Study Architecture 
ProPEL WINNERS OF THE 2025 DESIGN FOR FREEDOM COMPETITION
Grace Farms Foundation’s Design for Freedom movement, in collaboration with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Design for Freedom Student Competition. The competition recognizes 10 exceptional projects, in two categories, that explore a variety of issues related to the exploration of how architects can work to eradicate forced and child labor from the built environment.
Category I:
DESIGN PROJECT
This category asked students to select a site and design a building program using the Design for Freedom Principles and Toolkit to design more ethically and equitably.
1st Place
Category I: Design Project
Peace Museum – Beyond the Scars
Students: Nidhi Naik & Shamita Shyam Honawar
Faculty Sponsors: Patricia Saldaña Natke & Soumya Dasgupta
Institution: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Juror Comments: Peace Museum – Beyond the Scars is recognized as a first place winner for the powerful and deeply principled design that places ethical material sourcing and labor equity at the heart of the architectural design. By weaving the story through material choices and labor practices, the students ground their concept in a meaningful, real-world context. The use of cartoon bubbles is both inventive and engaging, offering a compelling way to communicate the project’s narrative that can be easily understood by a non-architect.
Project Description
The Peace Museum is not merely a structure; it is a soul-stirring journey through memory, resilience, and renewal. As visitors step into the Threshold—a sculptural gateway inspired by the agora—they are ushered into a realm of dialogue and transformation. This transitional space is where the boundaries of race, faith, and geography blur, welcoming every visitor into the fold of collective healing.
The journey begins in the Scars Atrium, where hanging scrap materials salvaged from Chicago’s neighborhoods become symbols of struggle and perseverance. These physical remnants reflect the city’s wounds—crime, displacement, inequality—while also bearing witness to its tenacity and spirit of rebuilding.
Following this, visitors enter rooms designed around themes of empathy, courage, and vulnerability, each crafted with a tactile material narrative. Recycled bricks, bio-resins, rammed earth walls, and reclaimed wood tell stories of the earth, of labor, and of circular construction. The museum utilizes solar panels, green roofing, and passive ventilation, echoing its commitment to sustainability. These choices are not mere design elements but acts of stewardship and responsibility.
The Confluence Gallery is the culmination of the spatial experience—a meeting ground of ideas, communities, and futures. Surrounded by interactive maps and stories of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods, this space invites dialogue, participation, and shared dreaming. Workshops and storytelling corners here are made from locally crafted materials, supporting artisans and closing the loop on waste.
Each room, threshold, and corridor is part of a conscious journey—one that honors the past, engages the present, and nurtures a sustainable, inclusive future. In its materiality and message, the Peace Museum does not just tell stories; it lives them, breathes them, and builds a better world through them.
2nd Place
Category I: Design Project
Patches in Waiting A Shelter for Equity and Material Justice
Student: Leonor Aguero Vivas
Faculty Sponsor: Jessie Andjelic
Institution: University of Calgary
Juror Comments: Patches in Waiting A Shelter for Equity and Material Justice has a thoughtful and compelling approach to circularity, with clear labeling and material tracing that reflect strong foundational concepts. The commitment to transparency, from material sourcing to reuse is evident throughout the graphics. The student’s design holds strong potential for scalability and a broader implementation in all construction.
Project Description
Calgary faces two overlapping challenges: excessive wood waste from residential renovations and a severe lack of adequate bus shelters, especially in neighbourhoods like Capitol Hill. This project responds to both by proposing modular, community-built bus shelters constructed from reclaimed wood.
Research into building materials revealed that much of the wood discarded during home renovations—beams, trusses, and non-load-bearing walls—is still structurally sound. Yet most of it is in landfills, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion. After conversations with local contractors, renovations were identified as the most accessible and consistent source of reusable wood. I developed a visual sticker system for job sites to facilitate the collection, signalling when the wood is available for pickup.
Material selection is based on structural viability and weather resilience. The shelters use a hybrid construction method: a standardized frame built from new or dimensionally stable reclaimed wood, with infill panels made from more varied salvaged pieces. Wood with up to 25% surface damage is accepted, but severely warped or rotted stock is rejected. All wood is treated with breathable sealers or oils that protect without masking its reclaimed character to ensure longevity.
