2009-10 AISC Steel Student Competition

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INTRODUCTION

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is pleased to announce the tenth annual steel design student competition for the 2009-2010 academic year. Administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the program is intended to challenge students, working individually or in teams, to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction.

THE CHALLENGE

The 2009-2010 Steel Design Student Competition will offer architecture students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories.

CATEGORY I RE-LIGARE INSTITUTE: Reconnecting Mind And Body

(re-ligare: re “again” + ligare “to connect”) challenges architecture students to design a public urban center dedicated to reconnecting people with their authentic selves, others, and nature. This new institution aims at stopping the enslaving cycles of unchecked production and consumption dominating our lives, by turning the attention and practice to “being” in its entirety and in all its rich dimensionalities. The project will encourage students to consider ethic, aesthetic, and critical issues facing contemporary civilization, vis-à-vis novel programmatic, technological, environmental, spatial, and phenomenological issues. Steel construction offers students great benefits in this endeavor, as it is ideal for multi-story buildings, quick delivery and assembly in congested urban environments, covering long spans without sacrificing flexibility and aesthetic lightness.

CATEGORY II OPEN

with limited restrictions. This open submission design option will permit the greatest amount of flexibility.

CRITERIA FOR JUDGING

Criteria for the judging of submissions will include: creative use of structural steel in the design solution, successful response of the design to its surrounding context, and successful response to basic architectural concepts such as human activity needs, structural integrity, and coherence of architectural vocabulary.

STRUCTURAL STEEL

Steel should be used as the primary structural material with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design. Structural steel offers a number of strengths in building design including high resiliency and performance under harsh and difficult conditions, (e.g., earthquakes and hurricanes) and offers the ability to span great distances with slenderness and grace. Steel can be shaped to achieve curved forms and can be erected quickly to meet tough construction schedules under almost any weather condition. Steel can be easily modified to satisfy the life cycle of a building including changing occupant requirements. Steel is the most recycled material in the world. Today structural steel is 97% recycled with the primary source of material being automobiles. It is the environmentally sound choice for a building material.

Competition Program (PDF)

Sponsor

American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), headquartered in Chicago, is a non-profit technical institute and trade association established in 1921 to serve the structural steel design community and construction industry in the United States. AISC’s mission is to make structural steel the material of choice by being the leader in structural-steel-related technical and market-building activities, including: specification and code development, research, education, technical assistance, quality certification, standardization, and market development. AISC has a long tradition of more than 80 years of service to the steel construction industry providing timely and reliable information. www.aisc.org

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is a nonprofit, membership association founded in 1912 to advance the quality of architectural education. The school membership in ACSA has grown from 10 charter members to over 250 schools in several membership categories. These include full membership for all accredited programs in the United States and government-sanctioned schools in Canada, candidate membership for schools seeking accreditation, and affiliate membership for schools for two-year and international programs. Through these schools, over 5,000 architecture faculty are represented. In addition, over 500 supporting members composed of architecture firms, product associations and individuals add to the breadth of interest and support of ACSA goals. ACSA provides a major forum for ideas on the leading edge of architectural thought. Issues that will affect the architectural profession in the future are being examined today in ACSA member schools. www.acsa-arch.org

Competition program written by Ryan E. Smith and Julio Bermudez, University of Utah, College of Architecture + Planning; with the assistance or Eric W. Ellis, ACSA and Nancy Gavlin, AISC.