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The University of Louisiana at Lafayette recently announced a call for submission to design a new learning laboratory on the Lafayette campus. UL is looking for design concepts that support the core mission: leading education for all of Louisiana. The UL Laboratory School functions in connection with the colleges of education to immerse teacher candidates in real classrooms. UL envisions the new Learning Lab for the Laboratory School as a space that advocates for curiosity, creativity, connectivity, and collaboration among students, teachers, administrators, and the community. Submissions are encouraged to break from traditional educational architecture formulas and think creatively and with the hope that the Learning Lab will serve as an example for schools of the future. 

Registration for the competition is now open and will close on September 15. Concepts are due October 1. Click here to register. 

The design competition is broken into two stages:

Stage One is an open competition to design three Learning Lab Spaces. Competition organizers encourage multi-disciplinary teams of teachers, designers, and students, however, each team must include a licensed architect. A jury will select three to five unranked winners and award each $1,000.00. Winners will be notified on October 15. 
Stage Two will be composed of joint ventures/partnerships/teams of architecture firms with a local firm as the prime contractor, selected by the jury based on requests for qualifications and subsequent interviews. Each joint venture will receive a $12,000.00 stipend for Stage Two. Participation in Stage One is not required to participate in the second stage. However, the jury does consider involvement in the first stage as a factor in their final selection. The jury will select one winner, while the three to five Stage One winners will serve an advisory role for the Stage Two joint ventures. 

UL hopes to receive design submissions which incorporate strategic, dramatic design ideas that follow the Lab school’s aspirations of designing and testing innovative pedagogy and curricula. More information, including competition rules, schedule, and to sign up for the public forum, can be found here.

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