The OPPORTUNITY
Integrated Material Research & Design
Ethical & Equitable Materiality: To End Forced Labor is a student competition that offers architecture students the opportunity to design a project using responsible design practices. Students are expected to engage both design and material investigation as interconnected processes, demonstrating how architectural decisions can contribute to eliminating forced labor from the building industry. Design for Freedom studies the mutual benefits of honoring both people and planet, creating buildings that allows our climate health, well-being and local economies to flourish.
About the Competition
leads , the global movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain. Grace Farms is partnering with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ÌÇÐÄvlog) to announce a student Design Competition for the 2026-2027 academic year. The competition is intended to challenge students, working individually or in teams, to explore how architectural material research and design can eliminate forced labor in the building materials supply chain – to explore and propose how architects can work to eradicate forced and child labor from the built environment.
Awards + Recognition
The design jury will meet in Summer 2027 to select winning projects. Jurors will select First, Second, and Third prize winners, in addition to a selected number of honorable mentions, all at the discretion of the jury. Winners and their faculty sponsors will be notified of the competition results directly. A list of winning projects will be posted on the ÌÇÐÄvlog web site at and the Grace Farms Foundation website at . Winning students and their faculty sponsors will receive cash prizes totaling $14,000 with distribution as follows:
$14,000
in cash prizes
Student(s) | Faculty Sponsor(s) | |
First Place | $5,000 USD | $2,000 USD |
Second Place | $3,000 USD | $1,200 USD |
Third Place | $2,000 USD | $800 USD |
Prize‑winning submissions will be exhibited at the 2028 ÌÇÐÄvlog Annual Meeting and the 2028 AIA National Convention as well as published in a competition summary publication.
Design for Freedom
Design for Freedom is a global movement led by Grace Farms to raise awareness and initialize responses to disrupt forced labor in the building materials supply chain. Some 28 million people worldwide are held in forced labor—many of them in the building materials supply chain from the point of raw material extraction to a multi-tiered manufacturing process before arriving on the construction site. Design for Freedom has mobilized industry leaders through the Design for Freedom Working Group, which is comprised of 100 industry leaders and experts in the built environment. Together, they raise global awareness about the hidden humanitarian crisis through pilot projects, the media, exhibitions, reports, symposiums, and partnerships with leading universities. This competition seeks to raise awareness among architecture students and faculty about forced labor in the creation of the built environment, and to demonstrate how student design and research can recognize and help eliminate forced labor in architecture and construction.
Eligibility
International Student Competition
The competition is open to students from all ÌÇÐÄvlog member schools around the world. Students may work individually or in teams and must work with a faculty sponsor on the submission. There will be no fee for eligible students to participate in the Competition.
The framework below embeds the Design for Freedom values and commitments to guide your design work:
- To acknowledge that the choices made in the sourcing of building materials have connected environmental, social, and ethical repercussions
- To have a moral and ethical obligation to end exploitation that subsidizes the bottom line of residential and commercial construction projects globally
- To understand that ethical design practices reduce risk and improve long-term value
- To recognize that underpaid and exploitable labor stifles the modernization of the industry by reducing the need for innovation and is detrimental to vulnerable communities
- To embrace material circularity by transforming waste into valuable resources, designing for deconstruction, and reducing reliance on virgin materials with complex supply chains
- To commit to integrating ethical principles into design practices and industry-wide research
- To advocate for systemic change through policy, legislation, and the enforcement of human rights protections
- To share knowledge and replicate learning journeys to inform and support colleagues and peers
Criteria for Judging
Judging criteria for the submissions:
- Strength and clarity of the overall design concept, demonstrating a coherent integration of program, site, and material strategy.
- Effective integration of material research into design, showing how material choices actively reduce reliance on forced-labor supply chain.
- Innovation in sustainability, addressing the intersection of social, economic, and environmental considerations through material selection and design.
- Responsiveness to physical, cultural, and social context, including how the design engages with its surroundings and community.
- Demonstrated commitment to ethical responsibility, including an understanding human impact and the role of design in advancing equitable practices.
- Effectiveness of visual and graphic communication in conveying design intent, material research, and supply chain analysis.
- Quality and clarity strategies that disrupt or avoid forced-labor practices, including the use of ethical sourcing, transparency, and accountability measures.
- Depth and rigor of material research, including clear documentation of supply chains and identification of associated risks.
- Consideration of material circularity, reuse, and shorter supply chains as strategies for reducing dependence on high-risk materials and processes.
- Overall contribution to advancing knowledge and practice, particularly in how the proposal informs future approaches to ethical and equitable material sourcing.
Competition Organizers & Sponsors
Questions
Edwin Hernández-Ventura
Awards and Competitions Manager
ehernandez@acsa-arch.org
202.785.2324
Eric W. Ellis
Senior Director of Operations and Programs
eellis@acsa-arch.org
202-785-2324