Winners Announced

2024 COTE Competition

AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students

Schedule

April 10, 2024

Registration Deadline

June 5, 2024

Submission Deadline

Summer 2024

Jury Convenes

Fall 2024

Winners Announced

Program

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.

Entries will be judged on design innovation and how well the project has addressed measures of the Framework for Design Excellence:

Framework for Design Excellence

DEISGN FOR INTEGRATION

Sustainable design is an inherent aspect of design excellence. Projects should express sustainable design concepts and intentions and take advantage of innovative programming opportunities.

Narrative: Describe how sustainability strategies are incorporated into the overall design. What are the major environmental issues and goals? How does the building respond to the local climate, site and occupant comfort?

May include:

Key environmental issues; how and why they became important priorities
Key ecological goals and concepts for your project and how they were expressed in the design
How sustainability measures led to a better overall project design
Process of program analysis; resource efficiencies realized by innovative programming
Efforts to “right size” the project and to reduce unnecessary square footage
Project response to local climate, sun path, prevailing breezes, soil, hydrology, and seasonal and daily cycles through passive design strategies
Description of internal versus external building loads with regard to building massing, orientation, fenestration/shading related to the sun’s path and prevailing winds
Design strategies that reduce/eliminate the need for non-renewable energy resources
How these strategies specifically shaped the plan, section, and massing

Suggested Graphics: Building section, or other appropriate diagram that demonstrates bioclimatic strategies and concepts. A profile of local climate that illustrates appropriate design strategies, or summary sustainability diagram (for building operations)

Metric: Percent of the year that occupants will be comfortable using passive systems

DESIGN FOR EQUITABLE COMMUNITIES

Sustainable design values the unique cultural and natural character of a given region.

Narrative: What is the project’s greater reach? How could this project contribute to creating a diverse, accessible, walkable, just, and human-scaled community? Who might this project be forgetting? How can the design process and outcome remove barriers and promote inclusion and social equity, particularly with respect to vulnerable communities? What opportunities exist in this project to include, engage, and promote human connection? How can the design support health and resilience for the community during times of need or during emergencies?

May include:

What is the project’s greater reach? How could this project contribute to creating a diverse, accessible, walkable, just, and human-scaled community?
Who might this project be forgetting? How can the design process and outcome remove barriers and promote inclusion and social equity, particularly with respect to vulnerable communities?
What opportunities exist in this project to include, engage, and promote human connection?
How can the design support health and resilience for the community during times of need or during emergencies?

Graphic: Open

Metric: Walk score: (from Walkscore.com) and/or urban networks diagram (walk, transport, etc.)

DESIGN FOR ECOSYSTEMS

Sustainable design protects and benefits ecosystems, watersheds, and wildlife habitat in the presence of human development.

Narrative: How does the development of the site respond to its ecological context? Consider water, air, plants, and animals at different scales.

May include:

How the development of the site and program responds to its ecological context, including the watershed, air, and water quality at different scales from local to regional level
How the design accommodates wildlife habitat preservation and creation
How the design protects or creates on-site ecosystems
How the design responds to local development density or conditions
How the design encourages local food networks

Suggested Graphic: Natural systems diagram (on-site, context) and/or Native Landscape Profile (flora, fauna)

Metric: % site area designed to support vegetation

DESIGN FOR WATER

Sustainable design conserves water and protects and improves water quality.

Narrative: How does the design manage storm water? How does the design conserve potable water? How is the project innovative in the way that it uses and treats water?

May include:

How building and site design strategies manage site water and drainage
Design strategies that capitalize on renewable water sources (i.e. precipitation) on site
Water-conserving landscape and building design strategies
Reuse strategies for water including use of rainwater, graywater, and wastewater

Suggested Graphic: Diagram representing how water arrives onto the site, how it is used or reclaimed, and how it leaves the site.

Metric: Percent of storm water that is managed onsite: (2 year, 24-hour event. Use supplied spreadsheet in competition website to calculate)

DESIGN FOR ECONOMY

Sustainable design celebrates affordable solutions around true economy—good first costs, good long term operations cost, and true benefits for occupant health and productivity.

Narrative: Describe how economics influenced the design. What do you think your project might cost to build? How would this construction cost compare with ‘typical’ buildings of the same building type? How does your design represent true economy by providing more value for what it costs?

May include:

An approach that uses less total area comprised of multi-use areas, instead of many single-use areas
How savings are achieved for operating costs (energy, water…)
How the design promotes occupant health, leading to lower absenteeism in the workplace and lower health care costs

Suggested Graphic: Lifecycle cost or value diagram

Metric: None

DESIGN FOR ENERGY

Sustainable design conserves energy and resources and reduces the carbon footprint while improving building performance and comfort. Sustainable design anticipates future energy sources and needs.

