Architecture Design Competitions & Events For Students
Shape the future with wood.
Student News + Updates
Curious what's happening in the world of wood design? Think Wood offers students meaningful ways to accelerate their understanding of wood solutions—from keeping tabs on upcoming student design competitions to exploring events and scholarship opportunities worth having on your radar.
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Competition | NCSEA Structural Engineering Summit: Wood Roof Assembly Competition for StudentsEngineering Students Put Structural Knowledge to the Test at Think Wood, SBCA’s Wood Roof Assembly Competition
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Event | BuildFest 2: Peace RisesFrom Woodstock to Wood Systems: Rethinking Design, Fabrication, and Assembly at BuildFest 2
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Event | North Carolina State University Design Build Studio SponsorshipNCSU School of Architecture’s Summer Design Build Studio Encourages Students to Collaborate Across Disciplines to Build New Mass Timber Outdoor Learning Space
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Competition | Hack-A-House: A 24-hour Hackathon Competition Addressing Housing Challenges2024 Hack-A-House Competition Tackles Challenges in Housing
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Event | Managing Mass Timber: From Forest to FutureKent State University Hosts Inaugural Managing Mass Timber: From Forest to Future
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Event | Buildfest 2024Bethel Woods Art & Architecture Festival Showcases 7 Interactive Outdoor Installations Built with Wood
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Competition | Timber in the City 5: Urban HabitatsUrban Habitats Competition Challenges Architecture Students to Increase Urban Density with Wood Designs
Project Profiles by Think Wood
See what’s possible when designers think beyond conventional materials. These real-world examples show wood construction at its finest—from mass timber structures to light-frame buildings. Perfect for research, inspiration, or understanding how sustainable principles translate to the built environment.
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Commercial | Mass TimberHouston Endowment Headquarters
When a concrete structure proved too costly and cumbersome, the design team turned to a lighter, nimbler mass timber-and-steel solution that cut structural costs by 50%. -
CommercialProposed 55-story building highlights mass timber’s towering potential
When a concrete structure proved too costly and cumbersome, the design team turned to a lighter, nimbler mass timber-and-steel solution that cut structural costs by 50%. -
Hospitality | Light-Frame Construction | Mass TimberHip Hotel Tackles Taxing Terrain with Mass Timber
When a concrete structure proved too costly and cumbersome, the design team turned to a lighter, nimbler mass timber-and-steel solution that cut structural costs by 50%.
Explore Opportunities
Upcoming
Build Something Iconic. Do it at Woodstock. Proposals Open for BuildFest 3
From September 9–13, 2026, BuildFest returns to the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock Festival at Bethel Woods, inviting faculty to assemble teams of students, designers, and creatives from across the humanities to propose ideas for large-scale wood installations that will be built by students live on site, with oversight from faculty advisors and professionals. Encourage your professor to apply by March 30, 2026, and get ready for a five-day live-work festival experience like no other: Design and build a full-scale timber installation Work with innovative, prefabricated, lower-carbon materials Collaborate with other students, faculty, and professionals Camp and create in…- Architecture
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Timber in the City 6: Urban Habitats
Think Wood in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is pleased to announce TIMBER IN THE CITY 6: Urban Habitats Competition for the 2026 academic year. This national design competition invites architecture students—working individually or in teams—to explore how innovative wood construction can help meet the growing demand for attainable, sustainable housing in our urban areas. Participants are challenged to design for a real underutilized site, using wood to interpret, invent, and deploy forward-thinking building systems. The goal is to unlock housing types that fall between single-family homes and high-rise apartment buildings—typologies that increase housing diversity…- Architecture
NCSEA Structural Engineering Summit: Wood Roof Assembly Competition for Students
When engineering students are able to connect classroom theory to hands-on experience, they enter the workforce with the foundational technical skills and confidence to specify innovative building materials, systems, and methods. At the NCSEA Structural Engineering Summit, the Structural Building Components Association (SBCA) Wood Roof Assembly Competition gave students the opportunity to make that connection, challenging them to leverage their structural knowledge to create a load-bearing roofing system. Think Wood is committed to providing hands-on educational experiences that introduce students to wood construction’s full potential, and relies on valuable partnerships like those with NCSEA and SBCA to make these experiences…- Engineering
Hack-A-House: A 24-hour Hackathon Competition Addressing Housing Challenges
Hack-A-House is an annual 24-hour virtual “hackathon” that calls on undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines including architecture, engineering, real estate development, and public policy to develop innovative solutions for the housing affordability crisis while competing for $12,000 in cash prizes. Participants collaborate with peers, industry experts, and competition judges to explore and address housing challenges in one of three categories: Innovation Incentives, Single-Family Housing Densification, and Housing Safety Net.- Architecture
- Construction Management
- Engineering
Timber in the City 5: Urban Habitats
Timber in the City 5: Urban Habitats Competition—sponsored by Think Wood and hosted by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA)—challenged architecture students nationwide to explore innovative uses of wood in urban construction. Now in its fifth iteration since its launch in 2012, the competition continues to push the boundaries of timber design. For the 2023-2024 challenge, participants tackled the urgent need for increased urban density by proposing wood-based overbuilds—innovative vertical additions—atop existing structures. Their task? Select a centrally located building or piece of infrastructure in a busy urban hub and design a wood solution that expands usable space…- Architecture
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North Carolina State University Design Build Studio Sponsorship
Recently, 14 graduate and upper-level undergraduate students from the School of Architecture at North Carolina State University (NCSU) had the opportunity to design and build The Floating Grove—an outdoor classroom pavilion constructed with mass timber—in collaboration with the NCSU Sustainability Stewards, the College of Natural Resources, and the College of Design. The project is the first mass timber structure on campus. The pavilion provides a new, flexible learning environment while encouraging cross-disciplinary partnerships on campus. It was brought to life by the School of Architecture’s Summer Design + Build Program and funded by the NCSU Sustainability Grant, donations to the…- Architecture
- Engineering
AIAS Midwest Quad Conference – ARCH+
Architecture students: Register now to experience mass timber innovation at ARCH+, the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) Midwest Quad Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Brought to you by Think Wood and co-hosted by the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and Drury University, this year’s conference offers hands-on opportunities to explore the future of sustainable design. Join a mass timber design charette, experience the “Managing Mass Timber: Forest-to-Future” exhibit showcasing every step of mass timber—from sustainable forest management to prefabricated construction—and see how it stacks up against traditional building materials. Grow your knowledge, fuel your creativity, and discover how…- Architecture
AIAS Northeast Quad Conference – RESURGE
Register now and join Think Wood’s education team at RESURGE this October to connect with the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) chapters and peers from across the Northeast at the University at Buffalo’s Northeast Quad Conference! RESURGE celebrates Buffalo’s transformation—turning its rich industrial heritage and urban challenges into a future of innovation, renewal, and architectural excellence. The city’s rich design culture—home to landmark works by Louis Sullivan, Henry Hobson Richardson, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others—will be explored through guided tours of Buffalo’s iconic buildings, including the Darwin Martin House, Greatbatch Pavilion, Coles House, Lafayette Hotel, Assembly House, Guaranty Building,…- Architecture
BuildFest 2: Peace Rises
From September 10-14, 2025, more than 150 students and faculty members converged on the grounds of the 1969 Woodstock music festival in Bethel, New York, for BuildFest 2: Peace Rises. Over five days, participants camped, collaborated, and created on the historic site as they explored how wood building systems can advance principles of sustainability and efficiency in the built environment. The festival challenged 10 teams from universities across the U.S. and Canada to step out of the classroom and construct interactive, large-scale wood installations using experimental fabrication methods to create unique assemblies. Sponsored by Think Wood, BuildFest provided a hands-on…- Architecture
Buildfest 2024
BuildFest 2024—part of the Bethel Woods Art & Architecture Festival, an annual event promoting sustainability and community engagement with students and educators—challenged participants to explore the evolving relationship between digital and analog fabrication. It was also an opportunity for architecture students to gain hands-on experience designing and building with common materials. Teams from 17 leading architecture programs submitted proposals for this one-of-a-kind event, and seven were chosen to create interactive, wood-centric installations on the iconic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock festival. Participating teams gathered at Bethel Woods for several days to construct and showcase their installations to the public in…- Architecture
