The Architectural League of New York announced the winners of its annual Emerging Voices award, which honors eight rising practitioners selected in a juried, invited portfolio competition. The program recognizes firms and individuals hailing from across North America and whose work impacts the disciplines of architecture, landscape design, and urbanism.
The winners will lecture in March at New York’s Scholastic Auditorium. In April, the League will present digital features on each of the winners on its website, exploring their work and design aesthetic.
The 2015 Emerging Voices winners:
Neri Oxman of the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass.
Oxman is an associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT’s Media Lab, where she founded its Mediated Matter Group. Among her research on the topic she describes as “material ecology” is the 2010 Silk Pavilion (shown), which used 6,500 silkworms to weave a covering on a digitally fabricated dome.
Gabriela Etchegaray and Jorge Ambrosi of Ambrosi | Etchegaray in Mexico City
Co-founders of the Mexico City–based Ambrosi | Etchegaray studio, the pair’s project work such as DAS House (shown) in Condesa, Mexico, features integration with the natural world and ample light. They are currently working on a number of cultural plazas and sports facilities in communities throughout the country.
Elizabeth Whittaker, AIA, of Merge Architects in Boston
Whittaker, who earlier this year received a 2015 AIA Young Architects Award, is the founding principal of Merge Architects in Boston and an assistant professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Recent project work includes the forthcoming YMCA Health and Wellness Center (shown) in East Brookfield, Mass.
Robert Rovira of Studio Roberto Rovira in Miami
A landscape architect, Rovira’s work crosses scale and typology to include public art, gardens, pavilions, and parks such as the proposed Parque de las Flores (shown) in Columbia. Rovira founded his eponymous studio in 2011 and chairs the landscape architecture department at Florida International University.
Brian Phillips, AIA, of ISA in Philadelphia
A principal at Interface Studio Architects in Philadelphia, Phillips’ work focuses on housing in cities including Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago. Among them is The Modules, a 72-unit student apartment building in Philadelphia that comprises more than 80 prefabricated modules. Phillips is currently a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.
Manuel Cervantes Cespedes of Manuel Cervantes Cespedes/ CC Arquitectos in Mexico City
Cespedes founded Mexico City–based architectural practice Manuel Cervantes Cespedes/ CC Arquitectos in 2005. The firm was the 2014 AR Emerging Architecture Award runner-up. Its recent projects include beach villas, country homes, urban housing developments, transit terminals, and an equestrian project (shown).
Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch of ArandaLasch in New York and Tucson, Ariz.
In 2003, Aranda and Lasch founded their eponymous firm with a focus on experimental research, interdisciplinary projects, and innovative buildings. The firm’s projects include the exhibition layout for Design Miami from 2008 to 2013, the Palais des Arts (shown), and “Primitives,” an installation at the 2010 Venice Biennale. In 2007, the team won the United States Artists Award and the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects.
Alejandro Guerrero and Andrea Soto of Atelier ArsÂş in Guadalajara, Mexico
Principals of Guadalajara, Mexico–based Atelier Arsº, Guerrero and Soto have completed projects such as the SMO House, which won a 2007 Gold Medal at the Jalisco Architecture Biennale in Mexico and the Levering Trade headquarters (shown). Guerrero founded the firm in 2000 and Soto became his associate in 2010. In addition to their work at the firm, both serve as professors—Guerrero at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente University in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, and Soto at the ESARQ School of Architecture in Barcelona, Spain.
This year’s jury included Cynthia Davidson; Susannah Drake, AIA; Mario Gooden, AIA; Louise Harpman, Assoc. AIA; Paul Lewis, AIA; Toshiko Mori, FAIA; Thomas Phifer, FAIA; and Billie Tsien, AIA. Emerging Voices is organized by League Program Director Anne Rieselbach.
Check out the 2014 winners here.
