Submission deadline: January 31, 2017
Jose Ahedo lecture: November 17, 2016
Harvard University
Graduate School of Design
48 Quincy St
Cambridge, MA
100,000 USD traveling fellowship available to early-career architects worldwide;
2015 winner Jose Ahedo lectures at Harvard GSD on November 17, 2016
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce the fifth cycle of the Wheelwright Prize, an open international competition that awards 100,000 USD annually to a talented early-career architect to support travel-based research. The 2017 Wheelwright Prize is now accepting applications. Deadline for submissions is January 31, 2017. This annual prize is dedicated to fostering new forms of architectural research informed by cross-cultural engagement.
The Wheelwright Prize is open to emerging architects practicing anywhere in the world. The primary eligibility requirement is that applicants must have received a degree from a professionally accredited architecture program in the past 15 years (after 2002). Applicants are asked to submit a portfolio, a research proposal, and a travel itinerary that takes them outside their country of residence. Applicants will be judged on the quality of their design work, scholarly accomplishments, originality and persuasiveness of their research proposal, and evidence of ability to fulfill the proposed project.
In 2013 Harvard GSD revamped the Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, which was established in 1935 in memory of Wheelwright, Class of 1887. The original fellowship was intended to encourage the study of architecture outside the United States, giving outstanding GSD alumni a classic Grand Tour experience at a time when international travel was rare. In the 81-year history of the prize, fellows have included Paul Rudolph, Eliot Noyes, William Wurster, Christopher Tunnard, I. M. Pei, Klaus Herdeg, Farès el-Dahdah, Adele Santos, and Linda Pollak.
The new Wheelwright Prize invites architects to imagine a Grand Tour for the 21st century, to propose travel itineraries propelled by compelling research agenda. “The overwhelming response to the prize reflects the strong desire of an emerging generation of architects to push the boundaries of the profession,” remarked Harvard GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi. “Having reviewed hundreds of applications from around the world, it’s clear that young architects everywhere are interested in alternative practices tied to a global spectrum of political, social, cultural, and environmental concerns.”
Previous Wheelwright Prize winners:
–2016, Anna Puigjaner, Barcelona (BArch 2004, MArch 2008 and PhD 2014, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona-Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), for her proposal to study collective housing models in Russia, Brazil, Sweden, China, Korea, and India, and their varied approach to organizing domestic spaces;
–2015, Erik L’Heureux, Singapore (BArch 1996, Washington University in St. Louis, and MArch 2000, Princeton University), for his proposal to study architecture in five dense cities in the equatorial zone;
–2014, Jose M. Ahedo, Barcelona (BArch 2005, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de la Universitat de Catalunya), for his research on the architecture and organization of structures related to animal farming;
–2013, Gia Wolff, Brooklyn (MArch 2008, Harvard GSD), for her study of the spectacular, temporary, urban-scale float structures that transform Rio de Janeiro during carnival.
Wheelwright Prize winners are invited to participate in the GSD’s renowned lecture series. On Thursday, November 17, 2016, at 6:30pm in Gund Hall’s Piper Auditorium, the 2015 winner Jose Ahedo will present Domesticated Grounds: Design and Domesticity Within Animal Farming Systems. In two years, Ahedo has visited eight countries on four continents, crossing 8,500 miles and meeting over 200 individuals involved in animal farming. The lecture will be live-streamed.
An international jury will be announced in early January 2017. Standing members of the Wheelwright Prize Organizing Committee include Dean Mostafavi and Professors K. Michael Hays. Applications are accepted online only, at wheelwrightprize.org. Finalists will be invited to present at Harvard GSD in April 2017, and a winner will named shortly thereafter.
