1.5 AIA and New York State CEUs
The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring and hosting the League Prize exhibition and lectures.

The second evening of lectures by winners of the Architectural League Prize, features Marc Fornes of MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY, Luis Callejas of Lcla Office, and Bryan Young of Young Projects. The League Prize is one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young architects. This year’s theme for the portfolio competition, Range, reflects the perception of young architects’ careers as explorations of “potential boundaries with practices that are radical, that search the edges of the discipline to find its limits.”

A reception with the opportunity to view the exhibition will follow the lecture.

For additional information on all 2013 winners of the League Prize, as well as the program in general, click here.

1.5 AIA and New York State CEUs
The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring and hosting the League Prize exhibition and lectures.

The first evening of lectures by winners of the Architectural League Prize, features Brandon Clifford and Wes McGee of Matter Design, Rafael Luna and Dongwoo Yim of PRAUD, and Skylar J.E. Tibbits of SJET. The League Prize is one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young architects. This year’s theme for the portfolio competition, Range, reflects the perception of young architects’ careers as explorations of “potential boundaries with practices that are radical, that search the edges of the discipline to find its limits.”

A reception with the opportunity to view the exhibition will follow the lecture.

For additional information on all 2013 winners of the League Prize, as well as the program in general, click here.

Architectural League Prize Exhibition Closing Reception

League members and their guests are invited to a closing reception of the 2012 Architectural League Prize Exhibition: No Precedent.  This is your last chance to see work by Jorge Arvizu, Ignacio del Rio, Emmanuel Ramirez, and Diego Ricalde, MMX Studio; Jimenez Lai, Bureau Spectacular; Sean Lally, WEATHERS / Sean Lally; Seung Teak Lee and Mi Jung Lim, STPMJ; Michael Szivos, SOFTlab; Koji Tsutsui, Koji Tsutsui & Associates.  The exhibition closes August 3.  Wine and light snacks will be served.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.

Click image to see slideshow.
The Architectural League Prize
Seung Teak Lee and Mi Jung Lim, STPMJ
Michael Szivos, SOFTlab
Koji Tsutsui, Koji Tsutsui & Associates
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
7:00 p.m.
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Parsons The New School for Design
66 Fifth Avenue
1.5 CEUs

The second evening of lectures by winners of the 31st annual Architectural League Prize.  A reception will follow the lectures.

SOFTlab is a New York-based design studio specializing in media: graphic design, branding, strategy, environmental design, and interactivity.  The studio was founded in 2005 by Michael Szivos.  The office’s work has been shown at the New Museum, MoMA, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the office was selected by the New York Chapter of the AIA in 2010 as part of its New Practice New York program.  Szivos received his B.Arch from Louisiana State University and his M.S. in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at GSAPP and is a Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate School of Architecture.

Click image to see slideshow.

Koji Tsutsui & Associates was founded in Tokyo by Koji Tsutsui in 2004, opening an office in San Francisco in 2010.  The office’s InBetween house received a 2011 World Architecture Festival Award in the Villa Category and was named to Architectural Record‘s Record Houses.  The office was also part of Architectural Record‘s Design Vanguard in 2011.  In 2009, the office’s Annular Orphanage was a Finalist for the Global Holcim Award. Tsutsui received his B.Arch from the University of Tokyo and his M.Arch from The Bartlett School at University College London.

Click image to see slideshow.

STPMJ is an interdisciplinary architectural practice founded in 2009 with work in scale from furniture to urban infrastructure.  The office is lead by Seung Teak Lee and Mi Jung Lim and based in Brooklyn, New York. Seung Teak Lee was born in Seoul, Korea. After graduating with a B.E and M.E from Korea University, he received his M.Arch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Lee was the recipient of the Harvard Architectural Department’s Faculty Design Award in 2009 and was also a finalist for the SOM architecture and urban traveling fellowship. Mi Jung Lim was born in Seoul, Korea. After graduating with a B.S from Yonsei University, she received her B.Arch from Rhode Island School of Design and M.Arch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Click image to see slideshow.

