Emerging Voices winner profile

Aranda\Lasch

The Architectural League’s Emerging Voices program annually spotlights North American architects, landscape architects, and urban designers who have significant bodies of realized work and the potential to influence their field.

Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch of Aranda\Lasch are 2015 winners of the award.

Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch founded New York- and Tucson-based Aranda\Lasch in 2003. Committed to “experimental research and innovative building,” Aranda\Lasch’s projects are “multiscalar and interdisciplinary,” operating at a wide range of scales from objects, furniture, and installations to buildings and landscapes. Past projects include the exhibition layout for Design Miami/ from 2008-2013; Night Drawing, a collaboration with artist Matthew Ritchie as part of his show Ten Possible Links at Andrea Rosen Gallery; and Primitives, an installation at the 2010 Venice Biennale. Aranda and Lasch describe their recent shift to larger scale work as “an exciting phase of our practice that is defined by the realization of our research into bigger projects.” Currently in progress are the Art Deco Project, a new retail building in Miami’s Design District, as well as large-scale retail and mixed-use developments in Niigata, Japan; Wuxi, China; and Libreville, Gabon.

Aranda\Lasch was named one of Architectural Record’s 2015 Design Vanguard firms and one of Architectural Digest’s 2014 AD Innovators. They are also winners of the 2007 United States Artists Award and the 2007 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Aranda\Lasch’s work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Arts and Design, the Venice Biennale, Design Miami/, and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.

Aranda received his B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley and Lasch received his B.S. in Architecture from the University of Illinois. Both received their M.Arch degrees from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. They have also served as visiting professors at Harvard University, Columbia University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and UC Berkeley.