Designing for the Future 

Welcome to the milestone 25th year of the Fairchild Challenge! We invite you to pick up where previous Challenge students and teachers left off and help us envision what a greener future looks like.

This year’s theme, Innovative Green Design, harnesses the natural superpowers of plants to rethink how new tools and novel designs can create a community that is better for people and nature. We are entering a new era of environmental problem-solving, and you are the designers, scientists, and architects who will write the next chapter.  

You will dream up plant-based solutions and new ideas for green technology and design that transform concrete spaces into purpose-built gardens. It’s more than using plants as landscaping. Plants can cool hot balconies and patios, native plant gardens can boost butterfly and pollinator populations, and innovative technology reveals how environmental changes affect plant growth.

South Florida needs your help to imagine communities that function in tandem with the environment.  Cities face big challenges, but these problems can have solutions that begin and end with plants. 

Build on 25 years of the Fairchild Challenge education and conservation efforts from those who came before you. Are you ready to take the challenge and design a greener future?