The 2016 Race to Zero Student Design Competition had 31 teams from 25 collegiate institutions competing to design cost-effective, zero energy homes for mainstream builders.

The Race to Zero encourages students to work with builders, developers, community leaders, and other industry partners to meet stringent design requirements and create marketable, affordable concepts. Below are the winners of the annual event, which took place on April 16-17, 2016, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. 

View the presentations and project summaries from the winning teams, or learn about the 2016 competition jurors

2016 Winning Teams

Grand Winner

Prairie View A&M University

Green Future Team

Double Barrel Project

Suburban Single-Family Housing Contest

First Place

Appalachian State University

Team (Re)Connect

Resilient House Project

Second Place

Philadelphia University

Emergence Team

House II Project

Urban Single-Family Housing Contest

First Place

Prairie View A&M University

Green Future Team

Double Barrel Project

Second Place

University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Net Zero Wisconsin Team

Forward House Project

Attached Housing Contest

First Place

Philadelphia University

PhilaU Powered to Zero Team

New Affordable Zero Homes Project

Second Place

Illinois Institute of Technology

Net-Zero IIT Team

Net-Zero IIT Town House Project

Small Multifamily Housing Contest

First Place

Ryerson University

True North Design Team

Eastern Pine Project

Second Place

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Team LINKoln

LINKoln Locale Project

2016 Teams

Below is a list of all the collegiate institutions that competed.

  • Appalachian State University
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Humboldt State University
  • Illinois Institute of Technology
  • Illinois State University
  • Montana State University
  • Pennsylvania College of Technology
  • The Pennsylvania State University
  • Philadelphia University
  • Prairie View A&M University
  • Roger Williams University
  • Ryerson University
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Miami
  • University of Missouri
  • University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • University of North Texas
  • University of Southern California
  • The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • University of Wyoming
  • Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  • Washington University in St. Louis

2016 Race To Zero Sponsorship

The support of these 2016 sponsors helped make the Race to Zero event possible:

  • American Chemistry Council – Spray Foam Coalition
  • BASF
  • DuPont Building Innovations
  • NORESCO
  • Owens Corning
  • Plastics Pipe Institute
  • Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance
  • Structural Insulated Panel Association
  • Unico.