October 19, 2020

By now you may have heard about the call for the 2021 AIA COTE Top Ten for Students Competition. This is an ACSA and AIA COTE collaboration (since 2013). We hope that some of you may be in a design studio this fall and are planning to enter this competition (entries due January 13, 2021). 

But even if you are not, there are a host of resources related to this program that you can tap into now. Most relevant to you is the new Studio Guide, with an array of resources to support students (and faculty) through a design studio curriculum. It suggests discussion questions, readings, and exercises to spur design thinking and analysis. Even if your studio is not focused explicitly on climate action design, tap in now. For example, the AIA Framework for Design Excellence is made up of 10 principles (formerly known as the COTE Top Ten measures). These are expressed as a set of guiding questions to ask throughout the design process and intended to challenge students to build deep knowledge of a place and translate this knowledge into design aspiration and action. You might also be interested to use the criteria and review checklist to assess your own studio work. 

We hope that you tap into these resources and if you find them useful (or wanting), we’d also welcome your feedback at cote@aia.org