UB international competition selects seven teams to rethink resilient design

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning has finalized teams for The Resilient Campus, an international design competition — and ensuing traveling exhibition, public event and publication — that seeks to thoughtfully advance, widely disseminate and purposely promote transdisciplinary and transformative knowledge on designing for resilience.

“We received strong entries from around the globe from a wide variety of firms and disciplines that each suggest diverse approaches to the call,” says Jason Sowell, the competition’s professional advisor and an associate professor of architecture at UB. 

The selected teams represent 27 cities, 13 countries and four continents. This international cohort highlights transdisciplinary perspectives in design while fostering global dialogue, uniting academics, students and professionals, and addressing shared challenges through creativity and innovation.

The competition steering committee has selected the following seven teams that will compete in Stage Two:

• 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  

The Resilient Campus will leverage UB’s South Campus — an urban campus on its way to becoming carbon-neutral — as its centerpiece. The teams will soon travel to Buffalo for a daylong information session with competition organizers, UB School of Architecture and Planning faculty-student groups, and university specialists. The competition also provides a great opportunity for UB students to learn from outstanding mentors in their fields.

Teams will have 16 weeks to develop their designs. Submissions will undergo a technical review before being juried by a carefully curated group of design and allied professionals, city representatives and university administrators.

The winning team will receive $50,000.

Additional information is available at https://archplan.buffalo.edu/the-resilient-campus.

The project is being funded by the School of Architecture and Planning, with assistance provided by the 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.