Young architects and designers are invited to submit work to the 2023 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 2023. Winners will receive a cash prize of $2,000.
This is an open call for a generation of designers in an age of the Uncomfortable.
Feeling awkward, nervous, or uneasy? As young designers, we are wrestling with numerous uncomfortable responsibilities: dismantling architectural legacies, challenging traditional paradigms, grappling with the costs of comfort, responding to ecological concerns. Our many discomforts range in scale, context, and urgency.
The 2023 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers asks entrants to examine the Uncomfortable. From climate change to labor practices, the sources of our discomfort demand both critical reflection and collective imagination. Are you restless within the discipline’s status quo? How do you respond to discomfort? Whose comfort matters?
We invite practices to demonstrate how they find comfort within the unconventional, discover opportunity within crisis, and use the Uncomfortable as a design tool.
A single digital portfolio in PDF format, with a file size no larger than 35MB and page dimensions not to exceed 11×14”. It may not contain more than 30 pages in total, excluding the cover page. The portfolio may either focus on a single project or feature multiple projects.
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 as 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.
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.
If relevant, please upload collaborator acknowledgment and/or partner acknowledgment form(s) to the submission portal.
The entry fee is $35 per submission, to be paid via the online competition portal.
All entries must be submitted through the League’s digital competition portal.
The deadline for entry is Wednesday, February 15, 2023 11:59 p.m. EST. There will be no exceptions to this deadline.
