2025 COTE Competition

Formerly known as one of the most polluted cities in America, Pittsburgh has made commendable progress in  improving the well-being of its environment. This advancement, alongside natural  buffers, makes modern-day Pittsburgh one of the most climate change resilient cities in the nation. De-Clustered, our proposal for an environmental middle school, aims to build upon this achievement.
Through adaptive program, publicly accessible green space, and environmentally conscious design, our project intends to foster greater environmental stewardship, sustainable growth, multi-disciplinary learning, and interconnectedness within the local community of East Liberty, Pittsburgh. Resting at the intersection of three distinct urban conditions, De-Clustered seeks to reconcile an urban fringe that has become divided by drastic differences in zoning and scale. Through its integration of local roads and de-privatization of space, De-Clustered revitalizes a community that has been impacted by Pittsburgh’s rapidly shifting urban fabric—all while building upon the communities ability to adapt to future changes brought upon by climate change.

By deconstructing the traditional wall assembly into its functional layers—air barrier, water barrier, insulation, and structure—Four Membranes establishes four distinct climatic zones, creating a haptic learning experience attuned to the site’s natural cycles. As diurnal temperature shifts and weather variations permeate different areas of the building to varying degrees throughout the year, occupants develop a heightened awareness of their surroundings. In addition to utilizing repurposed materials and nested construction, thematically and functionally related programs overlap through shared amenities and fixtures, significantly reducing the building’s overall footprint and carbon emissions while fostering dialogue between community, educational, and artist-residency programs. As an environmental center designed to adapt to RARE Conservation’s dynamically shifting pedagogical goals as well as for the climate future, Four Membranes aims to deepen the connection to the land within the RARE conservation area in Cambridge, Ontario, bringing environmental awareness and sustainability to the forefront of the learning experience.

Fish House is a machine powered by fish. Its design, its purpose, and its survival are driven by the catch itself. Anchored in the fishing heritage of Hatteras Island, the project transforms a working fish processing dock into a living system where fishermen, visitors, and the sea remain in constant exchange. Commercial fishermen unload, process, sell, and export their catch on-site, fueling a self-sustaining loop of energy, livelihood, and culture. Visitors gather to learn about and integrate with the local lifestyle beyond the restaurant. The fish are not only product but pulse, serving as the fuel for building cycles by activating systems of water purification, renewable energy, and ecosystem restoration. As climate change threatens to erase the island’s physical ground, Fish House rises with the tide, adapting to the sea, creating a space that endures long after the land is gone and preserving generational knowledge and practices of fishing.

The RARE Nature reserve in Cambridge Ontario is a site subject to constant change. Agricultural encroachment and suburban development are constantly at odds with the natural features that are trying to flourish within the reserve. The goal of Time Frame is to explore and address this tension through a series of experiential and technical architectural decisions. 

On an experiential level, the learning center is designed to “frame” the natural and unnatural surroundings through a linear circulation path along a series of catered views and interactions that draw attention to the potential changes that will occur as the site ages and grows. These interactions occur in both the horizontal and vertical planes, with key spaces designed to frame the sky and ground to occupants in junction with more traditional horizontal views of the landscape. 

On a technical level, the project challenges the idea that sustainable architecture needs to sit lightly on the site and be able to disappear if its program one day falls out of use. Instead, its approach to materiality and enclosure focuses on being as durable as possible while providing an adaptable and sustainable framework that future occupants can work within. This does not mean that the entire building needs to be made of immovable stone, but rather that the different components of the building are curated in accordance with how long they need to last in relation to the overall building’s projected life span. If all the components of a building – beams, columns, roofs and floors – are replaced, is it still the same building?

Tucked within the verdant embrace of The Woodlands, Texas, the Twin Canopy Research Center offers more than a place to work. Designed as a beacon of sustainable architecture, the mass timber structure dissolves gently into its forested surroundings, cooled by an innovative hybrid system that breathes with the landscape.

The Center accommodates up to 16 resident researchers, offering both lodging and spaces for quiet focus and creative experimentation. A sunlit library, state-of-the-art laboratory, and hands-on fabrication shop support the full arc of inquiry, from reflection to realization. Its flexible gathering spaces host lectures, workshops, and conferences, fostering a vibrant community of environmental thinkers and makers.

Every aspect of the building reflects a deep commitment to performance and sustainability. Biogenic materials allow the structure to act as carbon sink, while the façade is optimized for daylight without excessive heat gain. Water-efficient fixtures, adaptable open-plan interiors, and the preservation of native landscape all reinforce ethos of ecological integration.

