This spring, Metals in Construction magazine concluded its 10th annual Design Challenge, a competition committed to generating ideas that benefit the collective well-being through architectural design. The goals of the Challenge each year are outlined in design briefs that have ranged from developing strategies for facades that can respond dynamically to changing environmental conditions, to an elevated walkway that makes foot travel a more attractive, engaging component of living and working in the city.
This year’s brief sought innovative, responsible building designs to help New York City overcome its critical shortage of affordable rental housing, designs that could bring about the speedy, cost-conscious construction of affordable apartments meeting modern standards for comfort and well-being that are indistinguishable from those of their high-end neighbors.
This Spring, Metals in Construction magazine concluded its 10th annual Design Challenge, a competition committed to generating ideas that benefit the collective well-being through architectural design. The goals of the Challenge each year are outlined in design briefs that have ranged from developing strategies for facades that can respond dynamically to changing environmental conditions, to an elevated walkway that makes foot travel a more attractive, engaging component of living and working in the city.
This year’s brief sought innovative, responsible building designs to help New York City overcome its critical shortage of affordable rental housing, designs that could bring about the speedy, cost-conscious construction of affordable apartments meeting modern standards for comfort and well-being that are indistinguishable from those of their high-end neighbors.
Entries arrived from designers located in, among other cities, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Manchester, Duesseldorf, and several states—a tribute to its global reach in search of ideas. Selected by the jury for the grand prize was Staggering of Urban Lifestyles, an entry by the two-person team of Brooklyn-based architect Yi Wang, a Zhengzhou native who received her M.Arch from Washington University of St. Louis, and Wentao Guo, an M.Arch graduate from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
The team’s entry featured staggered steel trusses stacked in askew arrangements and varying spans to yield not only invigorating living environments but also a cost-effective, fast-erecting and light weight structural system. The jury found this unique adaptation of the tried-and-true staggered truss system, along with the sophistication and artistry of the overall design concept, as best meeting the brief’s call for ideas that use structural steel to provide desirable, affordable rental housing. The jury acknowledged that basing the building method on staggered truss geometry enabled erection that is generally faster than that of other construction methods, impacting the city’s ability to more quickly provide the needed affordable high-rise housing.
Making the selection were several well-known figures in the AEC community, including Pratt professor and former Werner Sobek COO Erica Oliva, MdeAS Architects managing partner Dan Shannon, NUCOR executive Tabitha Stein, and AIA New York’s Oculus editor-in-chief Jennifer Krichels. Apart from commenting on the structural features of the winning entry, the jurors applauded the winning team’s efforts to counter the often repetitive, characterless characteristics of affordable urban housing by employing the different spatial compositions that staggering of the structure provides to create more than 20 types of units.
Hearing that they were awarded the $15,000 Grand Prize of Metals in Construction magazine’s 2025 Design Challenge, the team of Yi Wang and Wentao Guo commended the design brief and said they were looking forward to reading next year’s. Here is their submission for this year’s Challenge: