Professional Class - Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition

The Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition strives to challenge and empower the next generation of designers to think about how aluminum extrusions can shape a better, more sustainable world.

The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and its educational and research organization, the ET Foundation, are inviting designers and engineers from around the world to share their vision for the future using aluminum extrusions.

PARTICIPATION
The competition is FREE to enter and is open to entries from designers, architects, engineers, and others who design products and systems that utilize aluminum extrusions. Manufacturers are invited to enter the competition in partnership with their extruder. Entries are due no later than February 26, 2024.

Professional team and individual designers and manufacturers are eligible to enter the ET Foundation Professional Design Competition. Students compete in their own class.

Call for Entries
Entry Due Date: February 26, 2024

Download BrochureDC Entry Form

Times Square
Vehicle on Bridge
One Grand Prize of $3,500 to be Awarded across all categories and classes!
PROFESSIONAL CLASS PRIZES

First Place cash awards are available for the best aluminum extrusion design in each of the four categories:

  • Architectural/Structural: $2,500
  • Transportation: $2,500
  • Engineered/Industrial Products: $2,500
  • Alternative Energy: $2,500

Professional Prize Categories

Individual designers and companies are eligible to enter the ET Foundation Design Competition Aluminum extruders and their customers are encouraged to team up to enter their extrusion design in the competition. Prizes may be awarded in the following four categories:

Architectural/Structural

Versatile aluminum extruders enable sophisticated and expressive design features and labor-saving multi-functionality to be readily incorporated into building components, including:

  • Modular building systems
  • Façades, curtainwall
  • Shading, ventilation and lighting louvers
  • Skylights, entryways, window and doors
  • Office component systems
  • Walkways, bridges, decking and much more

Transportation

Design engineers focused on lightweighting, durability and strength increasingly are turning to aluminum extrusions to improve fuel economy, crash performance and load-carrying capacity for:

  • Automotive
  • Rail and mass transit
  • Aerospace
  • Marine
  • Truck/trailer and recreational vehicles
  • Space vehicles

Engineered/Industrial Products

Aluminum extrusions are used in a variety of consumer and industrial components due to aluminum’s many material and process advantages. This category may include:

  • Sporting and recreational equipment
  • Machine components and controls
  • Heatsinks and insulating components
  • Lighting and lighting components
  • Electrical and communications components
  • Appliances and more

Alternative Energy

Aluminum extrusions play a key role in both alternative and conventional energy generation and power distribution systems, including:

  • Solar power systems/photovoltaics (PV)
  • Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) modules
  • Wind power and turbines
  • Hydro-electric power and geothermal energy