Foresight is the eleventh in an annual series of publications that feature work by the winners of the Architectural League’s annual competition for young architects and designers. This year’s theme refers to an ability to survey, research, and engage the present toward particular, desired outcomes in the future.

The winners of the 2009 Young Architects competition—Bureau E.A.S.T., Frida Escobedo Lopez, Ether Ship, ex.studio, Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, and Phu Hoang Office—present forward-thinking projects that imagine an effective role for architecture in the years to come.

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Competition Deadline
February 8, 2010

Young Architects and Designers Committee
Cristina Goberna
Jinhee Park
Ben Pell

Jury
Matilda McQuaid
Calvin Tsao
Billie Tsien
Dan Wood
Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Call for Entries
Young architects and designers are invited to submit work to the annual Architectural League Prize Competition. Projects of all types, either theoretical or real and executed in any medium, are welcome. The jury will select work for presentation in public programs, an on-line installation, podcasts, and an exhibition in late spring 2010. Winners will receive a cash prize of $1,000, as well as an additional stipend for transportation determined at set levels based on the applicant’s proximity to New York. A catalogue of winning work will be published by the Architectural League and Princeton Architectural Press.

The Architectural League Prize is an annual competition, series of lectures, and exhibition organized by the Architectural League and its Young Architects + Designers committee. The Prize (formerly known as the Young Architects 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. For work by past winners, please click here.

Theme: ReSource
Architectural practice relies on resources: disciplinary resources, such as theory and technique; physical resources, such as materials and production technologies; and practical resources, such as coordination, planning, and financing. However, recent global shifts – from the financial crisis to the environmental crisis – are demanding that architects and designers rethink their resources, producing new approaches, techniques, and even terminology within our discipline.

This call for entries asks: In what ways is our discipline proving itself resourceful in the face of these challenges? How have young practices redefined themselves, from new models of professional practice, to emergent theoretical approaches or techniques of construction? Are architects and designers by necessity becoming better at sourcing materials and techniques to meet both a heightened environmental consciousness –looking ‘beyond the green’– and the current economic sobriety? Or are they turning to models outside of the discipline for sources of inspiration, novelty, and change?

It’s time for a pause, for a reflection; for measuring outdated paths to salvage what remains valid and relevant, while simultaneously reinventing our resources anew within an uncertain context. It’s time to resource architecture.

Eligibility
Entrants may submit as individuals or as a group of individuals. If the individual(s) is/are the sole principal(s) of a firm, the firm name will be listed as a winner as well. Entrants must submit work done independently; no work done as an employee of a firm, where the entrant is not a principal or partner, is eligible for submission. Entrants must be within ten years of graduation from an undergraduate or graduate program. Students enrolled in a doctoral program beyond a first professional degree are eligible to apply; however, no student work completed for any academic program or degree is eligible for submission. Educators may not include work done in their studios. Past Young Architects Forum winners are ineligible. If only one partner of a firm is eligible, he or she can enter as a single entrant. He or she must include a signed document from all other partners outlining the collaborative nature of the work and the firm will not be listed as a recipient of the Prize. Collaborative work between unrelated firms or individuals is eligible if the partnership is equal and any project with collaborators must include a signed document from the other collaborator(s) describing the collaborative nature of the work. Collaborative work will be considered within the context of an individual’s complete portfolio.

The competition is open to residents, who need not be citizens, of the United States, Canada, and Mexico only – residency must be met six out of the twelve months preceding the portfolio deadline. There is no restriction on where submitted projects, speculative or built, are located.

Entry Forms
Entry Form
Partner Acknowledgement Form
Collaborator Acknowledgement Form

Competition Deadline
February 8, 2010
Entries must be received at the League office by 5 p.m. or postmarked by this date. There will be no exceptions to this deadline. The League cannot be responsible for entries received by mail after the jury date, which will be approximately a week after the deadline.

Submission requirements
The competition theme is given as a basis for young architects and designers to reflect upon and reevaluate their work. A written statement not to exceed 250 words is requested, which defines and considers the work under the rubric of the competition theme. Significant weight is given to how an applicant’s work addresses the theme. A single portfolio, which may include several projects, must be bound and no larger than 11” x 14”. The portfolio may not contain more than thirty doublesided pages. CDs, models, slides, and transparencies will not be accepted. Entries must be received at the League office by 5 p.m. February 8, 2010 or postmarked by that date.

