2025 Design for Freedom Competition: Ethical and Equitable Materiality to End Forced Labor

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.

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.

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:

Category I: Design Project

First Place: $3,000 USD (Student),$ 1,500 USD (Faculty)

Second Place: $2,000 USD (Student), $1,000 USD (Faculty)

Third Place: $1,000 USD (Student), $500 USD (Faculty)

Category II: Material Research

First Place: $3,000 USD (Student),$ 1,500 USD (Faculty)

Second Place: $2,000 USD (Student), $1,000 USD (Faculty)

Third Place: $1,000 USD (Student), $500 USD (Faculty)

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.

Eligibility:

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.

Learn More:

Click here for more competition details.