The AIA California launches the 11th annual Architecture at Zero Competition

Architecture at Zero is a design competition for decarbonization, equity, and resilience, open to students and professionals worldwide. It serves to engage the fields of architecture, design, engineering, and planning in the pursuit of sustainable design. 

The 2023 competition challenge is to design an agriculture center, connecting the history of California’s first Black town to its present aspiration to become a destination for sustainable agriculture and Black history. Allensworth lies in the Central Valley of California, one of the most productive agricultural regions on the planet, providing more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States. 

All entrants will design the Teaching & Innovation Farm Lab. Graduate students and professionals will also design housing for farm students on the site. Key aspects of this project include responding to the challenges of equity and resilience through the design solution.

Competition entries will be juried by international experts, including Paul Torcellini (Principal Engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory), Allison Williams, FAIA (AGWms_studio), Lance Collins, AIA (Director at Partner Energy), and Mary Ann Lazarus, FAIA, (Cameron MacAllister Group).

The submission deadline is June 16, 2023. Click here to learn more about the competition and register.

The Architecture at Zero competition, now in its twelfth year, was conceived as a response to the zero net energy targets set out by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in the 2008 report, California’s Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan. In this report, the CPUC set out four “Big Bold Energy Efficiency Strategies” for California that include the goals that all new residential construction in California be ZNE by 2020 and that all new commercial construction be ZNE by 2030.

Architecture at Zero is presented by Southern California Edison (SCE); San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E); Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E); Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and The American Institute of Architects California (AIA CA) and The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS).