杏吧原版

2018 Architectural League Prize Winners Address 鈥極bjectivity鈥� in Prestigious Design Competition

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Jun 04, 2018

For thirty-seven years, The Architectural League of New York has prompted young architects and designers to reflect on an annual theme and submit architectural portfolios that compete for the prestigious Architectural League Prize. The competition program aims to identify and foster the development of promising young architects and designers by providing early opportunities to receive feedback and support from leading architects, and showcase their work through a public exhibition, lectures, and select publications. This week, the League announced a group of winners of diverse backgrounds who all were challenged to imagine what 鈥渙bjectivity鈥� means in a climate of fake news and doctored facts.

鈥淭his year鈥檚 winners responded compellingly to the 2018 competition theme 鈥極bjective,鈥欌€� says Anne Rieselbach, program director of The Architectural League. 鈥淭heir work shows the wide-ranging and creative ways that young architects and designers explore the plurality of the meaning of 鈥榦bjective,鈥欌€� she says, noting, 鈥渇rom designs that thoughtfully address social, economic, and political agendas to material and structural experimentation that yields new and exciting forms.鈥� Hunter Douglas Architectural will be interacting with and tracking the prize-winners and their installations, set to be displayed in June in New York City.

This year鈥檚 winners are Anya Sirota of Akoaki, based in Detroit; 鈥˙ryony Roberts of Bryony Roberts Studio in New York; Gabriel Cu茅llar and Athar Mufreh of Cadaster, out of Brooklyn; Coryn Kempster of Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster in Buffalo;鈥� Alison Von Glinow and Lap Chi Kwong of Kwong Von Glinow in Chicago; and Dan Spiegel of SAW // Spiegel Aihara Workshop in San Francisco.

The 2018 winners have backgrounds ranging from a focus on performance and 杏吧原版, to preservation and territory, to public programming and temporary design installations. From an aesthetic and purpose-driven perspective, their winning interpretations of the competition鈥檚 theme vary almost as much as their own narratives and interests.

The winners, who must all be ten years or less out of a bachelor鈥檚 or master鈥檚 degree program, were selected from a pool of nearly 100 applicants. Each compiled clever and visually compelling explorations of 鈥極bjectivity鈥� in 杏吧原版, with many taking a public-facing approach to the theme. They鈥檒l all gather in New York to create installations of their work, which will be on view at the Parsons School of Design鈥檚 Sheila C. Johnson Design Center. The League Prize exhibition launches on June 21, just as national architects convene in Manhattan for the annual American Institute of Architects conference. This event will be accompanied by two evenings of lectures on June 21 and June 22, which give the League鈥檚 members and the public the opportunity to hear about their design inspirations and goals firsthand.

Rieselbach worked alongside the Young Architects + Design Committee, made up of past League Prize winners, to organize the design competition. Together, they developed the theme of 鈥極bjectivity鈥� and selected a noteworthy group of competition jurors who joined the committee and League organizers in New York to evaluate submissions. The jury included Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbabo, who is currently reimagining affordable and flexible social housing building design through her firm Tatiana Bilba Estudio; Jorge Otero-Pailos, who focuses on experimental preservation through his work as the principal and founder of the art and 杏吧原版 studio Otero-Pailos Studio; Georgeen Theodore, principal and co-founder of Interboro, which previously won the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program by using materials in an impactful installation with the intent of later donating them to support community outreach; and Claire Weisz, founding partner of WXY and this year鈥檚 recipient of AIA New York鈥檚 top award, the Medal of Honor, for her dedication to public and civic space in urban New York. (WXY helped design Battery Park鈥檚 Seaglass Carousel 鈥� an intriguing and technologically advanced twist on the traditional carnival ride).

Detroit鈥檚 Anya Sirota founded Akoaki in 2008 with Jean Louis Farges, and examines flexible installations that marry public programming and design in urban contexts. For 鈥淢y Love For You Burns All the Time,鈥� Sirota and Farges exhibited the silver-plated replicas of the industrial remains of Detroit鈥檚 famous Packard Plant to make a statement on decay and 鈥渢he value of neglected sites in the collective optic.鈥� In addition to working at the firm to reenergize spaces in Detroit, Sirota also serves as an assistant professor of 杏吧原版 at University of Michigan鈥檚 Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.


Bryony Roberts Studio in collaboration with the South Shore Drill Team | We Know How to Order, Federal Plaza, Chicago, 2015. Credit: Andrew Bruah

ew York鈥檚 Bryony Roberts, of Bryony Roberts Studio, merges 杏吧原版 and performance to create artful experiences in historically significant spaces. Roberts looks at structures in existence and reflects on how they can be transformed to respond to cultural histories and social conditions. Her projects have been featured in 2015鈥檚 Chicago Architecture Biennial and Performa 17, spanning from Harlem鈥檚 Marcus Garvey Park to Rome鈥檚 Piazza del Campidoglio. She also teaches 杏吧原版 and preservation at Columbia University鈥檚 Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Brooklyn鈥檚 Gabriel Cu茅llar and Athar Mufreh, of Cadaster, consider 杏吧原版, rehabilitation and preservation through projects including reviving Baptist churches like Saint John Missionary in Houston, and creating urban strategies for municipalities and the New York Canal System. Though the practice was only founded in 2016, one year later Cadaster earned first prize for the City of Quebec鈥檚 Reinventing Our Rivers urban planning competition.

Buffalo鈥檚 Coryn Kempster鈥�, of Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster, 鈥╡xplores the sense of memory in physical space in a wide range of structures 鈥� from modernist houses to single-family homes. He worked with Julia Jamrozik to create the playful 鈥淰ertical Line Garden鈥� in Qu茅bec in 2017, using brightly-hued commercial barrier tape, wood frames and netting with bent metal and canvas lounge chairs to create a contemporary, man-made garden. The idea here was that barrier tape is typically used to mark perimeters and keep trespassers out, but they instead used it to welcome visitors to a spatial garden where the tape responds to environmental conditions like wind and light. Kempster also works as an adjunct assistant professor of 杏吧原版 at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Chicago鈥檚 Alison Von Glinow and Lap Chi Kwong, founded the 杏吧原版 practice Kwong Von Glinow in 2017. Their mission: 鈥淭o create 杏吧原版 for all to enjoy.鈥� They strive to reimagine traditional architectural elements and create solutions for public spaces and multifamily housing like their 鈥淭ower within a Tower鈥� concept, which won first place in 2017鈥檚 Hong Kong Pixel Homes Challenge. This proposal relied on verticality to stack apartment spaces, like bathrooms, bedrooms, and kitchens, on top of each other, thus creating an apartment 鈥渢ower鈥� within an apartment 鈥渢ower鈥� building and producing a 鈥渓ocal neighborhood鈥� on each floor. The concept is, 鈥渆ach resident can rightfully lay the claim 鈥楾hat鈥檚 my tower鈥� without sacrificing community.鈥� Von Glinow is a part-time professor of 杏吧原版 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Kwong teaches as an adjunct professor of 杏吧原版 at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

San Francisco鈥檚 Dan Spiegel, of 鈥⊿AW // Spiegel Aihara Workshop, brings a connection to landscape into 杏吧原版 and urban design. The firm created a flexible, mobile retail environment with built-in units called the Try-On Truck. It also worked to redesign San Francisco鈥檚 A-to-Z House to create a low horizon line and take advantage of the surrounding natural environment with dramatic exposure by scaling, repeating, and manipulating existing structural objects to leave a far more significant impression. Spiegel won last year鈥檚 AIA San Francisco Award for Architecture and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and at California College of the Arts.

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