Site analysis of Capitol Hill showed that of 42 bus stops, only 12 currently have shelters. Most are located along major collector or arterial roads and already have the necessary infrastructure—signage, sidewalk space, lighting—but remain bare and exposed to Calgary’s extreme weather. These overlooked nodes are ideal for low-cost, easily repairable shelters that invite community maintenance and ownership.
Architecturally, the shelters are modest in scale but intentional in their expression. Their materiality tells a story of reuse, and their presence fills a visible gap in the public realm. By grounding the project in local waste streams, community labour, and simple construction logic, the shelters embody a design ethic that is both pragmatic and civic—where care for a material becomes care for people.
3rd Place
Category I: Design Project
Modular Housing for Material Justice
Student: Sofia Ramirez
Faculty Sponsor: Clare Cardinal-Pett
Institution: University of New Mexico
Juror Comments: Modular Housing for Material Justice presents a visionary model for ethical construction and community-centered design. The use of locally harvested mango wood and modular building methods reflects a deep commitment to material circulatory, labor empowerment, and environmental responsibility. The architecture fosters community and the presentation thoughtfully reflects cultural identity and expression.
Project Description
This housing project reimagines the construction process as a platform for social equity, environmental responsibility, and community empowerment. Located between Vasant Vihar and Kusumpur Pahari in New Delhi, the project site sits at the intersection of wealth and marginalization, offering a unique opportunity to dismantle socioeconomic barriers through residential design. This proposed project spans approximately 116,000 sq ft, with flexibility for expansion based on evolving community needs and outdoor programs, including a public mango orchard to offer public food access, public water fountains, public restrooms, gathering spaces, and shade. At its core, this project is built on the ethical imperative of material sources. By using mango wood—locally harvested in Uttar Pradesh from trees beyond fruit peak—the design embraces material circularity, replacing extractive, exploitative supply chains with sustainable, regenerative ones. Modular construction allows for ease of assembly, disassembly, and future reuse—minimizing waste while empowering local labor. Passive cooling systems, stepwell water features, thoughtful plant life, and water reuse systems aim to demonstrate ecological resilience embedded within architecture. These systems serve not only as environmental goals but also community needs, creating shaded gathering spaces, safe surfaces for unhoused individuals to rest, and overall reducing community dependence on energy intensive infrastructure. Ultimately this project aims to integrate with its surroundings—positioned within walking distance of schools, medical services, public transport, and markets—ensuring accessibility in daily life. It proposes a new urban model where housing is not an isolated intervention but a socially and ecologically embedded framework. By advocating for ethical construction practices and extending social infrastructure into underserved areas, the project becomes a prototype for inclusive development—offering dignity, agency, and opportunity to communities long excluded from the urban narrative.
Honorable Mention
Category I: Design Project
A Garden of Stories: Placemaking in 3 Acts
Student: Shruti Jayaraman
Faculty Sponsors: Seema Maiya, Anup Naik, Nagaraj Vastarey & Mehul Patel
Institution: RV College of Architecture
Juror Comments: A Garden of Stories: Placemaking in 3 Acts offers a compelling narrative that reclaims architecture as a tool for inclusion, memory, and material justice. The design critiques exploitative supply chains and recenters construction around dignity and coexistence. The drawings are engaging, and the planning exploration is both thoughtful and imaginative.
Project Description
Manipur is a significant bamboo-producing state in India, contributing a substantial portion of the country’s bamboo industry. It’s estimated that Manipur grows 55 species of bamboo and 25% of the total bamboo stock in the Northeast region, and 14% of the entire country’s bamboo resource.
But why is it not visible in the capital city of Imphal?
This project situates itself in the contested capital of Manipur, Imphal. The city has always been a contested space due to multiple spatial oppressors that used the land to assert control, causing conflict among many ethnic and social groups. These ethnic groups create multiplicity which the city has not accepted spatially.
What does that have to do with Bamboo?
