ESKYIU
Architectural League Prize 2010
Recorded: June 29, 2010
Running Time: 35:01

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Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu founded ESKYIU in 2005 as a design collaborative integrating culture, art, community, technology, and architecture. Based in New York and Hong Kong, the firm’s interests are in “examining the ways in which built environments shape social relationships by forming connections between civic engagement and sustainable design.” Selected projects include Chinatown WORK 2006, an interactive public arts installation sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Department of Cultural Affairs, and 3form material solutions; SINO, a video installation shown at the Brooklyn Museum; Nutritious: an Aeroponic Façade exhibited at the Architectural Association in London; Human Motor: Narratives from the Assembly Line exhibited at the International Architectural Biennale Ljubljana; and Linear Landscapes: Fabricating a Rural/Urban Interface, an award winning project created for a noise barrier competition. Current research projects include “Urban Pastoral”, “Heirloom,” and “Farming Factory”. Recently they served as curators for the 2009 HK SZ Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. Their work, research, and writings have also been published in Thresholds MIT, Domus China, LOG Journal, Architectural Record, and A/D.

Marisa Yiu received a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. She currently teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Eric Schuldenfrei received a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, where he is completing his PhD. He has held numerous teaching positions.

PEG office of landscape + architecture
Architectural League Prize 2010
Recorded: June 29, 2010
Running Time: 35:18

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Keith VanDerSys is a partner of Philadelphia-based PEG office of landscape + architecture, which he co-founded with Karen M’Closkey in 2004. The office “explores the expressive potential of surface techniques that open up more integrative thinking about natural systems in urban environments. We utilize pattern as a discernible, repetitive system that enables the display of new combinations of organic and inorganic material in the formation of public space.” Projects include Hustle & Flow, Chicago; Double Jeopardy, west lounge, Ann Arbor; Mies van der Rohe Plaza, Detroit with PLY Architecture; Not Garden, Philadelphia; and Ripple Effect, New York. PEG has been published internationally and has won numerous design awards, including the Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) Prize, three American Institute of Architects Awards, and an I.D. Magazine award.

Keith VanDerSys received his Bachelor of Architeture from the University of Detroit and a Master of Art in Critical Studies in Architectural Culture from the University of California Los Angeles. He currently teaches studios and technology courses in the departments of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.

ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS
Architectural League Prize 2010
Recorded: June 29, 2010
Running Time: 37:35

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Emily Abruzzo and Gerald Bodziak founded ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS, a Brooklyn-based architectural office, in 2009. Responding to the theme, the firm writes: “It is here…the unconsidered – that many time-tested vernacular typologies, materials, methods and forms reside largely forgotten. It is possible, however, that a reconsideration of these issues – indeed, these resources – through the lenses of contemporary design techniques…might reveal new uses, methodologies, forms, and effects.” Recent projects include The 4D Lightful Gardens; a proposal for the Somerville, Massachusetts Arts Union Beacon; 100 Straight Skeletons, an investigation into the reuse of common suburban roof construction techniques and a collaboration with Gehry Technologies through their “What’s Your Problem” competition; and the Charlottesville Green housing proposal. The firm’s work has been widely published and exhibited at numerous institutions including Columbia University, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and The Boston Society of Architects.

Emily Abruzzo received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College and her Master of Architecture from Princeton University. She has been a lecturer and guest critic at numerous institutions, including Parsons The New School for Design, where she is currently an instructor in the Interior Design Program. Emily is a founding editor and publisher of 306090. Gerald Bodziak received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from The University of Michigan and his Master of Architecture from Princeton University. He has been a guest critic at numerous institutions and is a co-editor of 306090 14, “Making a Case.”

FAR frohn&rojas
Architectural League Prize 2010
Recorded: June 22, 2010
Running Time: 37:22

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FAR frohn&rojas is a networked architectural design and research practice led by Marc Frohn and Mario Rojas Toledo, located in Berlin, Santiago de Chile, and Los Angeles. Through its name the office acknowledges “both its geographically distributed anatomy as well as the increasingly widened pro¬fessional scope that is literally shaping its work…establishing a more diversified type of architectural production in which both the inherent contradictions between geographies, as well as the stretching of disciplinary boundaries will let formerly undeterminable links thrive.” The firm also investigates “’deep structures’ at play in each new project: the legal and financial constraints, desires, power structures and technological, ecological, material, and institutional frameworks that shape the built environment.” Projects include the Wall House in Santiago; the House in Heat, Rancagua, Chile; 2 in 1 in Cologne; and the Zero Emission Campus in Düsseldorf. The firm has won the DETAIL Prize and the AR award for emerging architecture. Widely exhibited, the firm’s work has been published in Architectural Record, Icon, Architectural Review, Azure, Domus, and other journals.

Marc Frohn received Master of Architecture degrees from Rice University and the University of Houston. He recently taught at SCI-arc. Mario Rojas Toledo received his diploma from the School of Architecture, RWTH Aachen and a degree in architecture from the Secretaría de Educación Superior. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello in Santiago.

Bittertang
Architectural League Prize 2010
Recorded: June 22, 2010
Running Time: 28:30

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Bittertang strives “to bring humor and pleasure to the built environment by digging deep into the sensual world that surrounds us; extracting rich and hilarious fodder from overlooked eras that have contributed integral matter to the production of architectural atmospheres. One of our goals is to resurrect the Rococo continuing where its practitioners left off, privileging interactive pleasure, frothiness, plant, and animal sourcing as well as immersive design…Our explorations are based in digital and visceral matter with output transitioning between scales and localities leaving traces of our frothy matter in various disciplines.” Currently, Bittertang operates out of Guadalajara and New York City and has had work published in the U.S. and South Africa. The partnership of Michael Loverich and Antonio Torres began in 2005. Recent projects include Microcosmic Aquaculture, “gelatinous orbs” of living and man-made matter to produce recreational and farmed spaces; Plush Toy Collection, explorations of tectonics, sensation, atmosphere, and narrative in soft body miniatures; and the Gondwana Circle garden design.

