COTE® Top Ten for Students
Recognizing the best green projects that seamlessly integrate innovative, regenerative strategies within their broader design concepts.
Celebrating student sustainable design excellence
The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE®), in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), is pleased to announce the tenth annual AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students competition. The program challenges students, working individually or in teams, to submit projects that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions that protect and enhance the environment.
Registration deadline: April 8, 2026
Submission deadline: June 3, 2026
Questions? Contact us >
Overview
The 2026 COTE Top Ten for Students competition will offer architecture students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories. Students may not enter both categories.
Category I: FOUNDATION LEVEL
This category is open to students enrolled in first-year and second-year design studios, or related classes; in 2-year, 4-year, and undergraduate programs from any ACSA member school, including international member schools. Faculty will be required to confirm satisfaction of this requirement upon registration in this category.
Category II: UPPER LEVEL
This category is open to upper-level students (third year or above, including graduate students) from any ACSA member schools, including international member schools. Faculty will be required to confirm satisfaction of this requirement upon registration in this category.
The COTE® Top Ten awards are the industry’s best-known awards program for sustainable design excellence. The COTE® Top Ten for Students recognizes the best green projects by students—ten exceptional studio projects that seamlessly integrate innovative, regenerative strategies within their broader design concepts.
The competition is open to all students attending Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Member Schools in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Additional requirements:
- Students must work under the direction of a faculty sponsor.
- Teams can’t be larger than three students.
- Work should have been completed in a design studio or related class within the 2025-2026 calendar year. Design work completed before Spring 2025 will not be accepted.
Please see the AIA/ASCA website for the competition overview, prizes, criteria, as well as a complete list of the registration requirements and competition rules.
- Projects must demonstrate innovation and meet the ten principles of the Framework of Design Excellence detailed in the submission guidelines.
- Projects should demonstrate creative and innovative integration of daylight, materials, ecosystems, economy, well-being, change, equitable communities, water, energy, resources, and discovery.
- Each entry must include abstracts, metrics, program briefs, and no more than two 24”x36” digital boards (submitted as PDF or JPEG files).
- Projects must be submitted through the ACSA website.
Please see the AIA/ASCA website for the competition overview, prizes, criteria, as well as a complete list of the registration requirements and competition rules.
Category I: Foundation Level Jury
Bunny Tucker, Shape Architecture Studio
TBA
TBA
Category II: Upper Level Jury
Nicole Cao, University of Waterloo
Pamela Conrad, Climate Positive Design
Vincent Martinez, Architecture 2030
TBA
Category I: FOUNDATION LEVEL
De-Clustered, Environmental Middle School in Pittsburgh’s Inner Fringe - Students: Russell Tsai & Julia Hu | Faculty: Jongwan Kwon | Carnegie Mellon University
Category II: UPPER LEVEL
Four Membranes - Student: Nicole Cao | Faculty: Jaliya Fonseka | University of Waterloo
Fish House - Students: Ciela Stark & Leah Gripp | Faculty: Ulrike Heine, Amy Trick & Rayshad Dorsey | Clemson University
Time Frame - Student: Luca De Vasconcelos Ricci | Faculty: Jaliya Fonseka | University of Waterloo
Twin Canopy Research Center - Students: Jiaye Li (Jessie), Yudi Dong & Haozheng Wang (Henry) | Faculty: William Braham | University of Pennsylvania
Symbiosis - Student: Irina Chemencedji | Faculty: Ryan Bacha | Savannah College of Art and Design
Center for Information+Collaboration - Student: Elena Silverman | Faculty: Eric Watson | Montana State University
Deus Ex Machina - Students: Arnaud Belzile, Zachary Lambert & Thomas Nadeau-Gauthier | Faculty: Claude Demers & André Potvin | Université Laval
Firewise Futures: A Community-Centered Model for Wildfire Resilience - Student: Jennifer Layer | Collaborators: Andrew Poole & Alexandra Ugan | Faculty: Sallie Hambright-Belue & Matthew Nicolette | Clemson University
DFDi - Students: Priscilla Leung & Audrey Delia | Faculty: Brian Lonsway | Syracuse University
Category I: FOUNDATION LEVEL
Honorable Mention
One444 Refuge - Students: Jonah Kramer & Joel Ferrick | Faculty: Thomas Provost | University of Detroit Mercy
Past winners
COTE Top Ten for Students 2024 >
COTE Top Ten for Students 2023 >
COTE Top Ten for Students 2022 >
COTE Top Ten for Students 2021 >
COTE Top Ten for Students 2020 >
COTE Top Ten for Students 2019 >
COTE Top Ten for Students 2018 >
COTE Top Ten for Students 2017 >
The COTE® Top Ten Award is the industry’s best-known award program recognizing innovative projects integrating exemplary performance with compelling design.