Narrative: How does the design seek to decrease the total energy use and carbon footprint of the building? Emphasize strategies to reduce heating and cooling loads, reduce electricity demand, reduce plug loads, and generate on-site carbon free energy.. Describe your approach towards achieving carbon neutrality.

May include:

How the design reduces energy loads for heating, cooling, lighting, and water heating
How the design and integration of building systems contributes to energy conservation and reduced use or elimination of fossil fuels, reduces green house gas emissions and other pollution, and improves building performance and comfort.
Use of on-site renewable and alternative energy systems.
Strategies to reduce peak electrical demand.
How the design remains functional during power outages or interruptions in fuel supply

Graphic: Open

Metric: Total energy use intensity (EUI) in kBtu/sf/yr: (build a simple energy model to calculate EUI using DesignBuilder, ArchSim, HoneyBee, eQuest, Sefaira, Autodesk® Insight 360, or another energy modeling program); Energy generation (if any) in kWh/yr: (use PVWatts® Calculator or solar-estimate.org for solar or wind); Net EUI (with renewables if applicable).

DESIGN FOR WELL-BEING

Sustainable design creates comfort, health, and wellness for people who inhabit or visit buildings.

Narrative: Discuss design strategies for optimizing daylight, indoor air quality, connections to the outdoors, and thermal, visual, and acoustical comfort.

May include:

How does design promote the health of the occupants?
How does design promote activity or exercise, access to healthy food choices, etc.
Outline of material health strategies, including selection strategies
Design strategies for daylighting, task lighting, and views
Design strategies for ventilation, indoor air quality, and personal control systems
How the project’s design enhances users’ connectedness to nature
Design team approach to integration of natural systems and appropriate technology

Suggested Graphic: Model photos, drawings or diagrams of daylight and ventilation strategies; test models.

Metric: Percent of the building that can be daylit (only) during occupied hours; Percent of floor area with views to the outdoors; Percent of floor area within 15 ft. of an operable window. Daylight performance using the following concepts: Daylight Availability, or Annual Sunlight Exposure along with Spatial Daylight Autonomy: % of regularly occupied area achieving at least 300 lux at least 50% of the annual occupied hours.

DESIGN FOR RESOURCES

Sustainable design includes the informed selection of materials and products to reduce product life-cycle embodied energy and carbon, and environmental impacts while enhancing building performance and optimizing occupant health and comfort. Adaptive reuse and renovation/preservation dramatically reduces a buildings material consumption and carbon footprint.

Narrative: Describe the project’s construction, material selection criteria, considerations, and constraints. What efforts were made to reduce the amount of material used and waste and the environmental impact of materials over their lifetime? Discuss specific materials used.

May include:

Efforts to reduce the amount of material used on the project
Materials selection criteria, considerations, and constraints for: optimizing health, durability, maintenance, and energy use reducing the impacts of extraction, manufacturing, and transportation
Enclosure performance in relation to air, moisture, water and thermal characteristics
Consideration of life cycle embodied energy and carbon impacts and results of life-cycle assessment if available
Construction waste reduction plans; strategies to promote recycling during occupancy

Suggested Graphic: Wall section of the building envelope design and either a hygro-thermal analysis or life cycle assessment.

Metric: Estimated carbon emissions associated with building construction (lbs CO2/sf, using The Construction Carbon Calculator, Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings, Tally®, or other)

DESIGN FOR CHANGE

Sustainable design anticipates adapting to new uses, climate change, and resilient recovery from disasters.

Narrative: Describe how the design promotes long-term flexibility, re-use, adaptability, and resilience.

May include:

How the project was designed to promote long-term functionality and adaptability
Anticipated project service life; description of components designed for disassembly
Materials, systems, and design solutions developed to enhance versatility, durability, and adaptive reuse potential
How does the design anticipate restoring or adapting function in the face of stress or shock, such as natural disasters, blackouts, etc.?
How does the project address passive survivability (providing habitable conditions in case of loss of utility power or water)?
How the project anticipates and celebrates weathering over time
How does design for address adaptive climate: conditions in 2030 and in fifty years

Suggested Graphic: Specific hazard and climate analysis for project.

Metric: None

DESIGN FOR DISCOVERY

Sustainable design strategies and best practices evolve over time through documented performance and shared knowledge of lessons learned.

Narrative: What steps would you take to ensure that the building performs the way that it is designed? What lessons have you learned from this project that you will apply to the next project? What lessons have you learned from past projects that were applied to this project?

May include:

Modeling and evaluation of the design during the programming and design phases
Collaborative efforts between design team, consultants, client, and community
Lessons learned during the design of the building
How these lessons would change your approach to this project or future projects
A question that would be investigated in a post-occupancy evaluation of this project

Suggested Graphic: Open

Metric: None