This project claims the need to perceive space as an active participant and a custodian of legacy (bearer of local materials and methods of construction) to make place for the oppressed in society.
Bamboo has been used by the local communities of Manipur since time immemorial. Pure bamboo brakes constitute 18.6% of the total forest area of the state and the bamboo play a vital role in the life of Manipuris in their day-to-day requirements. Bamboo has multiple uses and is used in almost all the households’ needs, for construction, craft, fencing, rituals, firewood, rope, food, utensils and paper manufacturing. Bamboo shoots, both in raw and fermented forms, are largely consumed by the people and can earn a large share of the household economy to an amount of Rupees 2130 million (USD 45 million) annually for the nation as a whole. Bamboo is needed from childbirth to death and every household maintains a bamboo colony of certain species in their private land.
These materials, being so basic and essential to Manipuri life, have been erased from the legacy of space by building the city with materials that add to the forced labour industry. These materials have caused the hierarchical formation of ethnic groups which has broken out as violence and active dissent in society.
The site chosen in the city, The Kangla fort, is one such site of power that has seen the history of the state. Today it stands, a barrier for the oppressed with a memory of politics and violence.
The city was once a space of women and children where today each one is always alert and unsafe in their own city. The history of the State as part of the freedom struggle never made it to the mainstream narrative of the country. This project aims at giving back the city to those who have a rightful place in it. To do so we need to create space that builds itself from the materials of coexistence/ cooperation between communities and place-makes for ethnic/communal inclusion.
Honorable Mention
Category I: Design Project
Omokun Academy
Student: Sebastian Kush
Faculty Sponsor: Francisco Uviña
Institution: University of New Mexico
Juror Comments: Omokun Academy is beautifully designed and skillfully presented, with particular attention to natural ventilation strategies that allow the building to breathe and respond to its environment. The academy design thoughtfully represents a region of the world that is often underrepresented, and it offers an important opportunity to learn from local practices, particularly through the use of site-sourced materials such as rammed earth, compressed earth blocks, and local wood. The graphics carefully demonstrate how design can be both contextually grounded and socially impactful.
Project Description
The Omokun Academy project in Abeokuta, Nigeria tackles the desperate need for education in Nigeria while also using ethical and equitable materials that can respond to the local conditions, labor capacity and climate. In this community alone there are more then 4,500 children that lack access to basic education, and those who do have the privilege of education are learning in collapsing, and dilapidated buildings, without basic needs, such as bathrooms, drinking water and lunch.
The project uses materials that are sourced locally and/or made on site, these materials are rammed earth, Compressed earth blocks (CEBs) and wood. These materials are low-carbon, and suited to the region’s hot, humid climate. They reduce reliance on costly imports and mechanical cooling systems, offering thermal mass that naturally moderates interior temperatures. This contributes to healthier, more comfortable environments that support student focus and well-being.
Ethical labor is also top priority. By prioritizing simple construction techniques with long lasting materials the design reduced long term upkeep and allows for greater community involvement. This helps embed construction knowledge within the community and avoids dependency on external systems.
The project is design to harmonize with its environment, long overhangs, shaded courtyards and openair rooms work with one another to create microclimates that support student comfort and intern leaning. These choices not only reduce environmental impact but also support equity by creating a high-quality educational environment without expensive, energy-intensive infrastructure.
This project demonstrates that sustainable design is not a luxury, it is a necessity in underserved communities. Omokun Academy uses local materials and passive design to create comfortable spaces where children can learn.
Category I: Design Project Jury
Kai-Uwe
Bergmann
BIG
Nina Cooke John
Studio Cooke John Architecture + Design
Michael J. Crosbie
University of Hartford
Julia Gamolina
Madame Architect
Chris Sharples
SHoP Architects
Category II:
MATERIAL RESEARCH
Offered architecture students to research material sourcing to existing and new industry-wide practices and material transparency measurements, and adopt shorter material supply chain methods to create a more ethical and equitable future.