Tickets
Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program.  Non-members may purchase tickets here, starting June 13.  Purchased tickets are available for pick-up at the venue check-in desk and are non-refundable.

Support
The program is supported by Dornbracht, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.  The program is also supported by the Next Generation Fund of the Architectural League.

Architectural League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring the exhibition and lecture series.

The Architectural League Prize
Jorge Arvizu, Ignacio del Rio, Emmanuel Ramirez, and Diego Ricalde, MMX Studio
Jimenez Lai, Bureau Spectacular
Sean Lally, WEATHERS / Sean Lally
Thursday, June 21, 2012
7:00 p.m.
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Parsons The New School for Design
66 Fifth Avenue
1.5 CEUs

The first evening of lectures by winners of the 31st annual Architectural League Prize.  A reception will follow the lectures.

Established in 2009, MMX Studio is a collaborative practice based in Mexico City focused on design process and research.  The studio is led by Jorge Arvizu, who received his B.S. in architecture and M.S. in civil engineering from the Universidad Iberoamericana; Ignacio del Rio, who received his training in architecture from the National University of Mexico; Emmanuel Ramirez, who holds a degree in architecture from the National University of Mexico and a M.Arch from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, and currently teaches at the Universidad Iberoamericana; and Diego Ricalde, who received his architecture training at the National University of Mexico and holds a Master’s degree in architecture and urbanism from the Architectural Association in London, and currently holds a teaching position at the Universidad Iberoamericana.  del Rio, Ramirez, and Ricalde were awarded the Mexican Young Creators Award in 2003 by the National Fund for Culture and Arts in Mexico.

Click image to see slideshow.

Jimenez Lai founded Bureau Spectacular in 2008 in Chicago. The office imagines other worlds and engages the design of architecture through telling stories, conflating design, representation, theory, criticism, history, and taste into cartoon pages. These cartoon narratives swerve into the physical world through architectural installations, models, and small buildings. Lai was the recipient of the LeFevre Fellowship.  His work has been widely exhibited and published. Lai’s graphic novel/manifesto, Citizens of No Place, will be published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. Draft II of this book has been archived at the New Museum as a part of the show Younger Than Jesus. Jimenez Lai is currently an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago and graduated with a M.Arch from University of Toronto.

Click image to see slideshow.

Sean Lally founded the office WEATHERS /Sean Lally in 2005 and is currently based in Chicago. The office explores the overlap of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.  Lally is the co-editor and contributor of Softspace: From a Representation of Form to a Simulation of Space, from Routledge 2007 and was quest editor for the AD Journal issue entitled Energies: New Material Boundaries through Wiley Press 2009. A new single authored book entitled The Air on Other Planets will be published in 2013. He is the recipient of the 2011- 2012 Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in Landscape Architecture. He is an Assistant Professor at the UIC School of Architecture, Chicago.  He received his B.S. in Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his M.Arch from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Click image to see slideshow.

Tickets
Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program.  Non-members may purchase tickets here, starting June 13.  Purchased tickets are available for pick-up at the venue check-in desk and are non-refundable.

Support
The program is supported by Dornbracht, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.  The program is also supported by the Next Generation Fund of the Architectural League.

Architectural League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring the exhibition and lecture series.

The Architectural League Prize
Ajmal Aqtash, Richard Sarrach, and Tamaki Uchikawa, form-ula
Unchung Na and Sorae Yoo, NAMELESS
William O’Brien Jr.
Wednesday, June 22
7:00 p.m.
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Parsons The New School for Design
66 Fifth Avenue
1.5 CEUs
[add_to_calendar]

Advance tickets are sold out.  A limited number of tickets for walk-ins may be available.  The exhibition reception following the lectures, approximately starting at 8:15, is free and open to all; no reservations necessary.

