WISA Design Competition: Designing the Flight School of the Future

$9,000 TOTAL PRIZE MONEY
SUBMISSIONS: CLOSED ON MAY 9, 2022
WINNERS ANNOUNCED: JUNE 2022

How can a flight school become a beacon of sustainable innovation in aviation? This design competition asks students to reimagine the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre (WWFC) facility, one of the largest flight training units in Canada, as a model of social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Our jury is seeking inspirational ideas, exciting designs, and new directions towards a more sustainable future for the air transport training sector.  This competition aims to spark a holistic rethinking of the aviation training sector as hubs for green innovation. And you can be part of it!

Entrants mustbe residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) who are post-secondary students at a recognized university or college. Multi-disciplinary teams are highly encouraged but not required. All interested participants must register here.

All rules and regulations can be found here.

License and Terms of Use

Entrant Release Form

Team Submission Form

Entrants are asked to incorporate the following design considerations:

The design calls for two (2) detached buildings:

• A two-storey high institutional building (“Main Building”) with a gross floor area of 3,000 m². The Main Building should support current and future operations of WWFC which includes an administrative office space for 30 administrative employees, hotelling office space for 60 flight instructors,  flexible teaching space to provide four 30-seat classrooms, a 120-seat amphitheater, a flight dispatch area, four flight simulator bays (25m² each), an inspiring student space, a bookstore, storage, food service or restaurant and building service areas.
• A hangar (“Hangar”), with a gross floor area of 1500 m² about 700 m² of which should be conditioned space for aircraft maintenance.

The overall design needs to meet net-zero energy and carbon neutral performance targets taking into account the local climate. These targets can be met through the integration of:

• High performance envelope, passive strategies and sustainable materials.
• Active strategies and technologies (e.g., LED lighting, air- and/or ground source heat pumps), and energy efficiency measures.
• Rooftop photovoltaic and/or building-integrated photovoltaic.
• Integration of electric charging stations and electric storage for electric vehicles (EV) and electric aircraft (EA) is highly encouraged.  

To support sustainability in aeronautics, consider a transferable and scalable design, using existing construction practices, that could be replicated by other aviation schools across Canada or internationally. In addition, economic sustainability should be considered in regards to long term operation.

There is no specific site, but the assumed site would need to accommodate aviation infrastructure, including the Main Building, the Hangar,  groundside access and vehicle parking, apron for  35  flight training aircraft, fueling facilities and airside connections to the airport taxiway network.

Successful designs should also consider the safe and efficient movement of flight training aircraft, practicality of operations (e.g., hangar access, logically planned aircraft parking, etc.), and constraints as a result of the facility’s obligations as a Transport Canada-certified airport.

• For building performance analysis, the following  meteorological weather file can be used, found here.
• Learn more about WWFC here.

Competition proposals can be submitted here. The submission page will open to all entrants on May 1st, 2022 at 12AM EST and will close on May 9th, 2022 at 11:59PM EST. An email reminder will be sent out to all registered entrants.

Submissions must conform to the instructions provided below:

Entrants are asked to provide a zip file containing a submission document of maximum 15 pages (tabloid or A3 size in pdf format) which includes high resolution visuals (min. 300 dpi) and descriptive text. The submission document should highlight the main design features of the project in a concise and comprehensive way, and explain how the design enhances sustainability (social, environmental and economic) and supports the typical functions of a flight school.

In addition, entrants must sign a Declaration and Release form agreeing to all rules & regulations.

The first round of presentations will be hosted virtually, second round participants will receive an invitation to the WISA Annual General Meeting (with an option of submitting a recorded presentation depending on travel restrictions).

Our jury is seeking inspirational ideas, exciting designs, and new directions towards a more sustainable future for the air transport sector.