Antonio Torres and Michael Loverich both hold Master of Architecture degrees from UCLA. Michael Loverich received his Bachelor of Art in Architecture from the University of Washington. Antonino Torres received his Bachelor of Art in Architectural Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelors Degree from the E’cole de Architecture de Versailles.

Austin+Mergold
Architectural League Prize 2010
Recorded: June 22, 2010
Running Time: 25:43

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Austin+Mergold is an architecture and landscape practice based in Philadelphia and Ithaca. Founded in 2007 by Jason Austin and Aleksandr Mergold, the firm “operate[s] on the cusp of architecture, landscape, design, and installation art…Believing that it is preferable to rethink and repurpose existing resources than to tap new ones, we infiltrate existing systems that are responsible for constructed environments, rather than reinvent the wheel each time. …For us, this is sustainable design—both vis-à-vis the environment and our own practice—and it is particularly well-suited to the twinned economic and ecological crises that we face today.” Projects discussed in this lecture include: House-in-a-Can/Park-in-a-Can, Mechanicsburg, PA; SURAL wall; RVG club house, Mechanicsburg, PA; The Grand Resource, Hong Kong; and ParkView, Carlisle, PA. Their work has been widely published including in Inhabitat, The New York Times, The Architect’s Newspaper, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Jason Austin received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania where he received a Master of Landscape Architecture. He currently serves on the adjunct faculty in the Department of Architecture at Temple University and Department of Landscape Architecture at University of Pennsylvania. Aleksandr Mergold received his Master of Architecture at Princeton and his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. Currently he is a Visiting Critic in Cornell’s Department of Architecture.

Ether Ship
Young Architects Forum 2009: Foresight
Recorded: May 21, 2009
Running Time: 25:32

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Sung Goo Yang established his Boston-based firm Ether Ship in 2008. His work spans scales from urban design to fashion runways and abstract digital animations and designs—all expressing his interest in the interplay between image and form. Recent work includes his prize-winning competition for the Gwangbook Street Renovation in Busan City, Korea; “Vogue Fashion House” and a fashion show runway for Wooyoungmi, both commissioned by Vogue Korea; the “Seoul Change Project,” commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar; and competition entries for a gallery in Porto and the Incheon Changla Tower.

Yang studied architectural engineering at Korea University, where he was a founding member of “A-GENE-DA” Design Group, and received his M.Arch. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He was recently a guest critic and lecturer at Seoul National University.

Phu Hoang Office
Young Architects Forum 2009: Foresight
Recorded: May 21, 2009
Running Time: 24:37

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Phu Hoang founded his New York City firm Phu Hoang Office in 2004. Current research projects, including “Enclaves and Floods,” situated on the border between India and Bangladesh and “Foodopolis,” an Urban Food Network in New York City, are expressive of his interest in using “current political conflicts and ecological disasters as a way to formulate architectural questions…relating to the possibility of designing for radical change.” Other projects include a prototype for a responsive building envelope made of water, and a 4,500 square foot loft in Manhattan. The firm’s design for “Every Man’s Land” in the Yucatan Peninsula received an honorable mention in the 2007 Sudaplan competition, and their “No Man’s Land” design for a tourist resort city in the Dead Sea was short listed in the 2007 Environmental Tectonics competition.

Hoang received a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a M.Arch. from Columbia University. He is currently teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, and previously taught at Columbia University.

Fake Industries Architectural Agonism
Young Architects Forum 2009: Foresight
Recorded: May 21, 2009
Running Time: 23:26

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Cristina Goberna and Urtzi Grau are principals (with collaborators Ariel Boles, Cornelia Herlz, and Cristian Zanoni) of Brooklyn-based Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, “a conglomerate that explores the potentials of architectural agonism and false constructions.” Their work, both speculative and built, examines alternative forms of domesticity and the urban landscape. Their individual and joint work and writings have been published internationally. In 2008 they were winners of Europan 9. Among their projects are a campaign for free New York City apartments; a “House for Cesar,” which is a renovation of an office for a client evicted from his home; “The Illegal Hotel,” examining the role of unpaid architecture office interns; and “Golf! Urbanism Manifesto.”

Goberna graduated from the School of Architecture of Sevilla, where she co-founded the multidisciplinary group La Casita. Grau graduated from the School of Architecture of Barcelona Both Goberna and Grau received M.S. degrees in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University.

ex.studio
Young Architects Forum 2009: Foresight
Recorded: May 14, 2009
Running Time: 34:53

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ex.studio, with offices in Barcelona and Mexico City, was founded by principals Ivan Juarez and Patricia Meneses. Their firm has developed projects at different scales, from buildings and objects to city and landscape interventions. With work in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Mexico, ex.studio conceives each project in relation to its physical context, and its potential to be enriched by diverse views and disciplines. Their work has garnered awards including: an AR award for emerging architects, the Young Architects Prize given by the College of Architects of Barcelona, and the National Grant for Mexican Young Architects, granted by the National Fund for Culture and Arts.

Juarez graduated from the Architectural School, San Luis Potosi University, Mexico and specialized in Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture of Barcelona, where Meneses received her architecture degree. They have been guest lecturers and professors at several institutions including the University of Westminster, UK; the University Alcalá, Madrid; the College of Architects in Barcelona; and the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico.

The Architectural League’s Young Architects Forum is an annual competition and series of lectures and exhibitions organized by the Architectural League and its Young Architects Committee. The Forum was established to recognize specific works of high quality and to encourage the exchange of ideas among young people who might otherwise not have a forum.