Registration Deadline: April 9, 2025
2025 COTE Competition
AIA COTE庐 Top Ten for Students
Registration & Rules
Faculty Sponsor Online Registration
One Registration for Each Entry
A faculty sponsor is required to enroll students online (available at www.acsa-arch.org) 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 麻花视频 website,
- Click the “Register your Students” button,
- Select the 2025 COTE Competition (Category I or II) from the submission type dropdown menu & Click 鈥淓nter鈥�,
- Select 鈥淚ndividual Registration鈥� to add individual student. Click 鈥淪ave and Continue鈥�. You will need to know each student鈥檚 first & last names, email, & institution, which are all required fields for each student,
- Select 鈥淭eam Registration鈥� if this is a team registration, you may add additional students by clicking 鈥淎dd Student鈥� to the same submission to this team, teams must be limited to a maximum of three students,
- Once the individual student or team is complete, Click 鈥淪ubmit鈥�,
- Repeat steps 3 鈥� 6 for each individual or team.
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 document. Work should have been completed in a design studio or related class within the 2024-2025 calendar year. Design work completed before Spring 2024 will not be accepted.
Each faculty sponsor may develop an internal system to evaluate the students鈥� work using the criteria set forth in this Competition Program and the Studio Guide. 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. The final result of the design process will be a submission of two presentation boards and a narrative describing the design solution and approach to each of the ten principles of the Framework for Design Excellence.
Rules
Submission Materials & Requirements
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 shall be placed on achieving zero emissions, design for climate change and resilience, and addressing social equity and ecology.
The Framework for Design Excellence shall serve to inform the design process and guide the required graphics and written narratives/abstract. Students or student teams must submit the following materials online:
1. Graphics: No more than two (2) digital boards at 24鈥漻36鈥� (JPEG files, no more than 20MB each), to include the following:
Documentation must adequately convey the project鈥檚 relationship to topography and physical context, formal and programmatic organization, circulation patterns, and experiential qualities. All drawings should be labeled; indicate scale and orientation where necessary. At minimum, include the following:
– Site or context plan
– Floor plans
– Building / site sections
– Perspective or isometric view (digital rendering or model photograph)
Present diagrams or images that best display how the project meets the design criteria by considering the ten principles of the Framework for Design Excellence. Some principles may require a specific graphic or calculation; others are open-ended. Where applicable, provide labels and notes on how calculated metrics are obtained (basis, method, program used, and assumptions). All metrics should include a short description of key assumptions used in the analysis and where the numbers came from and reliability.
2. Abstract/Narrative: (300 words maximum summary). Project/concept statement should include the design approach, project intentions & strategies. *During submission, simply copy/paste this text into the 鈥淎bstract鈥� text field.
3. Program Brief: (300 words maximum) Submissions should include a brief description the building type, gross square footage, project location (city, state, country) & climate zone. *During submission, simply copy/paste this text into the 鈥淧rogram鈥� text field.
Incomplete or undocumented entries will be disqualified. All drawings should be presented at a scale appropriate to the design solution and include a graphic scale and north arrow.
Project authorship must remain anonymous. The names of student participants, their schools, or faculty sponsors, must NOT appear on the boards, narrative/abstract or project title. If authorship is revealed on any submission materials the entry will be disqualified. All metrics should include a short description of key assumptions used in the analysis and where the numbers came from and reliability.
Online Project Submission
After the faculty sponsor completes the online registration, each student will receive a confirmation email, which will include a link to complete the online submission. All boards are required to be uploaded through the 麻花视频 website in JPEG files (no more than 20MB each). Participants should keep in mind that, due to the large number of entries, preliminary review does not allow for the hanging end- to-end display of presentation boards. Accordingly, participants should not use text or graphics that cross over from board to board.
Students are required to upload final submissions by 11:59 pm Pacific Time on June 4, 2025. If the submission is from a team of students, all student team members will have the ability to upload the digital files.
Submissions may be edited and updated until the submission deadline of 11:59 pm, Pacific Time, June 4, 2025. Once the final submission is uploaded and submitted, each student will receive a confirmation email notification.
Please Note: the submission is not complete until the 鈥淪ubmit鈥� button has been pressed. For teams: each member of team may submit or edit the final project till the deadline of 11:59 pm Pacific Time on June 4, 2025.
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 American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (麻花视频) have the rights to use your winning submission, images and materials in a summary publication, online and in promotional and exhibition resources. AIA and 麻花视频 will attribute authorship of the winning design to you, your team, faculty, and institutional affiliation. Additionally, you hereby warrant that the submission is original and that you are the student author(s) of the design submission.
Competition Organizers & Sponsors
About the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
Founded in 1857, the American Institute of Architects consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through nearly 300 state and local chapters, the AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public wellbeing. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards. The AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and businesses. The AIA engages with civic and government leaders, as well as with the public, to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation, and world. Visit www.aia.org.
About the AIA COTE庐
The AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE庐) works to advance, disseminate, and advocate design practices that integrate built and natural systems and enhance both the design quality and environmental performance of the built environment.
About the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (麻花视频)
The mission of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is to lead architectural education and research. Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, 麻花视频 is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. 麻花视频鈥檚 full members include all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and 2- and 4-year programs. Together, 麻花视频 schools represent 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
麻花视频 seeks to empower faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts, and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture. For more information.
Edwin Hern谩ndez-Ventura
Programs Coordinator
202-785-2324
ehernandez@acsa-arch.org
Eric W. Ellis
Senior Director of Operations and Programs
202-785-2324
eellis@acsa-arch.org