This year's Architectural League Prize winners offer answers to elemental questions about the foundations of design

Winners have been announced in The Architectural League of New York's latest Prize for Young Architects + Designers portfolio competition. Each contestant is an early-career architect with no more than ten years out of a B.Arch or Master’s program. 

The theme for this year’s cycle is called “Grounding” and challenged entrants to “reflect on the substance of design’s foundations.” The League defined Grounding as a process of “making vital connections to what is already there materially, socially, and otherwise [while] contending with placeless, pervasive processes” and hoped to find an answer to a trio of questions: How do young architects tether their work and practices to the grounds upon which they design? How can designers respond to both the particularities of location and the ubiquity of global forces? And, what are intentional approaches to and forms of grounding?

Scroll down to see the full list of winners from the U.S. and Mexico.

Citygroup, New York, NY

Nathan Friedman and Francisco Quiñones of Departamento del Distrito, Mexico City, Mexico

Isaac Stein and Maggie Tsang of Dept., Houston, TX

Farzin Lotfi-Jam of Farzin Farzin, Ithaca, NY

Xavi Laida Aguirre of stock-a-studio, Detroit, MI

Jose Amozurrutia and Carlos Facio of TO, Mexico City, Mexico

The group was selected by a jury that was made up of Mabel O. Wilson, Carla Juaçaba, Lola Sheppard, and Chris T. Cornelius in addition to a committee of past winners. 

Adjacent programming and exhibition will follow a hybrid model both online and at the League's Nolita headquarters. The lecture series will be held online on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 EDT beginning on June 15th. Each lecture will feature presentations followed by a discussion and Q&A sessions. Winners will create installations of their work either onsite where they are located or else in entirely digital formats, which will then be presented in an online exhibition on archleague.org.