2025 Water Energy Systems Integrated
Urban Design Challenge
Registration now open – register for Fort Collins or Denver – or both.
Photos from the 2022 Systems Integration Urban Design Challenge – Courtesy Meadow Conrad
Do you want to help change the way cities grow, use energy, manage water, and address land use issues? Do you have an interest in sustainable design, architecture, natural resources, or engineering? Do you like Lego?
Join your peers for five days of workshops, interactive activities, site visits, and team sessions. You will get the chance to learn hands-on about the intersection of these topics and apply your knowledge to your own design, while building valuable networking, teamwork, and critical thinking skills.
The Urban Design Challenge challenges multidisciplinary teams of planners, architects, engineers and others, to create new urban developments that are more liveable, sustainable, resilient and resource efficient.
There are TWO opportunities in 2025 for you to participate in the Challenge.
Challenge 1 – Fort Collins
- When: August 4-8, 2025
- Where: Colorado State University’s Powerhouse Energy Campus, Fort Collins, CO
- Case Study: Mid Town
- When: August 11-15, 2025
- Where: Colorado State University’s SPUR Campus, Denver, CO
- Case Study: Ball Arena!
- Registration is open to all members of the CSU community and public.
REGISTRATION IS FREE But register early to save your spot.
2025 Challenge themes
1. Low impact water systems – innovative solutions are needed to manage and minimize surface water flows from and within urban developments. How do we develop systems that that use or mimic natural processes to manage the infiltration, evapotranspiration or use of water flows in order to address impacts on water quality and associated natural habitats?
2. Regenerative energy systems – Regenerative energy systems challenge the paradigm of energy supply and demand to create net positive energy communities. How can we look the synergies of renewable energy, circular systems, grids, building systems, and energy recovery to create energy contributing communities?
3. Circular land use – Circular land use management primarily focuses exploiting the potentials of existing structures and reusing built land. How can we work to reduce the demolish and rebuilt cycle of construction and look to circular reuse systems.
Intersecting all these themes is a need to develop smart and connected communities to enable innovate solutions
Your multidisciplinary team will work together on a redeveloping an urban area, to think critically and help address growing water, energy, and development issues that cities face every day.
Recognition, prizes, and benefits
With opportunity for multiple winners across performance, design, and character, teams will be recognized through awards, prizes, and publicity. Several observers will be recruiting students for summer and follow on work engagements.
Outcomes
You will be able to…
- Use critical thinking around key issues influencing city design and management
- Employ your understanding of multiple fields to solve real-life problems related to urban growth, water and energy supply, security and efficiency
- Hear from researchers and industry professionals working in the domain of water, energy and land use planning
- Evaluate the key issues and trends in urban water, energy and land use management and their interconnections
- Network with peers and potential employers
- Understand the relationships between water, energy, and land use in urban water systems and be able to identify how to reduce water-related energy use and improve land use modalities
- Formulate strategies for implementing change in urban water management to influence energy and water efficiency
Schedule and Speakers
- Days 1 and 2 include interactive actives, lectures from guest speakers, and site tours
- Days 3, 4 and 5 are when groups will work together and creating their own design for the case study site, with the help of faculty and professionals
- Who is eligible to participate?
The design challenge is an active engagement between members of the Colorado State University community, industry, and public. Current and recent students, graduate and rising undergraduates, are eligible for participation. External and Industry participants are also eligible and encouraged participate. Sponsorship for participation is provided by a CO-WY workforce development program. (contact steve.conrad@colostate.edu for specifics and questions).
Some relevant disciplines include:
- Civil, Chemical and Biological, Environmental, Mechanical, Systems Engineering
- Watershed Sciences
- Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
- Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
- Electric power and energy systems
- Water utilities and urban watershed planners
- Geography
- Urban Planning and Real Estate, Construction
- Landscape Architecture and Design
