The AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) once again sets the bar for design excellence for architecture students with the August launch of the 2022 COTE Top Ten Students Competition. Entering its seventh year, the competition attracts hundreds of participants every year and only ten winners, this is widely regarded as the most prestigious student design award in architecture. Based on the AIA Framework for Design Excellence (born of the COTE Top Ten measures), the competition introduces college students to a breadth of sustainability issues, from climate to community, and to critical metrics used in the design process.
The 2021 competition attracted over eight hundred students, representing 66 schools and months and months of work. COTE is grateful to the hundreds of faculty sponsors for encouraging and facilitating these students’ achievements. COTE plans outreach this year to under-represented architecture programs to reach an even more diverse range of students. If any COTE members would like to serve as a COTE Top Ten Students Competition advocate to a collegiate architecture program nearby, please contact the COTE Advisory Group. We appreciate our COTE community and encourage all to become involved in mentoring and inspiring our young designers.
The 10 principles and required metrics in the competition brief provide a challenging program for any architect, and more so for a student. This year’s brief will identify required base measures for students to meet and reward submittals that achieve more aspirational aspects of the Framework for Design Excellence, pushing for deeper understanding and execution of targeted project-specific goals. As in past years, we invite studio projects that include new or existing buildings, urban design, and landscape elements designed integratively using social, natural, economical, and technological strategies.
The jury will represent both practice leadership and academic brilliance, providing thoughtful assessments of each submittal. The competition is a joint effort with the Association for Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), designing and hosting the competition site where information will be posted in August. Stay tuned for updates and we look forward to 2022!