Wildfire Ready Design Challenge

California communities in high wildfire risk areas need practical, buildable solutions for home hardening. The challenge is translating what we know works into designs that real homeowners will accept, contractors can execute, and communities can afford to adopt at scale. 

The Wildfire Ready Design Challenge is an interdisciplinary student competition that bridges that gap, asking teams to develop neighborhood-scale wildfire resilience concepts that communities can actually use. Sited in Grass Valley, a Nevada County community that mirrors California’s broader wildfire vulnerabilities, participants design solutions that account for real-world constraints: material availability, contractor capacity, homeowners acceptants, cost, and code. The goal is not theoretical — its implementation-ready ideas that preserve neighborhood character while meaningfully reducing risk. 

THE IMPACT: A pipeline of community-vetted, implementation-ready design concepts — and a new generation of planners, designers, and policy thinkers trained to solve wildfire resilience problems from the ground up. 

PARTNERS: Pacific Gas & Electric; Cal Poly WUI Fire Institute; Home Hardening Solutions, Inc.; City of Grass Valley.

RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS:

• Team Registration Form

• Wildfire Ready Design Challenge Kickoff Meeting by David Lawlor

• Wildfire Ready Design Challenge Guidebook

• Wildfire Ready Design Challenge FAQ Doc

• Pre-Recorded Presentations with Subject Matter Experts

  • Wildfire Ready Design Challenge Presentation by Home Hardening Solutions

  • Wildfire Ready Design Challenge Presentation by Frank Frievalt

    • Presentation Slide Deck

  • Wildfire Ready Design Challenge Presentation by Ashley Conrad-Saydah

  • Wildfire Ready Design Challenge Presentation by Derrick Davis

  • Wildfire Ready Design Challenge Presentation by Margot McDonald

For questions about this Challenge, email us at: designcompetition@climateandwildfire.org.