Building the foundation: Metal building competition

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how the Metal Building Manufacturers Association is bringing in and training new talent with their student competition. 

The world of metal construction is constantly evolving as new technologies and processes emerge on the market. Unfortunately, many designers and architects are still not using metal to its full capabilities. John Underwood, the chair of the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA)’s education committee explained, “We conduct a perception survey of our industry and one of the things that we found was that architects really didn't understand the kinds of things that metal buildings can do in today's world. They were stuck in the old metal building with a warehouse or an industrial.” 

In this MetalCast™ episode, Megan Ellsworth sat down with John and Tony Bouquot, who is MBMA’s general manager to talk about how they are working to teach people everything metal can do. One of MBMA’s big pushes to help spread understanding of the industry is their Metal Building Student Competition. Started in 2021, this is a design challenge for teams comprised of university students and a faculty sponsor. It aims to create a better understanding of the modern metal construction industry for design students. 

The 2024 competition is coming to a close soon, with submissions due January 6, 2025, but it will be coming back  next year, with registration typically opening in July. If you’re interested, this is a great time to start following the 2024 competition and picking up some tips and tricks. John shared, “We have a lot of resources that students can tap into to better understand a metal building. They can look at past submittals, and our website is just full of resources and information that would enable them to put together a submittal that follows all of the favorable aspects of a metal building.” The winners of this year’s competition will be announced in February and seeing what they did is a great opportunity to learn.  

When it comes to advice for faculty wanting to integrate this into their curriculum, Tony added a few tips, “The number one piece of advice I would give to faculty is to come to MBMA’s annual workshop. It's an in-person event and is a great way to meet up with your architectural faculty peers from schools around the country and to learn from folks who have already participated in the competition. And in particular, ones who have had success with it.” And the really nice thing about this workshop is that it’s free for faculty to attend! Tony explained, “If you're a faculty member and you want to come to our workshop, we'll pay for you to come. It's a free workshop and we'll even cover your travel. We are that serious about getting the message out there about metal buildings to the architectural education arena.” 

Read the transcript, Listen to the episode or Watch the video to learn more about the MBMA student competition and the larger metal construction and design industry.