The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning launched an international design competition that challenges architects, landscape architects, and related professionals to rethink how buildings and landscapes are designed to be more resilient against the impacts of climate change.
Called The Resilient Campus, a challenge including a design competition, a traveling exhibition, a public event, and a publication, reflects the school’s “Buffalo as a laboratory” philosophy in architecture, design, and planning. It will focus on UB’s South Campus, an urban area striving for carbon neutrality, as its main feature.
Teams have been selected for Stage Two of the design competition:
- STOSS Landscape Urbanism + Höweler Yoon Architecture
- OBRA Architects + LOLA Landscape Architects
- MVRDV + RIOS
- MASS Design Group | EinwillerKuehl Landscape Architecture | SITELAB | Second Nature Ecology + Design
- LTL Architects + Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
- Barkow Leibinger + TOPOTEK1 + Transsolar KlimaEngineering
- ASPECT Studios and Woods Bagot
University at Buffalo faculty will lead student groups that will have the chance to engage with the participating teams when they visit campus and Buffalo in October. This presents a fantastic opportunity for UB students to learn from outstanding mentors in their fields.
The competition focuses on two scales: campus and building. At the campus scale, teams will develop and apply strategies for an ecologically robust, resilient landscape for University at Buffalo’s South Campus. In the building scale, teams will develop and apply an adaptive strategy for a portion of the existing Health Sciences Complex and a schematic approach to a University-Assisted Public School.
Once all the teams have been selected, they will move on to the second stage of the competition, where they will receive the competition brief. A jury of design and allied professionals, city representatives and university administrators will review and critique each entry, ultimately awarding first, second and third place. The winning team will receive $50,000.
Each team must include an architect and a landscape architect, and may include individuals from related fields, such as planners, engineers, ecologists, lighting designers and graphic designers. Additional information is available via: https://archplan.buffalo.edu/the-resilient-campus.
The disciplinary knowledge generated by The Resilient Campus will be on display through a traveling exhibition, examined through a symposium, and disseminated through a book.
The project is being funded by the School of Architecture and Planning, with assistance provided by University at Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Office of Sustainability, University Facilities, and Campus Planning, Design, and Construction.