1st Place
Category II: Material Research
Unmasking Greenwashing:
Creating an Ethical Timber Supply Chain
Students: Natalie Darakjian, Noelle Osborne & Reed Wilson
Faculty Sponsor: Takako Tajima
Institution: University of Southern California
Juror Comments: Unmasking Greenwashing: Creating an Ethical Timber Supply Chain stands out for the bold and forward-thinking approach, offering a well-researched and clearly presented tool designed to support practitioners in making more informed material and supplier decisions. The inclusion of features such as QR-codes on the materials demonstrates a practical and innovative mindset. Overall, the project pushes the boundaries of how architects and designers engage with ethical sourcing and transparency. It is a daring and timely contribution that has the potential to significantly impact industry practices today.
Project Description
Timber is a widely used construction material celebrated for its low embodied carbon and renewability. However, its “green” reputation often hides a global supply chain composed of forced labor, human trafficking, debt bondage, and illegal logging. Our research project, “Unmasking Greenwashing: Creating an Ethical Timber Supply Chain,” investigates blind spots in timber procurement and the impact AI and blockchain technologies have on the supply chain and LEED standards.
When mapping timber supply chains from forest to construction sites we identified key risk regions including, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brazil, Peru, Russia, and North Korea. Despite sustainability certifications such as FSC, there are often little to no labor regulations. LEED, a commonly known standard, fails to require disclosure of country-of-origin or labor transparency which then creates a gap in ethical accountability.
To combat this problem, we propose an integrated toolkit, combining AI technology, blockchain traceability, and updated LEED guidelines. Existing tools such as FlyPix AI and Forest Foresight have been used to detect illegal deforestation and timber origins. However, programs have yet to be created that combine these systems while also addressing LEED standards, so we created the app, Timber Ethics Tracker.
Timber Ethics Tracker is designed to bridge the gap between environmental sustainability and labor transparency in timber procurement. Composed of a comprehensive toolkit including supply chain mapping, a material scorecard, red flag detection, a decision tree, and a QR scanner. Timber Ethics Tracker uses research-backed insights from identified high-risk regions to expose gaps in LEED and create solutions that are designed with dignity. Timber Ethics Tracker is more than a digital tool; it’s a new research methodology designed to be scalable and impactful across the AEC industry. Creating a new standard for measuring and visualizing ethical sourcing to hold accountability and empower practitioners to make informed, ethical choices in timber procurement.
2nd Place
Category II: Material Research
Behind the Rubber
Student: Xingyu Liu
Faculty Sponsor: Patricia Saldaña Natke
Institution: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Juror Comments: Behind the Rubber impressed the jury with the comprehensive research and strong emphasis on policy, presenting a well-developed and innovative concept that introduces fresh perspectives of unconventional thinking. The students demonstrate a clear commitment to consumer understanding, using thoughtful storytelling to make complex systems more transparent. A key strength of the design is the clear and thorough articulation of the proposed ecosystem.
Project Description
The objective of Behind the Rubber is to reveal, visualize, and transform the ethical dimension of material choices in architecture—specifically, rubber and its derivatives used in construction and design. The program comprises three interconnected components:
1. Supply Chain Deconstruction:
Through mapped diagrams and risk-level flowcharts, the project breaks down the natural rubber supply chain from small-scale plantations to global brands. The analysis spotlights where labor exploitation and environmental damage concentrate—primarily in rubber harvesting and initial processing—due to the lack of transparency and regulation.
2. Comparative Material Assessment:
The program examines alternatives to traditional natural rubber, including recycled rubber, synthetic variants, and bio-sourced options such as guayule and TKS. Each is evaluated for structural viability in architectural applications, carbon emissions, and associated labor risks. The goal is to guide material substitution without compromising performance or ethical standards.
3. Actionable Specification Toolkit:
To equip professionals with actionable tools, the project introduces a screening flowchart for ethical rubber-based material selection. It integrates ESG reporting, third-party certifications (Fair Rubber, Declare, GRS), and encourages transparent supply chains. A supporting timeline of international policy milestones underscores growing regulatory attention to rubber-sector abuses.
This program aims not only to expose the hidden systems of labor exploitation but also to empower architects and material specifiers with frameworks for just decision-making. It bridges research, design, and ethics—transforming data into advocacy and advocacy into specification.
