Study Architecture 
ProPEL The OPPORTUNITIES
Ethical & Equitable Materiality: To End Forced Labor is a student competition that will offer architecture students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories:
Category I: Design Project
Offers architecture students the opportunity to select a site and building program using Design for Freedom Principles and Toolkit to design more ethically and equitably.
Category II: Material Research
Allows architecture students to research material sourcing to existing and new industry-wide practices and material transparency measurements and adopt shorter material supply chain methods to create a more ethical and equitable future.
About the Competition
Grace Farms leads Design for Freedom, the global movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain. Grace Farms is partnering with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) to announce a student design competition for the 2024-2025 academic year. The competition is intended to challenge students, working individually or in teams, to explore how architectural material research and design can eliminate forced labor in the building materials supply chain – to explore and propose how architects can work to eradicate forced and child labor from the built environment.
Awards + Recognition
The design jury will meet in Summer 2025 to select winning projects and honorable mentions. Winners and their faculty sponsors will be notified of the competition results directly. A list of winning projects will be posted on the ACSA website and the Grace Farms Foundation website. Winning students and their faculty sponsors will receive cash prizes totaling $18,000 with distribution as follows:
$18,000
in cash prizes
Category I: Design Project
Student(s) | Faculty Sponsor(s) | |
First Place | $3,000 USD | $1,500 USD |
Second Place | $2,000 USD | $1,000 USD |
Third Place | $1,000 USD | $500 USD |
Category II: Material Research
Student(s) | Faculty Sponsor(s) | |
First Place | $3,000 USD | $1,500 USD |
Second Place | $2,000 USD | $1,000 USD |
Third Place | $1,000 USD | $500 USD |
A limited number of honorable mentions may also be awarded at the jury’s discretion. Prize‑winning submissions will be exhibited at the 2026 ACSA Annual Meeting and the 2026 AIA National Convention as well as published in a competition summary publication.
Design for Freedom
Design for Freedom is a global movement led by Grace Farms to raise awareness and initialize responses to disrupt forced labor in the building materials supply chain. Some 28 million people worldwide are held in forced labor—many of them in the building materials supply chain of extraction, manufacture, and construction. Design for Freedom has mobilized industry leaders through the Design for Freedom Working Group, which is comprised of more than 100 industry leaders and experts in the built environment. Together, they raise global awareness about the hidden humanitarian crisis through pilot projects, the media, exhibitions, reports, symposiums, and partnerships with leading universities. This competition seeks to raise awareness among architecture students and faculty about forced labor in the creation of the built environment, and to demonstrate how student design and research can recognize and help eliminate forced labor in architecture and construction.
Eligibility
International Student Competition
The Competition is open to students from all ACSA member schools around the world. Students may work individually or in teams and must work with a faculty sponsor on the submission. There will be no fee for eligible students to participate in the Competition. All published materials, websites included, associated with the Competition will describe eligibility.
Criteria for Judging
Criteria for the judging of submissions to Category I: Design Project:
- Successful response of the design to material research and selection that mitigates the use of materials produced through the forced-labor supply chain.
- Documentation of materials and processes used in the architectural design that disrupt the forced-labor supply chain.
- A strong conceptual strategy to address the elimination of materials and processes produced by forced labor in a coherent, integrated design proposal;
- A compelling response to the physical and cultural context of the scheme;
- A mature awareness of and an innovative approach to sustainability as a convergence of social, economic, and environmental issues that mitigate the use of materials and processes produced by forced labor;
- A thorough appreciation of human needs and social responsibilities, particularly as they guide ethical and equitable material selection and documentation.
Criteria for the judging of submissions to Category II: Material Research:
- Successful response to material research and selection that mitigates the use of materials produced through the forced-labor supply chain.
- Documentation of research into materials sourcing to existing and/or new industry-wide practices potentially disrupt the forced-labor supply chain.
- Approaches to measuring material transparency to uncover material processes produced by forced labor;
- Approaches to the adoption and documentation of shorter material supply chain methods resulting in a more ethical and equitable future;
- Documentation of innovative approaches to sustainability in response to social, economic, and environmental issues to mitigate the use of materials and processes produced by forced labor;
- Documentation of material research making it easier for practitioners to achieve the goal of ethical and equitable material selection.
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
