2025 Steel Design Student Competition

The 2025 Steel Design Student Competition will offer architecture students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories:

CATEGORY I: LIBRARY +

The community library stands as a pillar for independent information where ideas of all can be freely exchanged and explored. While integrating new technology, expanding services, and adding space for the community to interact, libraries continue to evolve. You are invited to site your library in an urban area of your choice, and then supply the information to finish the brief’s title of “Library +”?  As libraries have the opportunity within a specific environment to respond to unique needs, what else could a library contribute to the community to become an even more integral part of the civic fabric? The project will include a defined program for a library, and each entry will include an added space for the community defined by you that cannot exceed 50% of the library area.

CATEGORY II: OPEN

Category II offers architecture students the opportunity to select a site and building program using steel as the primary material. This competition category permits the greatest amount of flexibility for any building type.

Students may not enter both categories of the competition.

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is pleased to announce the 25th Annual Steel Design Student Competition for the 2024-2025 academic year. Administered by the ACSA and sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the program is intended to challenge undergraduate and graduate students, working individually or in teams, to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. Steel must be used as the primary structural material and contain at least one space that requires long-span steel structure, with special emphasis placed on innovation in steel design.

The competition allows students to explore the many functional and aesthetic uses for steel as a building material and structural system. Steel is an ideal material for multi-story building because it offers the greatest strength-to-weight ratio. In addition, steel can be constructed quickly and for all project site types with the use of labor-saving prefabrication methods such as kit-of-parts, panelization, and modular construction. A building built with steel is potentially more flexible and adaptable to allow for a change in program, occupancy, and loading needs over time.