The AIAS supports and sponsors design competitions to contribute to the education of all students. Competitions present unique opportunities to investigate and utilize building materials and design techniques from different perspectives or those that the student might not be familiar with already. Furthermore, participants compete among students from a broad range of programs and are evaluated by diverse juries of experts. Competitions can also assist instructors with developing a repertoire of design challenges to use in studio courses.

Since the 1970’s, the sponsors have included, AARP, American Institute of Steel Construction, American Life Insurance Co., American Plastics Council, Apple, Cadkey, Copper Development Association, International Corrugated Packaging Foundation, International Masonry Institute, Graphisoft, GE, Jeld-Wen, Kawneer, Lego, McDonald’s, Modular Building Institute, National Endowment for the Arts, National Science Foundation, National Roofing Contractors Association, Sheet Metal Workers, Trespa, US Information Agency, and The Vinyl Institute.

**Registration Period Extended until March 5, 2010**
The design competition challenges students to investigate an existing skilled nursing facility and develop an original set of designs for renovation and new construction to meet today’s use of nursing facilities while improving on aspects of living conditions and work environment. The developed program includes a set of drawings, general programmatic constraints and recommended space requirements for redeveloping a real life case study located in Florida. Sponsored by S.A.G.E. and administered by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), the program challenges students to learn about skilled nursing home design, specifically the challenges of breaking from the model of staff-centric operating philosophies to resident-directed care. Total prize money is $7225.00 with $2500.00 and a trip to San Diego for First place!

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Mar 05, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.aias.org/sage

**The competition is now closed. Check back after February 16, 2010 to see the winning designs** Sponsored by the Modular Building Institute and administered by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), the program challenges students to learn about modular building techniques and systems in the design of a modern and sustainable Miami Beach hotel. The competition is designed for North American design students of all ages. Total prize money is $7,225, including $2,500 for the first place winning design.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Feb 01, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.aias.org/modularbuilding

**Winning Designs Announced and Files are Posted for Review**
Sponsored by Kawneer and administered by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), this competition challenges students to learn about building materials, specifically architectural aluminum building products and systems in the design of a secure and sustainable municipal courthouse. While open to any student, the competition is designed for advanced students. Total prize money is $7,225, including $2,500 for the first place winning design.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Dec 04, 2009
WEB SITE:  www.aias.org/kawneer

**Winning Designs Announced and Files are Posted for Review**
Sponsored by Trespa International and administered by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), the program challenges students to learn about building materials, specifically architectural wall panels and systems in the design of an engaging and sustainable City Entertainment Center. The competition is open to any design student in North America. Total prize money is $7,675, including $2,500 for the first place winning design.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Dec 04, 2009
WEB SITE:  www.aias.org/trespa

**Winning Designs Announced and Files are Posted for Review**
Sponsored by The Vinyl Institute and administered by the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), the program challenges students to learn about building materials, specifically vinyl building products and systems in the design of an efficient and creative boathouse for the Bohemian Flats Park in Minneapolis, MN. The competition is designed for architecture and design students of all levels. Total prize money is $7,675, including $2,500 for the first place winning design.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Dec 04, 2009
WEB SITE:  www.aias.org/vinyl

The Metropolis Next Generation® Design Competition was created in 2003 to promote activism, social involvement, and entrepreneurship in young designers. Metropolis saw the need for a new type of competition, one that went beyond the usual beauty pageants for finished projects, a competition that would generate and reward ideas. Metropolis celebrates the next generation by rewarding imaginative young designers at large companies and recognizing the hard work of those striving with their own young firms or on their own as well as students—while some designers have a proposal ready and waiting, others are at the beginning of the process with an undefined desire to create and can use a kick start.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Jan 29, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.metropolismag.com/nextgen/

The ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, now in its eighth year, offers graduate-level students the opportunity to form their own multidisciplinary teams and engage in a challenging exercise in responsible land use. Student teams comprising at least three disciplines will have two weeks to devise a comprehensive design and development program for a real, large-scale site fraught with challenges and opportunities. Submissions will consist of boards that include drawings, site plans, tables, and market-feasible financial data. Please visit the competition archives to view previous submissions. ULI will announce this year’s competition site on January 18, 2010, which is the day the competition officially gets underway. This competition is an ideas competition; there is no expectation that any of the submitted schemes will be applied to the site. The winning team will receive $50,000 and the finalist teams $10,000 each.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Feb 01, 2010
WEB SITE:  udcompetition.uli.org/

With the ongoing shrinkage of available and suitable space to meet the residential needs of burgeoning urban populations, designers and developers are looking at the use of vertical communities to achieve housing goals. The 2010 International Skyscraper Challenge affords today's future designers an opportunity to assume the profile of professionals as they incorporate a team of skilled partners to design, construct and market a tall building for a site within the dense urban population of Mexico City – the 3rd largest metropolitan region in the world. Winners will receive an award package consisting of a scholarship and award the value of which will be announced in the upcoming months.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Feb 19, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.mockfirms.org

The LG Surfaces annual Student Design Challenge is fashioned to encourage students to focus on emerging opportunities in solid surface methods of design – driving them to think beyond traditional approaches. Previous contest winners have utilized LG Surfaces to design models that are not only unique, but also capitalize on the flexibility, color offerings and fabrication elements of the LG Surfaces Solid Surface product line. The Aloft Hotels design team and LG Surfaces are challenging students to design innovative solid surface applications suitable for the hospitality industry capturing the theme “Where Life Happens.” Designs should contribute to Aloft's strong social environment, helping guests feel connected and engaged, or to the intimacy of Aloft's guest rooms that represent the most important interactions a guest has with a hotels' physical environment. Students are encouraged to design concepts making the traveler's hotel experience easy, fun and social with an emphasis on technology, comfort and style.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Mar 05, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.lgsurfaceschallenge.com/

The International Union of Architects announces the launch of an international competition that will invite architecture students from around the world to create imagemodels of examples of significant architectural creativity realised during the 20th century. This competition is an opportunity for the architects of tomorrow to enrich the web index www.archi.fr/UIA with their own expression of an architectural realisation from the last century, using today's design tools. The image models to be designed for this competition need to be based on digital photographs created using Autodesk® ImageModeler® and Autodesk® Stitcher® Unlimited software. This software will be made available by Autodesk® to the competitors for use free of charge for the duration of the competition. All phases of the competition will be conducted on-line.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Apr 26, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.3d20th.archi.fr/presentation.php

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.

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.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  May 19, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.acsa-arch.org/competitions/09-10%20Comp/10AISCWebsite/index.html

Design a LEED Platinum home and change a life. USGBC’s Natural Talent Design Competition, presented by Salvation Army’s EnviRenew Initiative, challenges students and emerging professionals to design a small, affordable, green home for elderly occupants in New Orleans. Two teams of students and two teams of emerging professionals will be selected as national finalists, and will travel to New Orleans and Greenbuild 2010 in Chicago.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  May 31, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=257

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) of the National Park Service, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia and The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announce the 2010 Charles E. Peterson Prize, which annually recognizes the best set of measured drawings prepared to HABS standards and donated to HABS by students. The prize honors Charles E. Peterson, FAIA, founder of the HABS program, and is intended to increase awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of historic buildings throughout the United States while adding to the permanent HABS collection of measured drawings at the Library of Congress. To date, more than 2,000 students from 68 colleges and universities have participated by completing more than 500 entries and almost 5,000 sheets of measured drawings. The students have worked alone and in groups, in required courses, electives, independent study and summer institutes. They have been, for the most part, architecture students in addition to architectural history, interior design, and American studies majors.

ENTRY DEADLINE:  Jun 30, 2010
WEB SITE:  www.nps.gov/history/hdp/jobs/peterson.htm