Seven architects have been shortlisted from nearly 200 international applicants for Harvard University Graduate School of Design’s 2014 Wheelwright Prize. The $100,000 grant, which is awarded annually to a single architect to support travel-based architectural research, is “intended to spur innovative research during the early stage of an architect's professional career” and “foster new forms of research informed by cross-cultural engagement.”
Ranging from a Barcelona-based architect whose research proposal focuses on animal farming systems to a Croatian architect who wants to re-imagine the “border-scape” in Mediterranean countries, you can review all seven finalists after the break...
Jose Ahedo, Studio Ahedo, Barcelona
Wheelwright proposal: “Domesticated Grounds: Design and Domesticity Within Animal Farming Systems”
Jose Ahedo established his own firm, Studio Ahedo, in 2010. His first completed project is Blanca, a dairy complex in the Pyrenees, which includes 13 buildings comprising animal facilities, research labs, and an education center. He is also designing residential projects, and has consulted on graphic design, branding, and software development. He worked previously with Lopez-Rivera Arquitectes, aSZ arquitectes, and EQUIP Claramunt in Barcelona. He is currently collaborating on a project that will be presented as part of Rem Koolhaas’ Fundamentals, at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2014).
Ana Dana Beros, Think Space, Zagreb, Croatia
Wheelwright proposal: “INTERMUNDIA: Re-Imagining Border-Scape in Mediterranean Countries”
Ana Dana Beros is an independent architect, curator, editor, educator, and exhibition designer. She is the cofounder of ARCHIsquad and a board member of Think Space, a nonprofit that organizes conceptual architecture exhibitions. She is one of the curators of Monditalia, a section of Rem Koolhaas’ presentation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.
Alison Crawshaw, Alison Crawshaw Architects, London
Wheelwright proposal: “The Poison and the Cure: Rubbish in the Information Age”
Alison Crawshaw is an architect who has worked in London, New York, and Italy. Her portfolio includes buildings, installations, and numerous public realm and strategic urban design projects. She was a senior architect at muf architecture/art for seven years and continues to collaborate with the practice. She was a Rome Scholar in Architecture 2010–11, and participated inCommon Ground, David Chipperfield’s 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2012).
Masaaki Iwamoto, Partner at Vo Trong Nghia Architects, Ho Chi Minh City
Wheelwright proposal: “Tropical Skin: Study on New Building Envelope for Tropical Megacities”
Masaaki Iwamoto joined the award-winning firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects in 2011 as a partner and director of the Ho Chi Minh City office. Iwamoto worked previously at Kazuhiko Namba + Kai-Workshop in Tokyo and was a research fellow at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK). His work, which includes low-cost housing, a kindergarten, and workplaces, has been widely published.
Jimenez Lai, Bureau Spectacular, Chicago, IL
Wheelwright proposal: “Caricatures, Fictions and Hyperboles: A Revisit of the World of Wonders”
Jimenez Lai is the principal of Bureau Spectacular and an assistant architecture professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His previous employment includes stints at OMA, Atelier van Lieshout, and MOS. His work has been widely exhibited and published—his 2011 installation White Elephant is part of the MoMA collection, and a draft of his manifesto,Citizens of No Place (2012) has been archived at the New Museum. In 2012, Lai won the Architectural League’s Prize for Young Architects and in 2013, he won the Debut Award at the Lisbon Triennale. He will be representing Taiwan for the forthcoming Venice Architectural Biennale.
Sean Lally, Weathers, Chicago
Wheelwright proposal: “Climate Design: The Architecture of Energies”
Sean Lally is the founder of the firm Weathers and assistant architecture professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Lally co-edited Softspace: From a Representation of Form to a Simulation of Space (2007), guest-edited a special issue of AD Journal titled “Energies: New Material Boundaries” (2009), and authored The Air from Other Planets (2013). He won the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture (2012).
Kaz Yoneda, Takram Design Engineering, Tokyo
Wheelwright proposal: “Utopics of Cities: Amorphous Contemporaneity of Ideal”
Kaz Yoneda is the founder of the Architecture and Space Design Unit at Takram Design Engineering. He worked previously at Sou Fujimoto Architects, and worked with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) on a Detroit initiative in 2007. His design work has been exhibited at dOCUMENTA 13 (2012), the 12th International Architecture exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2010), and the Beijing Biennal (2010).
The 2014 Jury:
- GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi
- Architect and GSD professor Jorge Silvetti
- Architect and GSD professor Iñaki Abalos
- Architect and GSD professor Silvia Benedito
- MoMA architecture curator Pedro Gadanho
- New York architect Linda Pollak of Marpillero Pollak
- OMA Partner and NY Director Shohei Shigematsu
A winner will be announced on May 21.
News and descriptions via wheelwrightprize.org