The second evening of lectures by winners of the 30th annual Architectural League Prize, featuring Ajmal Aqtash, Richard Sarrach, and Tamaki Uchikawa, form-ula; Unchung Na and Sorae Yoo, NAMELESS; and William O’Brien Jr.

Ajmal Aqtash, Richard Sarrach, and Tamaki Uchikawa founded form-ula in 2009 in New York City.  The firm is a multidisciplinary design practice that seeks to understand the intersection of design and engineering and its collaborative possibilities to produce culturally rich and high performance architecture for large and small scale projects Work includes Arch XXX, an art installation in Chicago; F.A.T. (face lift) in New York; and Clay Sutures: The Flats, an apartment complex in Louisville, KY.  The three are also co-founders of core.form-ula,  the research and development wing of form-ula, which seeks to capture cultural content related to design, engineering, science, technology, and art and organize it into an on-line repository.

Aqtash is currently an Adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute School of Architecture and is Research Director at the Center for Experimental Structures (CES). Additionally, he serves as the Creative Art Director for Milgo-Bufkin’s Design Series.  Sarrach is Director of Digital Futures and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture in the Pratt Institute Undergraduate School of Architecture.  Aqtash, Sarrach, and Uchikawa each received a B.Arch from Pratt Institute School of Architecture and a MsAAD from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

Unchung Na and Sorae Yoo are principals of NAMELESS with offices in New York and Seoul. Committed to “the simplicity on the unpredictable world,” the firm’s recent projects include an ice pavilion in Winnipeg, Canada, collective housing in Tokyo, and an auditorium in Gyeonggi, Korea. In 2011, the firm was awarded an AIA New York Unbuilt Work Merit Award, and in 2010, it was awarded the Boston Society of Architects Award for Design Excellence.  The firm won first prize in the 2009 Seoul Museum of History Landmark design competition.

Na and Yoo both hold M.Arch degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Na received his B.Eng in Architecture from Hongik University. Yoo received her B.Eng in Architecture from Korea University. They are both currently teaching at Hongik University in Korea.

William O’Brien Jr. is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning and is principal of an independent design practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Last year his practice was a finalist for the MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program, for which the firm designed an installation, “Weathers Permitting | A Field Guide to Transitional Environments.” More recently his work was recognized as an inaugural winner of the Design Biennial Boston Award. Projects include Allandale House in the Mountain West, Cog House, and Twins, a pair of houses in upstate New York.  He has been selected as a Socrates Fellow by the Aspen Institute and was named a MacDowell Fellow by the MacDowell Colony. His recent publications include the essays, “Approaching Irreducible Formations” in ACADIA re:Form, and “Experts in Expediency” in Log.

O’Brien received his M.Arch at Harvard University where he was the recipient of the Faculty Design Award and studied at Hobart College for his undergraduate degree in architecture and music theory.

Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Non-members may purchase tickets here, beginning one week before each program until six hours before the program start. Purchased tickets are available for pick-up at the venue check-in desk and are non-refundable.

For more information, email info@archleague.org or call 212.753.1722 x13. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available.

The Architectural League Prize is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The program is supported by Dornbracht, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.

The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring the exhibition and lecture series.

Images from top left to bottom right: form-ula, Arch XXX [ gallery interior 1]. Photo by Dhanraj Emanuel; NAMELESS, Playcloud. Image by Unchung Na+Sorae Yoo; William O’Brien Jr., Allandale House, © William O’Brien Jr. LLC.; form-ula, Electric Plant:Predator BLDG [ exterior night ]. Copyright form-ula; NAMELESS, Whiteout. Image by Unchung Na+Sorae Yoo; William O’Brien Jr., Allandale House © William O’Brien Jr. LLC.

