New Practices New York 2025: Voice

New Practices New York, a biennial competition since 2006, serves as a preeminent platform to recognize and promote new and innovative architecture and design firms in New York City. Organized by the AIANY New Practices Committee, this juried portfolio competition honors designers that apply unique and innovative strategies, both in the projects they undertake and the practices they have established.

2025 Theme: Voice

After a pause since the last award cycle in 2020, we are excited to relaunch the ninth edition of the New Practices New York Award for 2025. In the intervening years, the world has experienced major upheaval, and the field of architecture has been met with both challenges and opportunities in light of those changes, opening new questions about how we work, respond, evolve and adapt. 

In this new context, we seek New York City-based architecture and design practices who offer a distinctive voice in engaging the critical issues that are relevant now. In particular, we call for portfolios with innovative design work and thinking that draws upon the idea of voice, both as an expression of unique identity and as an instrument for communicating purpose and intent. We seek practices that use the agency of their voice to expand the role of the practitioner in crafting new approaches and models for working in architecture, to promote a spirit of experimentation in the design process, and to provoke creative and adaptive bodies of work. 

As a new practice, how do you “find your voice” and establish a fresh point of view that can be distinguished amid a saturation of images, information, data, and the emergence of AI? When and how do you “raise your voice” and assert your practice in engaging critical issues or as an agent for positive change for communities and the built environment? What do you have to say and how do you express the tone, tenor, and message of your voice? 

Through this call for entries, we are looking to discover and highlight a diverse array of voices in architecture that stand out both for their contributions as a singular practice and together as a cohort of voices in complementary and collective dialogue with one another.

Design Jury:
Alice Grandoit-Šutka, Co-founder & Editor in Chief, Deem Journal
Kim Yao, FAIA, Principal, Architecture Research Office
Chris Leong, Co-founder, Leong Leong
Jaffer Kolb, Co-founder, New Affiliates
Beatrice Galilee, Co-founder & Executive Director, The World Around

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