Colorado is emerging as a leader in sustainable design. There are many of the pioneering leaders of sustainability within the borders of our state, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Rocky Mountain Institute, Solar Energy International and more. As the Emerging Green Builders, we should identify ourselves as the leaders of the future of sustainability and in order to do this we must grasp the opportunity to receive the legacy of these great leaders in our community and move forward with it to become the pioneers of tomorrow.

With this goal in mind, the Colorado Natural Talent Design Competition Challenge for 2009 is to create a design for a new building for the University of Colorado’s College of Architecture and Planning on the Auraria Campus that utilizes the current standards and guidelines of sustainable design, such as LEED and others, as a springboard toward designs that envision the future of sustainability and reach toward the frontiers of sustainability. The current frontiers of sustainability are beginning to reach toward built environments that function as ‘living systems’ or are even restorative to the environment by becoming and asset to and actively filtering and cleaning the environment around them. As they always have been, frontiers are a somewhat ambiguous realm and it is the purpose of this challenge to explore that realm and to take advantage of the opportunity to be completely innovative and inspired in the design presented to the Competition Committee.

Brief (PDF)