The Architectural League Prize
Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno, Future Cities Lab
Kiel Moe
Catie Newell, Alibi Studio
Wednesday, June 15
7:00 p.m.
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Parsons The New School for Design
66 Fifth Avenue
1.5 CEUs
[add_to_calendar]

The League Prize exhibition opening and first evening of lectures by winners of the 30th annual Architectural League Prize, featuring Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno, Future Cities Lab; Kiel Moe; and Catie Newell, Alibi Studio.

Future Cities Lab is an experimental design and research office based in San Francisco, California and Athens, Greece. Design principals Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno have collaborated on a range of projects exploring the intersections of design with advanced fabrication technologies, robotics, responsive building systems, and public space. Most recently they were the 2008-09 Muschenheim and Oberdick Fellows at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the 2009 New York Prize Fellows at the Van Alen Institute in New York City, and exhibited work at the 2009-10 Hong Kong/Shenzhen Biennale, the Extension Gallery in Chicago, and the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco.

Jason Kelly Johnson received his M.Arch from Princeton University, and his B.S. from the University of Virginia.  Nataly Gattegno received her M.Arch from Princeton University, and a M.A. from Cambridge University, St. John’s College, UK.  They currently teach at California College of the Arts and the University of California, Berkeley, as well as workshops including the Architectural Association Global Summer Program Biodynamic Structures and Hydra-Cities Lab in Athens, Greece.

Kiel Moe is a registered architect and an Assistant Professor of Design and Building Technologies at Northeastern University. He maintains a design-build practice for smaller, research-driven projects that test certain propositions about architecture. Moe also consults with larger offices on integrated design strategies for projects at a range of building scales, types, and climates based on his research. His research focuses on the theories, techniques, and technologies of converged material and energy systems for higher-performance buildings. He is the author of Integrated Design in Contemporary Architecture and Thermally Active Surfaces in Architecture, both from Princeton Architectural Press. He was awarded the 2009-10 Gorham P. Stevens Rome Prize in Architecture and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. He recently received the 2011 AIA Young Architects Award.

Moe received his B.Arch from the University of Cincinnati, his M.Arch from the University of Virginia, and his M.DesS in Design and Environmental Studies from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Advanced Studies Program.

CatieNewell is a founding partner of Alibi Studio based in Detroit. Her work captures spaces and material effects, focusing on the development of new atmospheres through the exploration of textures, volumes, and the effects of light, or lack thereof. Newell’s most recent work and research is reflected in the installations completed in 2010: “Weatherizing,” and “Salvaged Landscape.” This work emphasized material and assembly logic research within the potent context of Detroit.  In 2006, she was awarded the SOM Prize for Architecture, Design and Urban Design with her project “Weather Permitting.”

Newell is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, joining in 2009 as the Oberdick Fellow. She received her M.Arch from Rice University and a B.S. in architecture from Georgia Tech.

Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Advance non-member tickets are sold out.  A limited number of tickets may be available for purchase at the door.

For more information, email info@archleague.org or call 212.753.1722 x13. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available.

The Architectural League Prize is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The program is also supported by Dornbracht, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.

The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring the exhibition and lecture series.

Images from top left to bottom right: Future Cities Lab, Aurora Project © Future Cities Lab (Johnson/Gattegno);Kiel Moe, View of StackHouse. Courtesy of Kiel Moe; Catie Newell, Salvaged Landscape, Detroit. Photo by Catie Newell; Future Cities Lab, Desert House © Future Cities Lab (Johnson/Gattegno); Kiel Moe, Ceiling of StackHouse. Courtesy of Kiel Moe; Catie Newell, Weatherizing, Detroit.  Photo by Catie Newell.

The Architectural League Prize:
ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS; ESKYIU; PEG office of landscape + architecture
Emily Abruzzo and Gerald Bodziak; Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu; Keith VanDerSys
Introduced by Ben Pell
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
7:00 p.m.
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Parsons The New School for Design
66 Fifth Avenue
1.5 CEUs
[add_to_calendar]

Tickets to the second night of the League Prize lectures are sold-out. The reception and exhibition following the lecture are free and open to all. You may attend the reception without holding a ticket to the lecture.

