In addition to recognizing the top ten entries at the 2018 AIA Convention in New York City, the INNOVATION 2030 competition will award additional prizes to winning students and their faculty sponsors:
Student Internship + Award
All student winners will be offered the opportunity of a paid summer internship at a leading architecture design firm, along with an award of $2,000 per winning project and recognition in the architectural press. Click the link below for a list of available firms and internships.
Faculty Award
Faculty sponsors of the winning projects will be recognized for their leadership in innovative design instruction and invited to participate in the Design Futures Council 2018 Leadership Forum on Education and Talent in New York City, along with an award of $2,000.
Available Internships
With every project, we want to do the most we can to help serve our communities and the environment around us.
Embedded in our way of working is a respect for our natural environment and fragile ecosystem.
We seek disruptive innovations that are comprehensive and exceed performance requirements across multiple measures.
We design buildings that enrich people’s lives – places of lasting significance that appeal as fully to the spirit as to the intellect.
With a holistic approach to sustainability, we continue to define a set of metrics to evaluate our design impact and evolve our practice by cultivating a passion for innovation.
Design excellence combines beauty,
function, economy, and energy performance.
We think of structures as places where humans experience emotion… where performance is both performed and witnessed.
Our work interweaves innovation in technology and fabrication, sustainability and urbanism, liveability and economy.
Sustainability and design are two sides of the same coin – balanced, integrated, and inseparable.
We co-create an enriched quality of life... by design and construction of outstanding healthy sustainable adaptive buildings and communities.
Sustainable design is participatory, interactive, and iterative.
We think beyond technical solutions to integrate beauty, materiality and craft into everything we touch.
Creating sustainable places and spaces that enrich the lives of those who use them.
Our projects are designed for the betterment of communities and society as a whole, and sustainability and green designer are a natural extension of this core ideology.
We continually strive for innovative sustainable approaches and technologies that push building performance to the highest level.
Brilliant new forms will result from designing with the lightest environmental touch.
We provoke change within the practice of architecture by pushing the boundaries of current norms for design and construction.
Architecture is never neutral. It either heals or hurts. Our mission is to research, build, and advocate for architeture that promotes justice and human dignity.
Sustainability has been pivotal in all our work. And more than ever, it is a defining factor in how our clients measure success.
Environmental, economic, and social sustainability are core values that reflect our commitment to responsible planning and design.
Great wholes, we believe, emerge from fully understanding and honoring each of the component parts.
Mapping local building traditions and materials can yield a wealth of ideas and inspiration, from locally available materials to climatic response.
Our defining strength is our ability to harness creative intelligence — both ours and our clients — to develop solutions informed by a prism of perspectives, experiences, technologies and cultures.
We deliver design solutions based on the cornerstones of sustainability, environmental integrity, economic viability and health & wellbeing.
S.E.A.’S corporate values are holistic and based on the respect and efficient use of our human and natural resources with an overriding commitment to the greater whole.
We strive for simple, elegant solutions to the most perplexing design challenges.
We want to build a better future, so we bring our talents together to add value, promote and inspire positive change.
Our triple bottom line approach—focusing on economic, ecological and social sustainability—aims for a promising future for the communities we serve around the world.

“The current generation of students will be designing the future; it is critical that they explore and develop ideas and concepts with the potential to reshape architectural practice in the age of climate change.”
– Edward Mazria, Founder and CEO, Architecture 2030
All student winners – individual and team members – will be offered the opportunity for a paid summer internship at an architecture firm doing leading work in sustainable designer across the U.S, and Canada. The firms listed below have committed to offering one or more internships. Students will specify their top choices from participating firms and internships will be assigned by lottery.
Note: Winning students will specify their top choices from participating firms and internships will be assigned by lottery. Firms may request Student’s resume and portfolio, and arrange a phone or video interview with the Student to discuss the internship opportunity. After discussing the internship opportunity, if for any reason the Firm or Student decides the internship is not in their best interest, either may decline the offer and the Student will not receive an alternate paid internship opportunity. Firm and Student will be responsible for finalizing the employment agreement, start date, end date, compensation, and all other details. Students must be legally eligible to work where the internship is offered (in the U.S. or Canada). Detailed competition and internship rules will be provided prior to the submission deadline (January 17, 2018).