Young architects and designers are invited to submit work to the 2024 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 lectures, digital media, and an exhibition in June 2024. Winners will receive a cash prize of $2,000.
Established in 1981 to recognize visionary work by young practitioners, the Architectural League Prize is an annual competition, lecture series, and exhibition organized by The Architectural League and its Young Architects + Designers Committee.
Learn more about past winners of The Architectural League Prize.
THE YOUNG ARCHITECTS + DESIGNERS COMMITTEE
Sarah Aziz
Rodrigo Escandón Cesarman
Maggie Tsang
JURY
Julie Bargmann
Ersela Kripa
Ann Lui
Ben Nicholson
Download the call for entries poster designed by Pentagram.
THEME: DIRTY
Dirt is matter: it is the soil, the ground, and the earth. But when dirt makes things dirty, they become unclean. To be dirty is not only a physical state of being; it is a moral position, as “dirty” subjects are understood to be vulgar, illicit, unpleasant, and improper. If cleanliness is next to godliness, dirtiness is debased.
This year’s League Prize asks designers to look beyond their presentations of professionalism, respectability, and expertise. We prompt designers to expose the forces that shape design practice, projects, modes of representation, and communication. It’s time to dish the dirt… How do you reject sanitized ways of working with built, natural, and political environments? Show us your dirty ways and dirty things.
TEMA: MUGRE
La mugre es materia: es la tierra, el suelo, el planeta. Hasta que la mugre ensucia— ser sucie no es solo un estado físico del ser; es una posición moral. Se entiende de los sujetos “sucies” que son vulgares, ilícitos, desagradables e inadecuados. Si la limpieza está al lado de la divinidad, la suciedad es la degradación.
Este año el League Prize le pide a los diseñadores que miren por encima de sus fachadas de profesionalismo, respetabilidad y competencia. Lo incitamos a que exponga las fuerzas que moldean el diseño, los proyectos, los modos de representación y comunicación. ¿Cómo rechaza usted las higienizadas formas de trabajar con los ambientes construidos, naturales y políticos? Es hora de parar de lavar la ropa sucia en casa… Muéstrenos su mugre.
ELIGIBILITY
The competition is open only to current full-time residents (who need not be citizens) of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Entrants must be ten years or less out of a bachelor’s or master’s degree program. Current students are ineligible.
No student work completed for any academic program or degree is eligible for submission. Educators may not include work done in their studios or for their teaching.
Entrants may submit individually or as a group. 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.
Past League Prize winners are ineligible.
PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION
If only one partner of a firm is eligible, the eligible partner can enter as an individual. The entrant must upload a signed document from all other partners that briefly describes the entrant’s role within the practice. If the entrant’s portfolio is selected, the individual, not the firm, will be listed as a recipient of the prize.
Projects realized in collaboration with other practices or individuals may be included in the competition portfolio. Projects of this type must be accompanied by signed documents from all non-entrant collaborators describing their contribution to the work and approving the project’s inclusion in the entrant’s competition portfolio. League staff will review these documents before the jury convenes and will inform the jury about the collaborations when relevant. Collaborative work will be considered within the context of an individual’s complete portfolio.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
A single digital portfolio in PDF format, with a file size no larger than 60MB and page dimensions not to exceed 11×14 inches. It may not contain more than 30 pages in total, excluding the cover page. Please do not include any external links.
The jury will review each portfolio in its original digital format. During the deliberation process, jurors will see a grid of the submitted portfolios’ cover pages. In this view, the cover pages will be automatically cropped to small square thumbnails. To facilitate jury review, the first page of the portfolio must be formatted as a square (1:1) and should feature a representative image of the work.
If relevant, please upload collaborator acknowledgment and/or partner acknowledgment form(s) to the submission portal.
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 that defines and considers the work under the rubric of the competition theme is required. Significant weight is given to how an applicant’s work addresses the theme. The written statement must be on the first (non-cover) page of the portfolio.
This is an anonymous competition. Submitted portfolios may not contain any form of identification. Including an entrant’s name, firm name, or photograph anywhere in the portfolio is grounds for disqualification.
ENTRY FEE
The entry fee is $35 per submission, to be paid via the online competition portal.
COMPETITION DEADLINE
Thursday, February 15, 2024 11:59 p.m. ET
There will be no exceptions to this deadline.
SELECTION
Winning entrants will be notified by mid-March 2024.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Anne Rieselbach
PROGRAM MANAGER
Zoe Fruchter
QUESTIONS
Applicants may email questions to Program Manager Zoe Fruchter, fruchter@archleague.org.