Each entrant must submit an entry fee of $25. Entrants may submit cash or a check payable to “The Architectural League of New York.”

Each submission must include an entry form. Insert form, intact, into an unsealed envelope attached to the inside back cover of the submission. To maintain anonymity, no identification of the entrant may appear on any part of the submission, except on the entry form and return envelope (see below).

Portfolios will be returned by mail only if a self-addressed envelope with postage is also enclosed. Please ensure that return postage does not expire before August 2010. The Architectural League assumes no liability for original drawings. The League will take every precaution to return submissions intact, but can assume no responsibility for loss or damage. Portfolios may be discarded after six months if no return envelope is provided.

The Architectural League
of New York
594 Broadway, Suite 607
New York, New York 10012

For more information, email info@archleague.org or call 212.753.1722 x13. To download a copy of The Architectural League Prize call for entries click here.

Selection
Winning entrants will be notified by mid-March 2010.

Sponsors
The Architectural League prize sponsors include Dornbracht, Ibex Construction, LEF Foundation, Susan Grant Lewin Associates, and Tischler und Sohn.

League programs are made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 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.

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

Click here to subscribe to League podcasts on iTunes.

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

Click here to subscribe to League podcasts on iTunes.

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

Click here to subscribe to League podcasts on iTunes.

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

Click here to subscribe to League podcasts on iTunes.

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.

Frida Escobedo Lopez
Young Architects Forum 2009: Foresight
Recorded: May 14, 2009
Running Time: 17:24

Click here to subscribe to League podcasts on iTunes.

Frida Escobedo Lopez founded her Mexico City firm in 2006, after acting as co-director at perro rojo from 2003-2006. She describes the work of the office as focusing on “the residual and the forgotten: from decadent suburbs that are being subdivided, to rundown tourist spots, to unused roofs and basements” focusing on identifying “forces that change the configuration of cities…central and powerful or marginal, formal or informal.” Her built and current work includes Casa 24, Casa 662, Casa Negra, and Villa 49, part of the ORDOS 100 project. Her renovation (with Jose Rojas) of the Bocachica Hotel in Acapulco is currently under construction. In 2006 the firm received first place in an affordable housing competition, and in 2005 a Young Creator’s Grant from the National System of Arts, Mexico for the Caja Gris.

Escobedo received her B.Arch. from the Universidad Iberoamericana, where she currently is a faculty member.

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.

Bureau E.A.S.T
Young Architects Forum 2009: Foresight
Recorded: May 14, 2009
Running Time: 29:29

Click here to subscribe to League podcasts on iTunes.

Aziza Chaouni and Takako Tajima are principals of Bureau E.A.S.T., with offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Fez, Morocco. The firm’s primary focus, exemplified in their ongoing “Out of Water” research, an investigation of where high-risk urban arid zones will be located in the next 50 years, is to sustainably integrate design into the environment. Their Fez river rehabilitation project won the 2008 Holcim Gold Award in Sustainable Construction and the 2009 EDRA best places award. Chaouni is also the director of the research board of DOCO.MO.MO Morocco, and winner of the Progressive Architecture research award in 2007 for her research project, “Hybrid Urban Sutures: Filling the Gaps” in the Medina of Fez.

Chaouni received her B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Columbia University and her M.Arch. from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is currently an assistant professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. Tajima received her B.Arch. from Carnegie Mellon University and an MLA and an MUP from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

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.

Young Architects Forum 2009
Cristina Goberna and Urtzi Grau, Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, Brooklyn
Phu Hoang, Phu Hoang Office, New York City
Sung Goo Yang, Ether Ship, Boston
Thursday, May 21, 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 second evening of lectures by winners of the League’s 2009 Young Architects Competition. 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.” Phu Hoang founded his New York City firm Phu Hoang Office in 2004.Sung Goo Yang established his Boston-based firm Ether Ship in 2008.

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

Images, L-R: Foodopolis, courtesy of Phu Hoang Office; Vogue House, courtesy of Sung Goo Yang; House for Cesar, courtesy of Cristina Goberna and Urtzi Grau.

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.