International Sustainability Design Competition

Words: Dan Kamys

International Sustainability Design Competition

Potomac Valley Brick (PVB) announced a call for entries for a new international architectural green design competition. In Brick-stainable: Re-thinking Brick, entrants will be asked to design a hypothetical net-zero energy building using clay masonry as a primary material.

Brick-stainable: Re-thinking Brick hopes to attract interest from a broad pool of entrants, including architects and engineers as well as non-traditional candidates, such as environmental engineers, product designers and material scientists. The competition even includes a category for materials studies or assemblies, in addition to its building design element.

PVB has named a $10,000 grand prize. An award ceremony will be held at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C, on Jan. 27, 2009. Entrants will have a first-hand introduction to the competition during DesignDC 2009: Architects Leading Change, held July 14 – 16 at the Walter Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., where Potomac Valley Brick will unveil the PVB/Brick-stainable information center, offering detailed information on the competition and insight to their product range.??For more information, email ericka@spinLLC.com.

PPE That Workers Actually Wear: Building Buy-In Through Education and Smart Selection
August 2026

In masonry construction, personal protective equipment (PPE) is often the last line of defense between a worker and an injury. Yet despite its importance, PPE compliance remains one of the most common challenges on jobsites across the country. The realit

Greg Brown
Safety Library
Read More
Zero Laydown: Navigating the Logistics of Tight Urban Job Sites
August 2026

In modern commercial construction, spatial real estate has become just as valuable as the materials themselves. The industry shift toward high-density, urban projects means that the sprawling job sites of the past have been replaced by tight footprints wh

Shayne Sanders
MAP Partner
Read More
Why "The Software Can't Track That" Is Finally Going Away
August 2026

For as long as specialty contractors have used field software, most of them have kept a workaround somewhere: a spreadsheet on a foreman's laptop, a whiteboard in the trailer, or a text thread where crew leads send block counts at the end of the day becau

Erin Koets
Build Smart
MAP Partner
Read More
Monadnock Building
August 2026

Chicago’s Monadnock Building doesn’t dominate the skyline the way it once did. Surrounded by steel-and-glass towers, the dark brick structure can seem almost understated. But for anyone in the masonry industry, it remains one of the most important buildin

Cass Stern
American Treasure
Brick Clay Brick
Read More