Ellen Peirson wins 2026 Wheelwright Prize for kitchens as ‘mineral landscapes’

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design has named London-based architect and writer Ellen Peirson the recipient of the 2026 Wheelwright Prize, awarding her $100,000 to support research into contemporary architecture with a global focus. Peirson’s winning proposal, Ultra-Processed Kitchens: Infrastructures of Extraction in the Home, examines the environmental and social impacts embedded within domestic kitchens. 

The project investigates kitchens as “mineral landscapes,” analyzing the materials, supply chains, and systems of extraction that underpin everyday household spaces. Through the research, Peirson aims to explore alternative approaches to kitchen design centered on material reuse, ecological limits, and long-term care.

Administered by Harvard GSD, the Wheelwright Prize supports innovative architectural research that crosses cultural and geographic boundaries. Recent winning projects have explored topics including Alpine communities, contemporary African urbanism, and the environmental consequences of sand mining.

In addition to her architectural practice, Peirson has led research on embodied carbon in residential renovations and writes on architecture, reuse, and housing. In her role at Mike Tuck Studio, Peirson led Don’t Throw Your House Away, a RIBA-funded study on embodied carbon in everyday home renovations. 

“The construction industry, at its worst, is toxic to land and people,” said Peirson. “Yet to make a home, whether through walls, objects, people or ideas, is one of the most human things we can do. The kitchen concentrates that tension: a place of ritual and sustenance, assembled from materials whose extraction and manufacture can cause harm far beyond the home.”