JBC Masonry Innovation Competition

The International Masonry Institute’s (IMI's) JBC Masonry Innovation Competition wants to see your creative ideas and innovative projects for masonry design and construction!

$30,000 in prizes is up for grabs!

Submit your conceptual or built structures and systems.
Download the competition brief or read below for below for more details.
Register today -- it's free! 

WHO CAN ENTER
There are 3 entry categories: 

• Students: Undergraduate or graduate students enrolled in an accredited design, architecture, or engineering school. 
• Young Architects/Engineers: Any architects or engineers under the age of 40. 
• A/E Firms, Individual Architects/Engineers, & Cross-Category: Architecture/engineering firms, architects and engineers age 40 and over, and cross-category teams. 

Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged in all categories to help facilitate a well-conceived solution, but individual entries are also permitted.

PRIZES
Monetary awards will be provided to 1st place winners in each of the 3 entry categories:

• Students : $5,000 awarded to competitor, plus $5,000 granted to the award winner's school/program
• Young Architects/Engineers: $10,000
• A/E Firms, Individual Architects/Engineers, & Cross-Category: $10,000

In addition to monetary prizes, winners may receive special publication and promotion opportunities and will be honored during an awards ceremony in Florida, with travel and accommodations covered by IMI.

THE CHALLENGE
The JBC Masonry Innovation Competition celebrates game-changing creativity and new ideas that have the power to propel growth within the industry. The competition challenges current and budding designers to answer the question: what will masonry’s design and construction delivery experience look like in the future? 

For IMI, innovation is key to positioning masonry as a valued building system in design and construction. Innovation includes any solution that adds value, usefulness, appreciation, and relevance to masonry design and construction, and can be either an improvement of an existing system or a groundbreaking proposal. In other words, solutions should progress current masonry thinking or create new opportunities for growth through the creation of a scalable and repeatable model. 

Solutions can explore innovation through masonry materials, the process of construction, or new business models related to construction efficiencies, and may also address issues such as energy efficiency, resiliency, sustainability, constructability, and customization. In all cases, however, the innovative ideas should be both clear and constructible. 

To encourage freedom to innovate, the scale, size, program, and location, if applicable, are left open to the participant. Participants should model their solutions using BIM technology, and are encouraged to make use of BIM for Masonry (BIM-M) software plugins and tools. 

The final solution can be an imagined, proposed, or completed structure or system. Submissions should clearly illustrate how masonry can transform or enhance its role in the building industry, and how this process advances design and construction opportunities in the future.

DELIVERABLES

• 2 digital presentation boards depicting your project. Include plans, sections, details, BIM images, 3D images, and any other information needed to explain your design solution. Digital boards should be landscape-oriented at 24″(h) X 36″(w) and saved as JPEGs at 150 dpi resolution in RGB mode. 
• A project statement (1200 words max.) that explains how your concept rethinks the innovative potential of masonry and addresses program requirements outlined in the competition brief.  
• Contact information, as requested during registration and on the entry form. 
• For Student Category Entrants Only: Proof of current enrollment in a design, architecture, or engineering program. 

Participants are encouraged to submit all information they consider necessary to explain their solution above and beyond the required deliverables, including, but not limited to, video, images, written, or multimedia content

KEY COMPETITION DATES 

• Registration opens: July 15, 2019 
• Submission opens: August 1, 2019 
• Submission deadline: December 15, 2019 (11:59 p.m. EST) 
• Winners notified: February 2020 
• Award ceremony/winners announced: March 2020

Visit the competition website for complete entry and submission details!