Study Architecture 
ProPEL Winners Announced for the
2025 Design for Freedom Competition
Students Awarded for Research in Material and Design to End Forced Labor
New Canaan, CT, August 26, 2025 – Grace Farms and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Design for Freedom Competition | Ethical and Equitable Materiality to End Forced Labor.
Design for Freedom is Grace Farms’ global movement to eliminate forced and child labor from the building materials supply chain. The Design for Freedom Competition challenged students to explore how architectural materials, research, and design can be used to elevate human rights and design and build more humanely. Participants explored and proposed ways that architects can work to eradicate embedded forced labor from the built environment. The competition was sponsored by Grace Farms and administered by ACSA and reached over 300 students and faculty participating from around the world.
“We were thrilled to see the creativity and strong commitment demonstrated by students to address one of the most overlooked yet pressing humanitarian issues of our time – forced labor in the building materials supply chain,” said Sharon Prince, CEO and Founder of Grace Farms and leader of the Design for Freedom movement. “We must engage the entire ecosystem of the built environment, including universities who are educating the next generation of leaders, to start shifting the marketplace. These projects demonstrate academic rigor and offer potential pathways to build more humanely. We are partnering with ACSA to nurture this vital intersection of architecture and justice.”
The distinguished jurors, who are also a part of the Design for Freedom Working Group, selected first, second, and third place winners, along with honorable mentions, in two categories: Design Project and Material Research.
The design project category offered architecture students the opportunity to select a site and building program using Design for Freedom Principles and the Design for Freedom International Guidance & Toolkit to design more ethically and equitably. Architecture students researched material sourcing, including existing and new industry-wide practices, material transparency measurements, and adopted shorter material supply chain methods to create a more ethical and equitable future.
Category I: Design Project
First Place: Peace Museum – Beyond the Scars
Students: Nidhi Naik & Shamita Shyam Honawar
Faculty Sponsors: Patricia Saldaña Natke & Soumya Dasgupta
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Second Place: Patches in Waiting A Shelter for Equity and Material Justice
Student: Leonor Aguero Vivas
Faculty Sponsor: Jessie Andjelic
University of Calgary
Third Place: Modular Housing for Material Justice
Student: Sofia Ramirez
Faculty Sponsor: Clare Cardinal-Pett
University of New Mexico
Honorable Mention: A Garden of Stories: Placemaking in 3 Acts
Student: Shruti Jayaraman
Faculty Sponsors: Seema Maiya, Anup Naik, Nagaraj Vastarey & Mehul Patel
RV College of Architecture
Honorable Mention: Omokun Academy
Student: Sebastian Kush
Faculty Sponsor: Francisco Uviña
University of New Mexico
Category II: Material Research
First Place: Unmasking Greenwashing: Creating an Ethical Timber Supply Chain
Students: Natalie Darakjian, Noelle Osborne & Reed Wilson
Faculty Sponsor: Takako Tajima
University of Southern California
Second Place: Behind the Rubber
Student: Xingyu Liu
Faculty Sponsor: Patricia Saldaña Natke
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Third Place: Unbuild to Rebuild
Students: Teodor Mlynczyk & Kritika Sarawagi
Faculty Sponsor: Jongwan Kwon
Carnegie Mellon University
Honorable Mention: Nomadic Walls: Circular Construction System with Low-Carbon, Site Ready Wall Panels
Students: Ishika Dinesh & Yifan Feng
Faculty Sponsor: Jongwan Kwon
Carnegie Mellon University
Environmental and Social Justice in Building Materials: Who Bears the True Cost?
Student: Qianyi Zhang
Faculty Sponsor: Catherine De Almeida
University of Washington
“ACSA is honored to partner with Grace Farms and the Design for Freedom movement. We believe architectural education is integral to shaping a built environment that is both thoughtful and responsible. ACSA remains firmly committed to advancing equity, social justice, and climate resilience in support of all communities and the built environment,” stated José Gámez, ACSA 2025–2026 President.
The jury was composed of leaders and PhD students in the field of architecture working on Design for Freedom projects. The winning projects were selected based on blind-evaluations, and the competition jury included:
- Alan Ricks, Founding Principal and Chief Design Officer, MASS Design Group
- Antonio Skillicorn, Ph.D. Candidate in Civil Engineering, Stanford University
- Chris Sharples, AIA, Founding Principal, SHoP Architects
- Farida Abu-Bakare, Associate Principal and Director of Global Practice, WXY Architecture + Urban Design
- Ina Dajci, Ph.D. Researcher, Yale Center for Ecosystems + Architecture
- Julia Gamolina, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Madame Architect &
Associate Principal, Ennead - Kai-Uwe Bergmann, FAIA, Partner, BIG
- Michael Crosbie, Ph.D., FAIA, Professor, University of Hartford
- Nina Cooke John, Founder & Principal, Studio Cooke John Architecture + Design
The winning participants will be invited to present their projects at the fifth annual Design for Freedom Summit on March 26, 2026 at Grace Farms. Grace Farms and ACSA are working on the next Design for Freedom Competition for the 2026-2027 academic year, with additional information to be released next year.
View the projects and get more information HERE.
About Grace Farms
Grace Farms is a cultural and humanitarian center in New Canaan, Connecticut. We bring together people across sectors to explore nature, arts, justice, community, and faith at the SANAA-designed River building, on 80 acres of publicly accessible natural landscape.
Its humanitarian work to end modern slavery and foster more grace and peace in local and global communities includes leading the Design for Freedom movement. Launched in 2020 by Grace Farms’ CEO and Founder Sharon Prince, Design for Freedom reimagines architecture by raising awareness and inspiring responses to disrupt forced labor in the building materials supply chain. The Design for Freedom Working Group comprises more than 100 leaders who together are spearheading a radical paradigm shift and mobilizing the full ecosystem of the built environment.
This collaborative approach to comprehensively address humanitarian issues and generate new outcomes is reflected across all of its initiatives and the place of Grace Farms, visit www.gracefarms.org.
About ACSA
The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is a nonprofit, membership association founded in 1912 to advance the quality of architectural education. The school membership in ACSA has grown from 10 charter members to over 250 schools in several membership categories. These include full membership for all accredited programs in the United States and government-sanctioned schools in Canada, candidate membership for schools seeking accreditation, and affiliate membership for schools for two-year and international programs. Through these schools, over 6,000 architecture faculty members are represented. In addition, over 500 supporting members composed of architecture firms, product associations and individuals add to the breadth of interest and support of ACSA goals. ACSA provides a major forum for ideas on the leading edge of architectural thought. Issues that will affect the architectural profession in the future are being examined today in ACSA member schools. For more information, visit www.acsa-arch.org.
Media Contacts
Requests for press materials, including high-resolution images, can be obtained from our media contact.
Elizabeth Rapuano
Grace Farms
erapuano@gracefarms.org
Hanifah Jones
ACSA
hjones@acsa-arch.org