3rd Place
Category II: Material Research
Unbuild to Rebuild
Students: Teodor Mlynczyk & Kritika Sarawagi
Faculty Sponsor: Jongwan Kwon
Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Juror Comments: Unbuild to Rebuild is a well-researched concept for repurposing materials such as bricks for adaptive reuse presents a compelling model for circularity and sustainable redevelopment. Circular design practices avoid the use of new materials, minimizing the risk of forced and child labor in material supply chains. Grounded in the local context of Pittsburgh, and drawing from a database of condemned brick buildings, the design demonstrates a clear understanding of site-specific conditions while proposing a solution that is highly transferable to other urban settings. By focusing deeply on one city, the project highlights broader themes of urban resilience and responsible reuse. The design is also an excellent example of how to effectively organize and communicate a large amount of information through impactful graphics.
Project Description
Unbuild to Rebuild is a project rooted in sustainable design and the re-imagining of material life cycles through the strategic salvage and reuse of derelict brick masonry structures. Set in Pittsburgh, PA, a city with a rich industrial past and a large number of aging structures, the project investigates how condemned buildings, often overlooked despite their embedded labor, cultural significance, and material potential, can serve as sources for new construction rather than being reduced to rubble.
From a city wide survey, a group of condemned structures were identified for their significant architectural features, such as decorative brickwork, arched windows, and ornamental elements. These architectural features, once extracted from the derelict buildings in a panelized form, become the building blocks of a modular facade system. Salvaged bricks are cradled between steel angles and structurally reinforced through a post-tensioned cable system, allowing even fragile or incomplete fragments to be stabilized and puzzled together. The system can be adaptable, as the steel structure allows for various wall thickness to be accommodated, while the interior framing allows for customizable interior conditions and finishes.
This system offers a repeatable model for adaptive reuse in cities facing cycles of demolition and redevelopment, diverting materials from waste streams and reintegrating them into the urban fabric with renewed meaning. This method also offers a pathway for designers and builders to work ethically within a global industry that too often obscures the origins of its resources. It challenges conventional demolition practices and proposes a future in which materials are treated not as disposable, but as carriers of identity, craft, memory, and embodied energy.
Honorable Mention
Category II: Material Research
Environmental and Social Justice in Building Materials:
Who Bears the True Cost?
Student: Qianyi Zhang
Faculty Sponsor: Catherine De Almeida
Institution: University of Washington
Juror Comments: Environmental and Social Justice in Building Materials: Who Bears the True Cost? receives merit for a thoughtful investigation into the material supply chain, which is both timely and essential, drawing attention to the often overlooked harms experienced by fenceline communities. The research adds valuable depth to labor ethics, transparency, and the hidden costs of building materials. There’s ambition and potential to inspire continued dialogue around equity, responsibility, and impact in the built environment.
Project Description
The injustice around the building materials supply chain not only exists directly as forced labor, communities living around the extraction sites and factories suffer from a tremendous amount of pollutants and environmental impact from industrial activities. This impact on the fenceline communities around the globe is often overlooked. The pollution caused by suppliers and manufacturers affects the surrounding communities’ air, water, and land with irreversible health impacts. The demographics of these fenceline communities are often the most vulnerable and marginalized people. While the building industry is placing more emphasis on social justice as an industry-wide value, the proliferation of environmental injustice in the supply chain has rarely been addressed directly by the building industry or professionals in the built environment. The decisions made by the building industry have consequences on marginal communities, and it will take the whole ecosystem of the built environment to make a paradigm shift.
This research aims to develop a more contextualized understanding of the impact of the building materials manufacturing process on fenceline communities through the lens of selected materials. The research also intends to provide a set of suggestions for architects and designers to evaluate the true “expense” of building materials. Existing studies on selected building materials and slave labor issues demonstrate a range of attempts by several organizations to understand the justice issues around material supply chains. However, the direct link between the products themselves and environmental justice isn’t always clear due to the inherent complexity and lack of transparency in supply chains. Furthermore, accessing and digesting this information can be challenging and time-consuming. This study delves into two critical building materials: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and aluminum. Through case studies, it examines their impact on fenceline communities across the globe.