The second evening of lectures by winners of the 29th annual Architectural League Prize, featuring Emily Abruzzo and Gerald Bodziak of ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS; Eric Schuldenfrei and Marisa Yiu of ESKYIU; and Keith VanDerSYS of PEG office of landsape + architecture.

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.”

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 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.

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.

Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Non-members may purchase tickets here, beginning one week before each program until six hours before the program start. Purchased tickets are available for pick-up at the venue check-in desk and are non-refundable.

For more information, email info@archleague.org or call 212.753.1722 x13. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available.

The Architectural League Prize is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The program is also supported by the LEF Foundation, and by Dornbracht, Ibex Construction, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.

The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring the exhibition and lecture series.

Architectural League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Images from top left to bottom right:  Peaks & Valleys / © ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS llc;  URBAN PASTORAL: Fabricating a Vertical Landscape. Image courtesy of ESKYIU;  Not Garden /PEG; Irish Hills House / © ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS llc; LINEAR LANDSCAPES: Fabricating a Rural/Urban Interface. Image courtesy of ESKYIU; Double Jeopardy, west lounge, PEG. Photo: Beth Singer

The Architectural League Prize: Austin+Mergold; Bittertang; FAR frohn&rojas
Jason Austin and Aleksandr Mergold; Michael Loverich and Antonio Torres; Marc Frohn and Mario Rojas Toledo
Introduced by Cristina Goberna and Jinhee Park
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
7:00 p.m.
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Parsons The New School for Design,
66 Fifth Avenue
1.5 CEUs
[add_to_calendar]

Tickets to the first night of the League Prize lectures are sold-out. The reception and exhibition following the lecture is free and open to all. You may attend the reception without holding a ticket to the lecture.

The League Prize exhibition opening and first evening of lectures by winners of the 29th annual Architectural League Prize, featuring Jason Austin and Aleksandr Mergold of Austin+Mergold; Marc Frohn and Mario Rojas Toledo of FAR frohn&rojas; and Michael Loverich and Antonio Torres of Bittertang.

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 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.

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.

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, eco¬logical, 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.

For more information, email info@archleague.org or call 212.753.1722 x13. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available.

The Architectural League Prize is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The program is also supported by the LEF Foundation, and by Dornbracht, Ibex Construction, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.

The League thanks the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design for co-sponsoring the exhibition and lecture series.

Architectural League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Images from top left to bottom right: SURAL wall, © Austin+Mergold; Gondwana Circle: Interior View and Section, Bittertang; WALL HOUSE , Santiago de Chile (2004-2007), FAR frohn&rojas; RVG club house, © Austin+Mergold; Plush Toy Collection: Mother and Child, Bittertang; 2 in 1 , Cologne, Germany (2007-2009). FAR frohn&rojas + Sebastian Potz.

Young Architects Forum 2009
Aziza Chaouni and Takako Tajima, Bureau E.A.S.T., Fez, Toronto and Los Angeles
Frida Escobedo Lopez, Mexico City
Ivan Juarez and Patricia Meneses, ex.studio, Mexico City and Barcelona
Thursday, May 14, 2009
6:30 p.m.
The Urban Center
457 Madison Avenue
This program was part of the 2008-09 program calendar. Click here for information about our current season.

The first evening of lectures by winners of the League’s 2009 Young Architects Competition. Aziza Chaouni and Takako Tajima are principals of Bureau E.A.S.T., with offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Fez, Morocco. Frida Escobedo Lopez founded her Mexico City firm in 2006, after acting as co-director at perro rojo from 2003-2006. ex.studio, with offices in Barcelona and Mexico City, was founded by principals Ivan Juarez and Patricia Meneses.

For more information about the Young Architects Forum, click here.

Images, L-R: Dream House, Huesca, Spain, courtesy of ex.studio; Courtesy of Bureau E.A.S.T.; Bocachica Hotel, courtesy of Frida Escobedo Lopez.