AIA Indiana High School Architectural Design Competition

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2024 Indiana High School Architectural Design Competition!

The initial round of judging is now complete!

Be sure to check your email that you provided on your entry form. We have sent an email out to all entrants on whether or not you are a finalist.

An additional round of judging will be completed next week, and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Friday May 3rd.

If you did not receive an email, or if you have any questions, please reach out to us via email at [email protected].

Let the competition begin!

Indiana High School Architectural Design Competition THE ARCHITECTURE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2023 Indiana High School Architectural Design Competition! The Indiana architecture state championship!

The Finalists are on display! You can see them in the Indianapolis Artsgarden until the Awards Ceremony.

Time's Up! Hopefully, you all got your boards in on time. We're looking forward to seeing what you've designed!

Today’s Competition Advice: DEVELOP A GOOD CONCEPT STATEMENT!
The judges understand you’re still developing your skills, so they’re willing to partially judge based on your good intentions, even if they're not fully developed in your final design. Your concept statement is the best tool to clearly describe your design and your intentions. Reading your concept statement is also how the judges will break ties between entries. Take the time to make it great!

Today’s Competition Advice: SHADOWS!
Nothing immediately makes a flat elevation immediately read better than shadows. It’s a simple way to easily communicate depth. Renderings and plans can often benefit from shadows too! Take some time and adjust the sun angles to make those views pop!

Today’s Competition Advice: PLAN LEGIBILITY!
It’s really important that your floor plans are easy to read. It makes a world of difference if you poche your walls, and add furniture and room names to your plans. The easier your plans are to read, the easier it is for the judges to appreciate your work!

Today’s Competition Advice: TEST PRINT!
A rendering on a computer screen looks very different when printed. Every year we get large numbers of entries with renderings that are dark and difficult to read. Do some small test prints and adjust your renderings so they print clearly. It’s critical that the judges see your work!

Today’s Competition Advice: PLAN YOUR RENDERINGS!
Your perspective renderings are (usually) the most important images on your board because they instantly tell the judges the most information. Spend some time carefully selecting the right view that highlights your most important feature(s) and adjust the sun and shadows to make sure it’s easy to understand.

Today’s Competition Advice: DESIGN YOUR ENTRY BOARD!
How you present your design will directly impact how well the judges can appreciate what you've done. All your hard work designing will go unnoticed if it's not clearly presented. Do a search for architectural competition entry boards for inspiration. Your board should be easy to read and immediately communicate your design’s strengths!

Today’s Competition Advice: KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS!
Remember that the judges don’t know anything about your design. Make a short list of things that are excellent about your project, and make sure those things are clearly presented on your entry board through your plans, diagrams, text, and renderings!

Entries are due in 11 days! Over the next few days we'll publish some advice to help you all finish strong!

The competition committee will host a Design Workshop for all competition entrants, their parents, and teachers on Saturday, February 18th at American Structurepoint.

🌳The competition committee will teach a short course on architectural design, discuss architecture as a career, and give a tour of an architects’ office.

🌳We’ll also buy everyone lunch.

🌳Students are invited to bring their ideas, sketches, and presentation board mock-ups to discuss their designs with Indiana architects and designers. However, students are not required to bring work.

🌳This is the single easiest way to get a good start on your entry, learn a little something about architecture, have fun, and get a free lunch. Past attendees have had an exceptional track record of doing well in the competition.

We hope to see you there!

Let the competition begin!

The 2023 Indiana High School Design Competition, the State Championship of Architecture, has begun!

Download this year's challenge here:

Indiana High School Architectural Design Competition American Institute of Architects - Indiana

Congratulations to all the award winners of the 2022 Indiana High School Architectural Design Competition! This year's entries were fantastic. Regardless of whether you won an award, all our entrants should be proud!

---AWARD OF EXCELLENCE---
LILLIAN MALDIA, Valparaiso High School, Instructor: Tarik El-Naggar
SYDNEY MANSAVAGE, Carmel High School, Instructor: Laura Erli
CHARLES SWAYNE, Valparaiso High School, Instructor: Garrett Gray

---AWARD OF HONOR---
KARLI LODUCA, Valparaiso High School, Instructor: Tarik El-Naggar
MATTHEW TOLLAR, Porter County Career and Technical Center, Instructor: William Guinee
G. DAVID STRALNIC, Valparaiso High School, Instructor: Tarik El-Naggar
NARICYN ANDIS, C4 Columbus Area Career Connection, Instructor: Darin Johnson
LOGAN CONNORS, Porter County Career and Technical Center, Instructor: William Guinee
JACOB REESE, Valparaiso High School, Instructor: Tarik El-Naggar

---JUDGE'S DISTINCTION---
BRADLEY ROMANESCHI, Porter County Career and Technical Center, Instructor: William Guinee
BEATRICE INNOCENTI, Penn High School, Instructor: Jim Langfeldt

The Awards Ceremony is tomorrow at 8pm in the Indianapolis Artsgarden! We’re looking forward to seeing you all there!

Note that the program has a typo and says it starts at 7. That’s incorrect, it starts at 8. At 7pm in May in Indiana it’s still too bright to see a screen inside an all glass building...

The finalists are on display! They’ll be at the Indianapolis Artsgarden until the ceremony.

The first round of judging is complete. There were some great entries this year! The notification emails were just sent, so please reach out if you didn’t receive a notification of your standing. Come see all the first round finalist entries on display in the Indianapolis Artsgarden starting on April 25th!

All your entires have been received! We’ll keep you all updated as judging progresses.

Just two more days until entries are due!

Tip - Spelling! Nothing tells the judges “I don’t care” as loudly as a bunch of spelling errors. Check and double check all your text. It’s easy to do and makes a big difference!

Tip - Design your entry board layout just like you would approach a building design. Determine what’s most important and make sure those qualities are the most prominent features on your board.

Entries are due one week from today! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone’s designs!

A big thank you to Lake Central High School for pointing out that the Revit 2020 project site was actually in Revit 2021 format! We created a new Revit 2020 file and uploaded it to the website. You can download the new (older) file from our download page below.

Hopefully, our mistake didn't hold too many of you up! We're looking forward to seeing your entries!

https://ihsadc.com/downloads/

Downloads Design Program: 2022 IHSADC DESIGN PROGRAM PDF Site: 2022 IHSADC Site Revit 2020 Site: 2022 IHSADC Site – Revit 2020 SketchUp 2021 Site: 2022 IHSADC Site – Sketchup 2021 Entry Form: IHS…

Congratulations to Tarik El-Naggar on his second national news article discussing his approach to teaching architecture and his class' sweep of last year's design competition! We need more Tariks gearing up the next generation of great architects!

https://www.architectmagazine.com/aia-architect/aiavoices/beyond-the-basics_o

Beyond the Basics Passion is infectious when it comes to educating future architects.

Don’t forget, the Virtual Design Workshop is this Saturday at 10am! We’re looking forward to seeing you all there!

We'll be hosting a virtual architectural design workshop on February 12th at 10am. Hope you can all join us!

https://ihsadc.com/workshop/

Design Workshop The competition committee will host a virtual design workshop for all competition entrants, their parents, and teachers on Saturday, February 12th from 10:00am to 12:00pm EST. Entrants, teachers an…

One week left! Entries are due this Friday. We're looking forward to seeing everyone's work!