Children decorate a mural
AIA

How Architecture Week empowers the next generation of designers

Architecture Week 2025 reached thousands of students. Momentum is already building toward next year’s event—and you can be part of it.

October 7, 2025
By Devon Davis

Architecture Week isn’t just a celebration—it’s a movement. Each year, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) rallies chapters, members, firms, and partners nationwide to showcase the transformative power of architecture. In 2025, that energy focused on K–12 students, educators, and advocates, marking the second year of a bold national initiative to introduce young minds to the world of design. 

From classroom visits and hands-on design workshops to mentorship sessions and donation drives, Architecture Week 2025 mobilized the profession in service of education, equity, and inspiration. AIA amplified these efforts through national publicity, encouraging volunteerism and collaboration across its network. 

The results were extraordinary: 51 chapters and 505 members engaged with Architecture Week 2025. There was representation from 42 states, and the event reached 484 schools and 20,616 students. Social media posts gained 3.7 million impressions. And AIA, with support from the AIA College of Fellows, awarded 20 grants to boost local programming efforts.

Grant Highlights: Innovation in Action

AIA’s grant program empowered chapters to launch and expand K–12 initiatives tailored to their communities. The ideas were as varied as AIA’s chapters. 

  • AIA Architects League of Northern New Jersey: Led a tower design challenge for local high school students
  • AIA Baltimore: Partnered with Baltimore Design School to host a panel of design professionals
  • AIA Blue Ridge: Hosted a family-friendly LEGO event titled Kidstruction
  • AIA Brazos: Simulated the urban development process through a nine-day student program
  • AIA California: Published a student guide on becoming an architect
  • AIA Chattanooga: Showcased student projects and encouraged collaboratively building an interactive installation   
  • AIA Connecticut: Created immersive learning environments connecting students with practicing architects
  • AIA Fort Worth: Planned a full week of K–12 activities, including two exhibitions, architecture tours, films, Box City, and a LEGO build
  • AIA Honolulu: Engaged students in culturally rooted design challenges
  • AIA Kansas City: Organized a full exploration of Architecture Week with activities for all grade levels, both in schools and at the AIA Kansas City office
  • AIA Kentucky: Delivered hands-on design experiences to students statewide
  • AIA Long Beach: Hosted a panel of design professionals at the only all-girls public STEM school in California
  • AIA New Jersey: Hosted a virtual design competition inviting students to envision futuristic skyscrapers
  • AIA New York Chapter: Partnered with the firm OQ2D to offer a hands-on sustainable building workshop  
  • AIA Philadelphia: Integrated architecture into STEM curricula through educator partnerships
  • AIA Richmond: Hosted a book drive, sending architecture and design books to local elementary and middle schools
  • AIA Toledo: Celebrated the 75th anniversary of its annual High School Design Competition
  • Boston Society for Architecture (BSA): Created KidsBuild! classroom workshops in collaboration with teachers
  • Washington Architectural Foundation: Hosted a challenge for local high school students to design sustainable greenhouse gases

Architecture Week continues to evolve as a vibrant platform for inspiration, inclusion, and impact. Through its growing investment in K–12 outreach, AIA is helping shape a future where every student—regardless of background—can envision themselves as a designer, a problem-solver, and a leader in the built environment. (Take this as a sign of AIA’s commitment: AIA’s 2024 Architecture Week campaign received a PR Daily Nonprofit Communications Award nomination.)

  • Structures made for AIA Fort Worth's Box City event
    AIA Forth Worth
    Structures at AIA Fort Worth's Box City event.
  • Children raise their hands
    AIA Kentucky/Courtesy of George Donkor
    Children raise their hands during an AIA Kentucky Architecture Week event.
  • Structures made for AIA Fort Worth's Box City event
  • Children raise their hands

Get involved in Architecture Week 2026

Momentum is already building toward Architecture Week 2026. More chapters are stepping up, more students are engaging, and more stories are waiting to be told. If you have an idea to inspire the next generation, now is the time to act: Architecture Week grant applications are open until Oct. 15.

Beyond grants, the Architecture Week webpage offers simple, meaningful ways to get involved—from donating to a local wish list to sending a letter of information to your neighborhood school. And for those looking to dive deeper, AIA’s K–12 resources page is continuously updated with hundreds of tools to help students explore the power and possibility of architecture. 

To support your efforts, AIA is also developing new tools designed to make K–12 engagement easier and more impactful. Those include a grab-and-go classroom toolkit developed in collaboration with the American Society of Landscape Architects and a guide for chapters ready to launch high school design competitions. 

Regardless of the tools, outreach efforts are impactful. “Those whom you reach may not enter our profession, but because of you, they will hold a better understanding of the places and spaces shaped by architects,” said 2014 AIA President Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA. “Every time you speak to someone—young or old—beyond our profession, you are a promoter of architects and architecture."  

By taking part in Architecture Week, you won’t be just celebrating the profession. You’ll be building a pipeline that will shape its future. 

Devon Davis is AIA's senior manager of K–12 initiatives and engagement.