Lightweight, strong, malleable, exciting. These were some of the words that architectural students used to describe composites after competing in ACMA’s third annual Composites Design Challenge at the 2018 American Institute of Architects annual conference.
The contest, which is the brainchild of ACMA’s Architectural Division, was created to inspire the next generation of architects, says David Riebe, vice president of Windsor Fiberglass and challenge coordinator. Twenty-seven teams of students from six universities took part in this year’s challenge, beginning the semester with a technical workshop presented by ACMA and then breaking into teams to design and fabricate a composite architectural component. All materials were provided by ACMA members Ashland Chemical, Composites One, Gougeon Brothers, Owens Corning, Polynt Group and Vectorply.
The award-winning entries are profiled here.