At the heart of its climate-responsive strategy is a hybrid conditioning system. Radiative cooling is harnessed via IR-transparent membrane-protected north roof surface, allowing heat to escape to the sky while preventing condensation in Texas’s humid climate. A liquid desiccant loop, recharged by solar heat from the south roof where integrated PV panels generate on-site renewable energy, dehumidifies incoming air. Each roof is sized and calibrated precisely to the building’s cooling and dehumidification needs, supplemented with an Evapo-Radiant Panel that captures the undepleted evaporative cooling potential of exhaust air. Together, these systems form a finely tuned architecture of performance.

In every detail, the Twin Canopy Research Center exemplifies how architecture can act not just as shelter. It stands as both a sanctuary for research and a prototype for regenerative design, inviting us to imagine a future where innovation grows in harmony with the living world.

Ingrained in the rich evergreen fabric of the Rocky Mountains in Nederland, CO, Symbiosis reimagines co-living and recreation as a collective act of environmental and communal interdependence. The project transforms a former mill site into a regenerative campus in response to the town’s affordable housing shortage, providing a solution for the growing inflow of service and seasonal workforce at the nearby Eldora Ski Resort. 

Through the adaptive reuse of the existing mill structure and the sensitive integration of co-housing units, the design is built around the generation of community-oriented living spaces, addressing economic disparity while nurturing sustainable integrity through the tailored assimilation of passive and active systems. The site’s dynamic topography and the stream that bisects it are used as structuring elements to the design. A series of datums, derived from hydrological axes and elevation contours, guide the spatial organization, generating a sequence of thresholds which create fluid transitions between co-housing units, recreational zones, and shared public spaces, inviting chance encounters, communal activities, and seasonal shifts in use. 

Bridged across the stream from the co-housing complex, the recreational facility offers a wide spectrum of activities that engage all age groups and energy levels. This internal symbiotic dialogue between activity and repose embodies a shared terrain for movement, healing, and connection interwoven across generations, mirroring the larger relationship between the two adjacent buildings. 

At its core, Symbiosis coalesces a vision of shared living and recreation, where architecture becomes the connective tissue between people, landscape, and the rhythms of life.

Located in Nederland, CO, USA, climate zone 5b, the project comprises two interconnected buildings measured at a gross square footage of 96,450sqf: a co-living housing complex and a recreational activity center, bridged across the Middle Boulder Creek. These structures are designed not as separate entities, but as symbiotic components of a larger, sustainable community ecosystem, integrating community well-being, social equity, and long-term ecological stewardship.

The co-living complex consists of a series of studios as well as one, two, and three bedroom units. Rather than maximizing private square footage, the design prioritizes shared communal spaces to reduce material consumption and encourage collective living. These include shared kitchens, dining and lounging areas, co-working spaces and conference rooms, a library, a community greenhouse, children’s indoor and outdoor play zones, a TV room, and shared laundry and storage. This approach supports economic accessibility for residents, including seasonal workers, while fostering interdependence and social cohesion.

Across the creek, the recreational center is embedded partially into the sloping topography, strategically excavating into the site to achieve the vertical clearance necessary for a full-height rope-climbing gym while remaining within local zoning and height restrictions. This intervention leverages earth sheltering for thermal performance, while maintaining an integrated impact on the site.

The recreational center also features bouldering zones, a yoga studio, physical therapy and massage rooms, a fitness center, and a café, as well as communal locker rooms and equipment rental. An outdoor ice-skating rink seasonally transitions into an amphitheater, supporting cultural programming and extending the building’s function across climates and demographics.

Together, these spaces form a climate-responsive, intergenerational hub designed around the principles of symbiosis, where architecture becomes a framework for mutual support between people, program, and place.

Manifesto

Cheever Hall has hosted the School of Architecture at Montana State University since 1974. Originally built as a campus library, the building has undergone a mass clustering of multi-generational renovations and additions, resulting in a unique, humbling character for architecture students to inhabit. 

Over recent years, Montana State University’s student admission rates have increased, including the School of Architecture. Classrooms, lecture theaters, and studios are subsequently growing sparse with the larger student classes. 

To aid in mitigating classroom congestion and give the School of Architecture a proud presence on campus, the Center of Information and Collaboration will be situated adjacent to Cheever Hall, engaging in a dualistic convention between history and modernity. 

The Center for Information and Collaboration will have a student occupancy during active semesters, then operate as a public hub during off-seasons. Each floor design offers plentiful public spaces to encourage socializing, studying, and leisure. 

Community conference rooms and a 300-seat auditorium will additionally be used for a hybrid of educational and public events. 

Greeting occupants at the ground floor includes a cafe area complemented with a cascading sunken library, a grand social staircase, and flexible gallery spaces that can showcase student projects or visiting installations.

