In 2015 The Danish Building & Property Agency in collaboration with Aarhus School of Architecture, and with support from Realdania organised pre-qualifications process as well as an international open design competition to give both established architectural practices and other talents an opportunity to qualify for the restricted design competition. The open design competition had the additional purpose of providing organisers with more knowledge about the school's future organisation and location as well as helping elucidate how an innovative environment for the architects of tomorrow might be designed.

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In the pre-qualification, BIG from Denmark, Lacaton & Vassal from France with Powerhouse Company ApS / Bessards' Studio from Denmark and SANAA from Japan prequalified out of total 42 teams from all over the world. Through the open design competition three additional entrants qualified from among 230 participants from total of 47 countries: ALL (Atelier Lorentzen Langkilde), AA-LAB (Vargo, Nielsen & Palle), both relatively recently established Danish architectural firms, and the third firm, the more established French/Swedish EGA (Erik Giudice Architects).

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Based on the winning proposals from the open design competition and the Jury Report, organisers with cooperation with Aarhus Muncipality, determined the final site as well as implemented a user process involving students and staff at the school.