The competition is closed for 2009. Submissions for the next round will be accepted in the Fall/Winter of 2009.
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Introduction
The CAE Design Awards is an Internet-based marketplace of ideas. Through this forum the committee will disseminate quality ideas on educational facility planning and design to clients, architects, and the public. As we rethink and reshape what we do as architects, we must evaluate and measure our successes, and have an arena in which to test ideas. This awards program is an opportunity to engage in critical evaluation and experimentation, not as an end in itself, but always in the context of our clients and their needs.
The CAE Design Awards seek to identify, honor, and disseminate the projects and ideas that exhibit innovation and excellence through:
• The enhancement of the client's educational program through the thoughtful planning and design of facilities
• The integration of function and aesthetics in designs that also respect the surrounding community and context
• A planning/design process that is educational, collaborative, and builds the capacity of the school and its community to support its students
This program has two primary areas of focus: the project area and the forum of ideas.
1. The project area will focus on how individual projects further the client's mission, goals, and educational program. In this area, the entire story will be told with respect to how each submitted project is conceived, planned, designed, built, inhabited, and evaluated.
This area will portray quality within both the process and the product. The best processes exhibit authentic collaboration between the design team, the client, and the community as they work together to fulfill the client's goals. These are projects that show exemplary care in serving the client and ensuring a quality built environment, both functionally and aesthetically.
2. The forum of ideas will be a place for experimentation, a planting bed for thoughts to nurture and grow. The process of conceiving, planning, designing, and building is a path of discovery, and the forum of ideas will be sufficiently flexible to respond to the imagination of the participants. This area will not necessarily showcase entire projects, but rather select elements from projects.
Eligibility of Projects
All entries must meet the following requirements:
• Educational facilities that are eligible for consideration include domestic and international early childhood learning environments (including Head Start); public, private, and parochial elementary, middle/junior high, and high schools; alternative schools (i.e., charter schools, magnet schools, vocational/technical schools, and at-risk schools); innovative learning centers (i.e., museum schools, environmental learning centers, and high-tech learning environments); two-year technical and community colleges; schools of higher education; and corporate or other specialized training centers. Non-traditional learning environments may include community centers, museums, libraries, etc.
• Projects may include new construction, additions, and renovations/modernizations.
• Master plans, including multiple sites and/or multiple phases, will be considered.
• Submissions of commissioned and completed research projects are encouraged; however, hypothetical projects are NOT eligible.
• Entries are limited to projects that have been completed since January 1, 2002. If the project has not yet been built, it must be completed through design development, with the owner's approval, to proceed with construction documents before September 1, 2008.
• Individual designers, educational planners, academics, and nonprofits other than architects are eligible to submit in the Unique Learning Environment category and are highly encouraged to participate. In all other categories, only projects designed by architects licensed in North America are eligible.
• Projects will not be accepted from firms affiliated with a jury member.
Awards, Citations, and Special Recognition
Awards of Excellence will be given to registered architect(s) whose project(s) represent exemplary practice in all three of the following areas of educational facility design:
1. Enhancing the client's educational program
2. Design that integrates functional needs and aesthetic considerations while respecting the surrounding community and context.
3. The planning and design process
Awards of Merit may be given to other registered architects for superior quality projects.
Citations will call attention to outstanding features of individual projects.
No minimum or maximum number of awards has been established. The number of awards given will be at the sole discretion of the jury, based on the number of projects it deems to represent exemplary practice.
It is understood that individual projects may be exemplary in some but not all of the jury's areas of focus. Categorical awards may be given for each of the following: early childhood learning centers, elementary schools, middle/junior high schools, high schools, alternative schools, innovative learning centers, two-year community and technical colleges, and specialized training centers.
Unique Learning Environment Category Qualifications
This category is open to academics, nonprofits, or individuals whose aim is to design or generate new thinking in learning environments, but who are not architects and are not in the for-profit sector. There will be no registration fee for entrants into this category. A special award may be given at the discretion of the jury to a person or group who submits commissioned and completed research projects that have made a significant contribution to the uniqueness and effectiveness of learning through the physical environment. Academics who have credentials or businesses outside of academia should apply through the other categories.
National Recognition and Publication
This design awards program will offer AIA members, architects licensed in North America, and designers and educational planners an opportunity to be nationally recognized. Their work will be displayed through a variety of vehicles, reaching an audience of school boards, private and public school administrators, facilities managers, and other client groups around the country and the world.
Design awards will be presented at the CAE conference in 2009 (date TBA). For each award of excellence, commemorative plaques will be presented to the winning firm and its client. For each merit and citation award, certificates of recognition (suitable for framing) will be provided to each firm and its client.
Jury-selected projects will be showcased on the CAE home page. Postings will include the architect's statement, general project information, and a limited number of images as selected by the AIA. . Projects may also be featured in issues of KnowledgeNet, the monthly AIA Knowledge Community newsletter.
Award winners may also be featured in a number of upcoming publications, presentations, or conferences, or included in other CAE-sponsored media presentations.
As part of AIA's expanding knowledge agenda, applicants agree that by submitting they will, if selected participate in a case study process that will document the project and include it in the AIA Case Study resource for reference by other architects, owners and designers. If asked to participate in this process, the submitting firm should plan on approximately 20 hours of documentation effort to collect the necessary information to AIA.
Timeline
Submission deadline - TBD
Jury Review - TBD
Awards presentation - TBD