submissions that you may never have thought of. My wife and I are about to launch another design competition for our backyard. Can't wait to see what the winner looks like!