The conceptual approach to developing the CiC’s design from floor plan to facade formation roots from views, fluidity, and densities. Montana State University’s motto, “Mountains and Minds,” has an overarching influence on attending students and the residents of Bozeman. Integrating the natural surrounding landscapes into the building through designing accessible outdoor views, developing a plan with open circulation, and configuring occupant connections were essential to have a holistic environment built to focus, discover, and inspire.

The revitalization of the Très-Saint-Sacrement Church proposes a dialogue between memory and innovation by transforming this heritage site into a technological and community hub a center for research and education in artificial intelligence where a dialectic unfolds between the digital and the analog, between automated and manual labor.

Rather than restoring the building to a fixed moment in time, the project embraces its material obsolescence as an opportunity for evolutionary transformation. The church’s deteriorating façade becomes the starting point for a new, non-destructive intervention, where permanence gives way to adaptability.

A technological scaffold, guided by AI, envelops the structure. Initially conceived as a protective apparatus, it evolves into an active infrastructure regulating solar exposure, optimizing thermal flows, and supporting a variety of interior environments. These insertions rest delicately on the sacred floor at carefully calibrated contact points, preserving the integrity of the stonework through a logic of reversibility and care.

Through this choreography of steel and code, the project redefines the notion of the divine. The intelligence that once resided in the heavens now circulates through servers and sensors an omniscient presence embedded within the architecture itself. It is here that an unexpected harmony emerges between human memory and mechanical invention, where the church’s renewal becomes a testament to their entwined destinies.

Memory, in this context, is more than something to be preserved it is a resource to be interpreted, reactivated, and transmitted. The church is no longer a static monument to the past, but a living platform for futures: dynamic, inhabited, and deeply aware of its own transformation.

Firewise Futures: A Community-Centered Model for Wildfire Resilience

In a time where wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, the need for innovative, community-centered solutions has never been more urgent. This project reimagines the role of a visitor center, transforming it into a multi-functional resilience hub located at the historic Wind River Arboretum in Carson, Washington. Positioned in a region once used for experimental native plant burn studies, the site itself speaks to a legacy of stewardship and adaptation. The design builds on that history while offering forward-thinking strategies to equip communities for a changing climate.

The visitor center responds to the cyclical nature of wildfire disasters through three operational modes: normal, disaster, and recovery. In its normal state, it functions as an education center, with interactive exhibits, fire safety training, and community gathering spaces. In disaster mode, it becomes a shelter-in-place bunker underground, offering refuge and resources. During recovery, it serves as a base for relief coordination.

Rooted in Pacific Northwest CCC design language, the architecture uses a modular mass timber frame with Yakisugi wood cladding, carbon filters, and ember-resistant mesh to create adaptable panels that serve both environmental and protective functions. PV panels reduce energy use by 35%, while the roof’s sloped form and materiality help resist heat and wind-driven embers.

A rainwater collection system captures, filters, and redistributes water to retention ponds that function as fire barriers, sustainable water sources, and passive cooling features. The surrounding landscape features native plant nurseries, firewise species, and defensible planting zones that give visitors actionable tools to implement at home.

Above all, this project is not just about architecture; it equips communities with the tools, knowledge, and spaces to face climate-related disasters. Firewise Futures reframes public infrastructure as a living system—resilient, evolving, and community-driven.

The intention behind this integrated studio focused on creating a functioning building that wove structure, systems, and the human perspective with consultations from various structural and envelope engineers. The purpose of the DFDI is to create an institution that represents true Design for Disassembly principles (DFD). After a thorough analysis of the circular economy and the completed integration of DFD, the Institute for DFD was programmed specifically to be radically ecological: using energy creation from solar, wind, and water collection systems. All parts were made to be modular, multi-use, and to reduce wasted materials.

Energy efficiency was never a priority in construction in the past. There were too many other factors that diminished the need or the attraction of green efficiency; cost, time, labor. But as resources begin to wain and stall, we enter a new emergence for green ecological integration in construction and buildings. American cities are beginning to provoke changes through market capital through the implementation of sustainable incentives, like retrofit and renewable energy, a notion that has been introduced and promulgated throughout Europe through programs like Energiesprong. Energy is capital. Our structure makes energy. Our structure is then, capital.

This marks the precipice of the current building climate, so the notion of a building creating and harvesting its own energy taking steps to actively balance its own consumption, is one that intrigued us to explore as a holistic aspiration for an integrated studio. Every facet of the structure is intended and interconnected with its ability to harvest and utilize energy from natural factors that already happen. Through both physical and diagrammatic iterations, the production of these parts are reused for multiple programs and are as modular as possible.