The injustice around the building materials supply chain not only exists directly as forced labor, but also is experienced by the communities living around the extraction sites and factories through a tremendous amount of pollutants and environmental impact from industrial activities. This impact on the fenceline communities around the globe is often overlooked. The pollution caused by suppliers and manufacturers affects the surrounding communities’ air, water, and land with irreversible health impacts. The demographics of these fenceline communities are often the most vulnerable and marginalized people. While the building industry is placing more emphasis on social justice as an industry-wide value, the proliferation of environmental injustice in the supply chain has rarely been addressed directly by the building industry or professionals in the built environment. The decisions made by the building industry have consequences on marginal communities, and it will take the whole ecosystem of the built environment to make a paradigm shift.
This research aims to develop a more contextualized understanding of the impact of the building materials manufacturing process on fenceline communities through the lens of selected materials. The research also intends to provide a set of suggestions for architects and designers to evaluate the true “expense” of building materials. Existing studies on selected building materials and slave labor issues demonstrate a range of attempts by several organizations to understand the justice issues around material supply chains. However, the direct link between the products themselves and environmental justice isn’t always clear due to the inherent complexity and lack of transparency in supply chains. Furthermore, accessing and digesting this information can be challenging and time-consuming. This study delves into two critical building materials: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and aluminum. Through case studies, it examines their impact on fenceline communities across the globe.
Honorable Mention
Category II: Material Research
Nomadic Walls – Circular Construction System with Low-Carbon, Site Ready Wall Panels
Students: Ishika Dinesh & Yifan Feng
Faculty Sponsor: Jongwan Kwon
Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Juror Comments: Nomadic Walls – Circular Construction System with Low-Carbon, Site Ready Wall Panels receives an honorable mention for relying on locally harvested and reclaimed materials, while involving nearby artisans. The choice to work with community sourced bamboo, straw and recycled polycarbonate reflects a meaningful commitment to environmental responsibility and regenerative practices. The design supports more equitable labor practices while strengthening community resilience. Visually, the design is compelling, with strong graphics and well-communicated concepts that elevate the overall presentation.
Project Description
NOMADIC WALLS
Circular Construction System with Low-Carbon Site Ready Wall Panels
In regions where construction must be fast, low-impact, and community-driven, Nomadic Walls proposes a modular wall system built on circular materials and ethical labor. Developed for rural and transitional urban settings in Yunnan Province, China, which can be expanded to other nations, the project uses locally available bamboo, straw, recycled polycarbonate, and jute to create prefabricated wall panels designed for easy assembly, disassembly, and reuse.
The system consists of a bamboo frame connected with 3D-printed joints, straw bale infill, and recycled greenhouse-grade polycarbonate for securing the wall. These materials are chosen for their low embodied carbon, and transparency in sourcing. Bamboo and straw are harvested locally; jute twine is produced by nearby artisans; and polycarbonate is reclaimed and repurposed. This approach avoids materials like concrete, gypsum, and steel, which are often linked to extractive practices and forced labor in global supply chains.
Each component was evaluated for life cycle performance: bamboo and polycarbonate can last 10- 15 years and serve 5+ building cycles, while straw and jute are biodegradable and replaced per use. The joinery system is tool-free and accessible, enabling construction by non-specialized labor with no heavy machinery. This supports equitable labor models, particularly in rural areas where access to skilled workers is limited.
Through material research, local engagement, and a focus on reuse, Nomadic Walls shifts construction away from permanence and toward adaptability. The system is designed to move with people and respond to changing environmental and social conditions, reducing waste, supporting livelihoods, and minimizing environmental footprint. It demonstrates that circular design and ethical sourcing are not just ideals, but practical frameworks for building in a more responsible and regenerative way. This system is one that clicks gently into place, shifts when needed, and offers a new ethic of making: light in footprint, clear in origin, and grounded in care.
Category II: Material Research Jury
Farida Abu-Bakare
WXY Studio
Ina Dajci
Yale University
Alan Ricks
MASS Design Group
Antonio Torres Skillicorn
Stanford University
