LEDs embedded in Mobile ArtSpace container’s skin
Courtesy 64North LEDs embedded in Mobile ArtSpace container’s skin

Being rooted in as-yet-unbuilt architecture, the Progressive Architecture Awards are, by their very nature, forward-looking. Every year since its inception, in 1954, the program has challenged jurors and practitioners alike to define “progressive” for that given moment in the culture of architecture. This year’s jury awarded five projects, which vary widely in typology and scale. Yet each, the jurors agreed, pushes the boundaries of convention with a high degree of embedded material intelligence. If the winners on the following pages are any indication, the industry has plenty to look forward to.

THE WINNERS

Amant in New York City by SO – IL

Retail base
© Luxigon Retail base

Hanking Center Tower in Shenzhen, China, by Morphosis Architects

LEDs embedded in Mobile ArtSpace container’s skin
Courtesy 64North LEDs embedded in Mobile ArtSpace container’s skin

Long Beach Mobile ArtSpace in Long Beach, Calif., by 64North with Formation Association, Buro Happold, and Steve Roden

Courtesy Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Envisioning a Cultural Arts District in Kansas City, by Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism

Project R6 as it will appear in the Yongsan International Business District.
Project R6 as it will appear in the Yongsan International Business District.

Project R6 in Seoul, South Korea, by REX

THE JURY

As a design principal at Minneapolis-based Snow Kreilich Architects, Matthew Kreilich, AIA, has helped lead notable, collaborative projects such as CHS Field in St. Paul, Minn. Kreilich has also taught at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design and lectured at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Washington University in St. Louis.

Heather Roberge, Assoc. AIA, founded her Los Angeles–based practice, Murmur, in 2008, and teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design, where she also directs the undergraduate program. Roberge intertwines academia with practice to develop formal strategies evident in her built and speculative work.

Kim Yao, AIA, is one of the three principals of the New York–based Architecture Research Office (ARO), a firm that has won more than 70 design awards, including a 2010 Progressive Architecture Award for its Five Principles for Greenwich South: A Model for Lower Manhattan proposal. Yao also taught architecture at Barnard College for 10 years.