Study Architecture 
ProPEL Registration & Rules
Faculty Sponsor Online Registration
One Registration for Each Entry
An ACSA member school faculty sponsor is required to enroll students online by April 9, 2025. 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 9, 2025, but can be changed, edited, and added to until a student starts a final submission; then the registration is no longer editable.
Faculty Registration Steps
- Faculty log into the ACSA website,
- Click the “Register your Students” button,
- Select the 2025 Design for Freedom Competition from the submission type dropdown menu, select category & 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 registration.
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 program. Work on the competition should be structured over the course of one semester during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Each faculty sponsor is expected to develop a system to evaluate the student’s 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.
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 Portable Document Format (PDF) or image (JPEG) 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 in the Design Project or Material Research as they address ethical and equitable materiality. Submissions should graphically convey the design solution and material research and selection 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, 300 words maximum, of spaces and areas is required as part of the submission for Category I: Design Project. All interior and exterior spaces are to be included; total net and gross areas are required.
Required Submission Documents
Submissions must include (but are not limited to) the following required documentation:
Category I: DESIGN PROJECT
- Three-dimensional representations – in the form of axonometrics and 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, north arrow, graphic scale;
- Building/site sections sufficient to show site context and major spatial and program elements, including graphic scale;
- Floor plans to show program elements, spatial adjacencies and navigation strategies;
- Large scale drawing(s), either orthographic or three dimensional, illustrating integrated design;
- Documentation of how materials and processes selected for the project demonstrate adherence to Design for Freedom Principles.
Incomplete or undocumented entries will be disqualified.
Category II: MATERIAL RESEARCH
- Graphic and written documentation demonstrating research and communicating conclusions regarding material research and selection;
- Graphic and written documentation explaining supply chains for materials that reflect Design for Freedom Principles;
- Graphic and written documentation and communication through devices such as matrices, charts, graphs, images, and other illustrative devices of how material research demonstrates potential realization of ethical and equitable materiality.
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 7, 2025. If the submission is from a team of students, all student team members will have the ability to upload the digital files. Once the final submit button is pressed, no additional edits, uploads, or changes can be made. You may “save” your submission and return to complete. Please note: The submission is not complete until the “complete this submission” button has been pressed. For team projects, each member of team projects may submit the final project, but each project should be submitted only once. 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 Portable Document Format (PDF) or image (JPEG) file,
- A design essay or abstract (300 words maximum)
- A program summary diagram/text of spaces and areas (300 words maximum)
- All other required drawing and documentation as outlined in the Required Submission Documents (stated above).
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.
Competition Organizers & Sponsors
Questions
Edwin Hernández-Ventura
Programs Coordinator
ehernandez@acsa-arch.org
202.785.2324
Eric W. Ellis
Senior Director of Operations and Programs
eellis@acsa-arch.org
202-785-2324
