League Prize Winner Bio
Thom Moran
The League Prize, an annual competition that asks young designers to respond to a given theme, has marked an important milestone in many architects’ careers. Winners showcase their work through a lecture series and exhibition.
Thom Moran was a winner of the 2015 competition.
Thom Moran is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based designer. Moran’s collaborative design work focuses on, in his words, “using humor to investigate the relationships between architecture, environments and objects.” He also collaborates on projects and exhibitions at the Detroit-based initiative THING THING.
Ongoing projects include Obstacle, a group show that reimagines the obstacle course; Hitchhiker, an exploration of architecture through computer software; and Sbagliato, which looks at the themes of counterfeit and homage by recreating iconic lighting designs with compromised material processes. Past projects include Balloon Factory, a collaborative installation of handcrafted balloons created and sold at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; Making Friends, a large-scale puzzle of handmade recycled plastic; Rainbro, an urban sculpture; and Between You and Me, a submission to the 2015 Folly competition.
Moran’s work has been widely exhibited, including Grounds for Detroit, shown at the Venice Biennale in 2012; We Are Here, exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2011; and Some True Stories, exhibited at Storefront for Art and Architecture in 2008.
Thom Moran received his B.S. in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001 and his M.Arch from Yale University in 2007. Moran is an assistant professor of architecture at Taubman College at the University of Michigan.