Architecture at Zero

Dezeen Competitions: Architecture at Zero tasks architects and designers to design a year-round educational and cultural venue that will transform into a resiliency asset during regional emergencies.

The competition intends to promote decarbonisation, equity and resilience. It is open to students and professionals worldwide.

This competition is now closed

Organiser: Architecture at Zero
Competition: Architecture at Zero
Judges:

• Lance Collins, director at Partner Energy
• Scott Gaudineer, president at Flewelling & Moody Inc.
• Paul Torcellini, principal engineer at National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Allison Williams, founder of AGWms_studio

Submission deadline: 1 June 2026
Winner announcement: yet to be announced
Prizes: up to $25,000 at the discretion of the jury

Click here to enter

Competition overview

Architecture at Zero tasks designers to design the La Plaza Cultural Center at the Multi Agency Resilience Center, Antelope Valley, California.

The centre is a year-round educational and cultural venue that will transform into a resiliency asset during regional emergencies, offering critical support for evacuees, first responders, and multi-agency operations.

Eligibility and judging criteria

The competition is open to students and professionals worldwide.

The evaluation process of each entry has two phases. Complete entries are screened by a technical review panel that examines all submitted energy metrics.

If entries meet the energy requirements, they are then reviewed by the jury. Entries are scored on energy, decarbonisation, resilience and equity strategies.

For more details, visit the competition’s website.

How to enter

Designers can get information on entry requirements here.

Registration is free for students. The entry fee for professional architects, engineers and designers is $350.

Submission deadlines

Proposals should be submitted by 1 June 2026.

The date for the winners’ announcement has yet to be announced.

About Architecture at Zero

The Architecture at Zero competition, now in its fifteenth year, was conceived as a response to the zero net energy targets set out by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in the 2008 report, California’s Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan.

In this report, the CPUC set out four bold energy efficiency strategies for California that include the goals that all new residential construction in California be ZNE by 2020 and that all new commercial construction be ZNE by 2030.

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