The Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) 2023 Student Design Competition opens to individuals and teams on July 15, 2023. This year’s contest asks architecture students to create an innovative metal building design for a new nature center and environmental research facility. More than $28,000 in prizes will be awarded to entrants in graduate and undergraduate divisions. Individual students or teams interested in this opportunity can register at www.mbmaeducation.org with submissions due by January 5, 2024.

Registration is free to full-time graduate and undergraduate students, but all entrants are required to have a faculty sponsor. “The contest last year was enormously successful with both individual and team entrants from across North America,” says W. Lee Shoemaker, Ph.D., PE, MBMA director of research and engineering and contest organizer. “We expect even more this year with this timely and interesting design topic. We encourage students to learn more about metal building systems as they offer an enormous range of possibilities.”

Robert Kobet, who was advisor to the winning Kent State team for MBMA’s 2022 competition, is an adjunct professor in Kent State’s College of Architecture & Environmental Design. Of the competition experience he says: “I am amazed about how much my students learned about putting together any building (structure, skin, mechanicals, etc.) because of this competition.” He adds, “It was the right size, the right program and the right time. And the MBMA team was so helpful in providing introductions, resources and webinars.”

A total of six prizes will be given—one overall winner, two graduate and three undergraduate honors. Awards will be divided between the students and faculty sponsors. Teams may also enter, and prizes will be divided and distributed equally to each member of a registered team. Contest winners will be announced on Feb. 27, 2024.

Further details about design parameters, judging criteria and submission requirements are available at www.mbmaeducation.org. Also, questions can be addressed to Lee Shoemaker at mbma@mbma.com.