Flux Announces Winners of Emerging Architects Design Competition

Next Generation's Global Architects Challenged to Address Urbanization and to Propel the Industry's Use of Technology Forward


SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 7, 2016) - Flux Factory, a technology company born out of Google X that aims to bring scalability, sustainability and efficiency improvements to the global building industry, today announced the winners of their Emerging Architects Design Competition. Earlier this year, Flux invited architecture students from around the world to submit their ideas for improving sustainability in this rapidly urbanizing world. Four winners were selected across five categories.

While the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry relies on technology for all phases of project design and implementation, the industry is still heavily craft based with teams spending significant time and money on repetitive and mundane tasks. As part of the competition remit, students were asked to explore the role technology solutions can play in accelerating the building design process and in increasing the innovation capacity of design teams.

The four projects listed below won the top five prizes. Submissions were judged by Anand Babu of Sidewalk Labs; Raveevarn Choksombatchai of VeeV; Eva Friedrich of Google; Leon Rost of BIG; and Ken Sanders of Gensler. Complete descriptions and visuals of the winning projects can be found here

  • Most Innovative and People's Choice Awards: "Ecoschool"

Submitted by Sinan Goral and Sophie Nahrmann from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

  • Best Building Performance: "Hunts Point Revival"

Submitted by Sophie Romaniko from Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture in Kiev, Ukraine and Maksym Romaniko from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.

  • Best Use of Data Harvesting: "DOM - Dynamic Office Model"

Submitted by Mitchell Page from the University of Sydney, Adrian Taylor from the University of Technology, Sydney, and Dominic Hawton and Narissa Bungbrakearti from the University of New South Wales.

  • Best Multi-User Collaboration: "Live Google Earth"

Submitted by Jamie Farrell from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"In the next 30 years, the population of our urban environments will double, putting incredible strain on already taxed systems," said Jen Carlile, co-founder, Flux Factory. "The AEC industry needs to find innovative solutions to meet that need. We should be looking to this next generation of architects and engineers to harness new technology to transform how we design."

Flux recently announced the release of their software, Flux, a cloud-based service for architects, engineers, and contractors that seamlessly exchanges data between popular design software programs, such as Excel, Grasshopper, and Dynamo. It enables AEC professionals to focus on higher value creative work, such as reducing cost and delivering performance-driven design.

About Flux
Flux was founded in 2012 with the ambitious goal of addressing two challenges facing the global building industry: demand for housing driven by urbanization and achieving sustainability driven by climate change. The Flux cloud-based collaboration service helps architects, engineers, and contractors to quickly exchange data, streamline complex design workflows, and ultimately work better together to meet the urgent need for affordable buildings. Flux is backed by DFJ, Temasek, Surbana Jurong, Far East Organization, South Park Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Borealis Ventures and Obvious Ventures. To learn more, visit https://flux.io

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Amanda Orr
Kickstart Communications
202-459-1304

Company ProfileFlux Factory