Registration Deadline: April 8, 2026

2026 Steel Competition

Community Dance Center & Open

Schedule

April 8, 2026

Registration Deadline

June 3, 2026

Submission Deadline

Summer 2026

Jury Convenes

Fall 2026

Winners Announced

Registration & Rules

Community Dance Center & Open

Registration

Faculty to Complete One Online Registration for Each Entry

A faculty sponsor is required to enroll students online (available at www.acsa-arch.org) by April 8, 2026. Registration can be done for your entire studio or for each individual student or team of students participating. Students or teams wishing to enter the competition on their own must have a faculty sponsor, who should complete the registration. There is no entry or submission fee to participate in the competition. Each registered student and faculty sponsor will receive a confirmation email that will include information on how the student(s) will upload final submissions online. Please add the email address competitions@acsa-arch.org to your address book to ensure that you receive all emails regarding your submission.

During registration the faculty will have the ability to add students, add teams, assign students to teams, and add additional faculty sponsors. Registration is required by April 8, 2026, but can be changed, edited, and added to until a student starts a final submission; then the registration is no longer editable.

Registration Steps

Faculty log into the ACSA website,
Click the “Register your Students” button,
Select the 2026 Steel Competition (Category I or II) from the submission type dropdown menu & Click “Enter”,
Select “Individual Registration” to add individual student. Click “Save and Continue”. You will need to know each student’s first & last names, email, & institution, which are all required fields for each student,
Select “Team Registration” if this is a team registration, you may add additional students
by clicking “Add Student” to the same submission to this team, teams must be limited to
a maximum of five students,
Once the individual student or team is complete, Click “Submit”,
Repeat steps 3 – 6 for each individual or team.

Faculty Responsibility

The administration of the competition at each institution is left to the discretion of the faculty within the guidelines set forth in this document. Work on the competition should be structured over the course of one semester during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Each faculty sponsor is expected to develop a system to evaluate the students’ work using the criteria set forth in this program. The evaluation process should be an integral part of the design process, encouraging students to scrutinize their work in a manner similar to that of the jury.

Rules

Use of Steel

Steel must be used as the primary structural material. Design proposals must contain at least one space/element that requires long-span steel structure, with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design. The most compelling proposals will inevitably integrate the use of steel into the design of the project at multiple levels, from primary structure to building envelope and tectonic details.

Building Code

Refer to the International Building Code and the local zoning ordinance for information on parking requirements, height restrictions, setbacks, easements, flood, egress and fire containment. All proposals must be designed to meet requirements for accessibility; for guidelines, refer to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the principles of Universal Design.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and computational design are providing students and architects with new labor-saving tools and transforming many of the tasks associated with project delivery. The proliferation of AI use in practice and academia is raising legitimate questions about how the responsibility and accountability of the architect and students might be altered by this technological wave.

AI usage in student submissions must ensure the students remain responsibly in control and continue to be accountable for all images and likenesses in their submissions.
AI is a tool — it is not a replacement for professional judgment. Regardless of the AI tools used, it remains the architecture student’s responsibility to provide designs in conformance with academic integrity.

Students choosing to use AI as a tool must attribute this use in their design essay (abstract). Students are accountable for the originality, validity, and integrity of the content and designs of their submissions. In choosing to use AI tools, students are expected to do so responsibly and with a high standard of ethical conduct. This includes reviewing the outputs of any AI tools and confirming content accuracy.

Submission Requirements

Digital Submission Format

Submissions must be presented on four 20” x 20” digital boards. All boards are required to be uploaded through the ACSA website as BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, or PNG files. The names of student participants, their schools, or faculty sponsors, must NOT appear on the boards, or in the project title or project title file name(s).

Design Essay or Abstract

A brief essay, 300 words maximum, is required as part of the submission describing the most important concepts of the design project. Keep in mind that the presentation should graphically convey the design solution and context, and not rely on the design essay to convey a basic understanding of the project. The names of student participants, their schools, or faculty sponsors, must NOT appear in the design essay. This abstract is included in the final online submission, completed by the student(s) in a simple copy/paste text box.

Program Summary

A program summary diagram/text of spaces and areas is required as part of the submission, 300 words maximum. All interior and exterior spaces are to be included; total net and gross areas are required.

Required Submission Documents

Three-dimensional representations – in the form of axonometrics, perspectives showing the proposal in its context, montages and/or physical model photographs – to illustrate the character of the project;
Site plan showing proposal in its context of surrounding buildings and topography, together with details of access/circulation;
Building/site sections sufficient to show site context and major spatial and program elements;
Floor plans to show program elements, spatial adjacencies and navigation strategies;
Large scale drawing(s), either orthographic or three dimensional, illustrating:

the use and detailing of steel for building structure and/or envelope
integrated design

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. The site plan should include a north arrow.

Online Project Submission

The student is required to submit the final entries that must be uploaded through the ACSA Competition website at www.acsa-arch.org by 11:59 pm, Pacific Time, on June 3, 2026. If the submission is from a team of students, all student team members will have the ability to upload the digital files. It is recommended that one team member completes the final submission upload. Faculty have the option to submit the student’s final boards when needed. The submission is not complete until the “submit” button has been clicked. Once the final submission is uploaded and submitted, each student will receive a confirmation email notification.

The final submission upload must contain the following:

Completed online registration including all team members and faculty sponsors,
Each of the four 20”x20” boards uploaded individually as a high resolution BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, or PNG file,
A design essay or abstract (300 words maximum),
A program summary diagram/text of spaces and areas (300 words maximum).

The names of student participants, their schools and faculty sponsors must NOT appear on the boards, abstract, program summary, or in the file name.

Winning projects will be required to submit high-resolution original files/images for use in competition publications and exhibit materials. By uploading your files, you agree that the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has the rights to use your winning submission, images and materials in a summary publication, online and in promotional and exhibition resources. ACSA will attribute authorship of the winning design to you, your team, faculty and affiliation. Additionally, you hereby warrant that the submission is original and that you are the author(s) of the submission.

Performance Evaluation (For Category I only. Not required for Category II.)
Each student will answer a few multiple-choice questions upon submission about a performance analysis topic determined by the faculty or student(s). If possible, please show your performance evaluations on your submission boards and images. For the list of questions and an expanded explanation of this, please refer to the Supplemental Studio Guide and these questions:

What category of performance did you measure or assess in your design?
What standard or benchmark did you measure against?
How did your final design performance compare with your standard or benchmark?
If you measured and your design performance was below the standard or benchmark, did you redesign and measure or assess again?