April 17, 2018, update: We have extended the regular deadline by one week, to April 27.
March 26, 2018, update: We are pleased to announce our esteemed jurors below and a unique opportunity for this year's winners.
With the array of digital, fabrication, collaboration, and analysis tools available these days, everyone who works in the built environment has the potential to produce groundbreaking, industry-changing work. To celebrate the state of the art, and the efforts that go behind them, ARCHITECT invites design firms, manufacturers, researchers, students, startups, and innovators in all building-related disciplines to enter our 12th annual R+D Awards. This distinctive program honors advances in architecture at every scale, from novel design and construction solutions to high-performance building systems and details, must-have products and digital tools, and newfound building typologies.
While many architecture competitions focus on the polished results, ARCHITECT's R+D Awards program considers the process, rigor, and outcome of tackling a design problem, an unmet need, or an industry opportunity. Past winners include a portable high-tech/low-tech street lamp, a virtual reality tool to increase design empathy, and a model for increasing housing density in urban centers. And those examples are just from last year alone!
Start today by registering online and starting your submissions—all it takes is an abstract (300 words maximum) followed by support materials (20 pages maximum). Keep it simple. Make it compelling. Your entries will be reviewed by the following jury of thought leaders who straddle the architecture, technology, and innovation space:
- Jackilin Hah Bloom and Florencia Pita, partners, Pita & Bloom
- Tom Chung, AIA, principal, Leers Weinzapfel Associates
- Randy Deutsch, AIA, Clinical Associate Professor and Associate Director for Graduate Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The winners will published in the July 2018 print issue of ARCHITECT and on our website. Also, new this year, we are pleased to announce that Autodesk is offering winners of this year’s program the option to participate in its resident program at its BUILD Space, in Boston. Among its many features, the 34,000-square-foot facility is equipped with workshops for metal fabrication, precision machining, woodworking, waterjet cutting, laser cutting, CNC routing, robotics, 3D printing, steel forming, textiles, and more—all of which are available to its residents, which, to date, have included startups, established firms, and academics.
Finalize your submission online by the early bird deadline of April 13, 2018, and pay $175 to register the first entry, and $95 for each subsequent entry. After that, the registration fee for entries submitted by the regular deadline of April 20 27 is $225, with each additional entry at $145. We are also excited to offer a reduced registration fee of $95 per entry for full-time faculty members, students, and researchers at academic institutions.
For the complete rules and regulations, visit rdawards.com.
To see past R+D Awards winners, check out our online archive.
Good luck! We can't wait to see how you're changing the future of architecture and design.
