Winners Announced

2021 COTE Competition

AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students

Schedule

January 13, 2021

Registration Deadline

January 13, 2021

Submission Deadline

Spring 2021

Jury Convenes

April 22, 2021

Winners Announced on Earth Day

Rules

Eligibility

An ACSA member school, faculty sponsor is required to enroll students by completing an online registration form prior to submission by January 13, 2021. The competition is open to students from all ACSA Full and Candidate Member Schools, as well as ACSA Affiliate Members Schools including international member schools. The competition is open to upper level students (third year or above, including graduate students). Students are required to work under the direction of a faculty sponsor. Submissions will be accepted for individual as well as team projects. Teams must be limited to a maximum of three students.

Students are invited to submit their studio projects. Entries must be buildings, but can be of any program, at any scale, in any location. Projects can be a remodel or adaptive re-use. Work should have been completed in a design studio or related class within the 2020 calendar year.

Submission Materials & Requirements

The COTE Top Ten for Students Competition seeks compelling design submissions that meaningfully address the future impacts of climate change, imagine and illustrate a healthy, sustainable and equitable future. Emphasis is to be placed on achieving zero emissions, adapting to projected climate impacts, designing for resilience, and addressing social and environmental equity.

The Framework for Design Excellence shall serve to inform the design process and guide the required graphics and written narratives/abstract. Students or student teams must submit the following materials online:

1. Graphics: No more than two (2) digital boards at 24”x36” (JPEG files, no more than 20MB each), to include the following:
Documentation must adequately convey the project’s relationship to topography and physical context, formal and programmatic organization, circulation patterns, and experiential qualities. All drawings should be labeled; indicate scale and orientation where necessary. At minimum, include the following:
– Site or context plan
– Floor plans
– Building / site sections
– Perspective or isometric view (digital rendering or model photograph)

Present diagrams or images that best display how the project meets the design criteria by considering the ten measures of the Framework for Design Excellence. Some measures may require a specific graphic or calculation; others are open-ended. Where applicable, provide labels and notes on how calculated metrics are obtained (basis, method, program used, and assumptions).

2. Abstract/Narrative: (100 words maximum for each sustainability measure for a total of 1,000 word maximum). Project/concept statement (approach/program/intentions/strategies). The narratives should answer questions posed in the ten measures. The specific questions for each measure are meant to be a guide; each one does not need to be answered. *During submission, simply copy/paste this text into the “Abstract” text field.

3. Program Brief: (500 words maximum) Submissions should include a brief description the building type, gross square footage, project location & climate zone.
*During submission, simply copy/paste this text into the “Program” text field.

Incomplete or undocumented entries will be disqualified. All drawings should be presented at a scale appropriate to the design solution and include a graphic scale and north arrow.

Project authorship must remain anonymous. The names of student participants, their schools, or faculty sponsors, must NOT appear on the boards, narrative/abstract or project title. If authorship is revealed on any submission materials the entry will be disqualified.

All metrics should include a short description of key assumptions used in the analysis and where the numbers came from and reliability.

Online Project Submission

After the faculty sponsor completes the online registration, each student will receive a confirmation email, which will include a link to complete the online submission. All boards are required to be uploaded through the ACSA website in JPEG files (no more than 20MB each). Participants should keep in mind that, due to the large number of entries, preliminary review does not allow for the hanging end- to-end display of presentation boards. Accordingly, participants should not use text or graphics that cross over from board to board.

Students are required to upload final submissions by 11:59 pm Pacific Time on January 13, 2021. If the submission is from a team of students, all student team members will have the ability to upload the digital files.

Submissions may be edited and updated until the submission deadline of 11:59 pm, Pacific Time, January 13, 2021. Once the final submission is uploaded and submitted, each student will receive a confirmation email notification.

Please Note: the submission is not complete until the “Submit” button has been pressed. For teams: each member of team may submit or edit the final project till the deadline of 11:59 pm Pacific Time on January 13, 2021.