Each year, the Architectural League of New York recognizes firms and individuals from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for their "distinct design voices and the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape design, and urbanism" as part of its Emerging Voices award program. This year, the eight winners are Bernardo Quinzaños Oria and Ignacio Urquiza Seoane of Mexico City–based Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica; Bryan C. Lee Jr., Assoc. AIA, and Sue Mobley of New Orleans–based Colloqate; Trattie Davies and Jonathan Toews, AIA, of New York–based Davies Toews; Brennan Buck and David Freeland, AIA, of FreelandBuck in Los Angeles and New York; Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem of Brooklyn, N.Y.–based Modu; Troy Schaum and Rosalyne Shieh, AIA, of Houston- and New York–based Schaum/Shieh; Iree Gardpoit and Eiri Ota of Toronto-based UUfie; and Ben Waechter, AIA, of Waechter Architecture in Portland, Ore. FreelandBuck and Schaum/Shieh have also previously been featured in ARCHITECT’s Next Progressives series which also highlights promising young firms.
“This year’s Emerging Voices explore different modes of architectural inquiry—social, environmental, formal, computational, and material—to create ambitious design solutions across a broad scale, from installations and public space to housing and cultural institutions,” said program director Anne Rieselbach in a press release.
The winners were selected from around 45 applicants following a two-phase jury. Jury members comprised of Ersela Kripa, Fernanda Canales, Anne Marie Duvall Decker, Marc Manack, AIA, Sebastian Schmaling, AIA, Robert Hutchison, Heather Roberge, Assoc. AIA, Johanna Hurme, Virginia San Fratello, Omar Gandhi, David Dowell, AIA, Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, Paul Lewis, FAIA, Lisa Switkin, Dominic Leong, AIA, Jules Dingle, FAIA, Stella Betts, Josephine Minutillo, Alan Organschi, and Yolande Daniels, Assoc. AIA.
Starting March 7, the Architectural League of New York will host four nights of lectures by the winning firms.
Bernardo Quinzaños Oria and Ignacio Urquiza Seoane, Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica
From the Architectural League: Bernardo Quinzaños Oria and Ignacio Urquiza Seoane founded Mexico City-based Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica (CCA) in 2008. With plans to establish independent practices in the offing, Oria and Seoane’s work as CCA has consistently focused on multidisciplinary collaboration as a means to optimize design outcomes. Recent projects include the Boys and Girls Club of Mexico in Ecatepec, Mexico, and residential commissions Casa Moreno and Casa Estudio Hill in Valle de Bravo and Mexico City, respectively.
Bryan C. Lee, Jr. and Sue Mobley, Colloqate
From the Architectural League: Colloqate was founded in 2017 by Bryan C. Lee, Jr. and Sue Mobley. The New Orleans-based firm describes itself as “a multidisciplinary nonprofit design justice practice focused on expanding community access to, and building power through, the design of public, civic, and cultural spaces.” Recent projects include Design Justice, a multi-pronged initiative to address injustice in the built environment, and Claiborne Cultural Innovation District, a 19-block transformation of space beneath an elevated expressway.
Trattie Davies and Jonathan Toews, Davies Toews
From the Architectural League: Davies Toews was founded in 2009 by Trattie Davies and Jonathan Toews. The New York-based practice seeks to identify project limitations and constraints early on, then shape design strategies around them. Its built work spans school buildings, private homes, and park facilities. Recent projects include University of Chicago Charter School: Woodlawn, the Cupsuptic Bathhouse and Pavilion in Cupsuptic Lake Campground in Oquossoc, Maine, and Hudson Linear Park a footbridge connecting two areas of Hudson, NY previously separated by an unwalkable sloped landscape.
Brennan Buck and David Freeland, FreelandBuck
From the Architectural League: Brennan Buck and David Freeland founded FreelandBuck in 2010. Based in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, the firm’s work to date encompasses large-scale installations, private houses, offices, and restaurants. Its designs explore the idea of layers: “layers of meaning, illusion, and visual effect that engage various audiences,” according to the firm philosophy statement. Recent projects include MINI LIVING Urban Cabin, a site-specific installation that addresses new models for living in the context of increased density, and an office redesign utilizing versatile “cubicle” structures for Los Angeles commercial production house HungryMan Productions.
Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem, MODU
From the Architectural League: After several years of collaborating as solo practitioners, Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem launched Brooklyn firm MODU in 2012. Much of the firm’s work addresses climate change through a design approach Hoang and Rotem describe as “indoor urbanism.” They write: “Architecture is not simply the middle scale of the built environment, but the space where the urban and interior scales intersect. Merging these two opposing scales prompts the borders around architecture to recede, which can change everyday attitudes about the environment.” Recent projects include the plaza pavilions Outdoor Room in Shanghai, and Cloud Seeding in Tel Aviv, both of which draw attention to the movement and condition of the cities’ air quality.
Troy Schaum and Rosalyne Shieh, Schaum/Shieh
From the Architectural League: Founded in 2009 by Troy Schaum and Rosalyne Shieh, SCHAUM/SHIEH is based in Houston and New York City. The firm’s origins lie in Shaum and Shieh’s desire to explore the links between art, form, and urbanism. They write: “The practice has a particular interest in the city at the scale of the building, both as a site of theoretical experimentation and as a reality that may be transformed through building.” Recent projects include Transart House, a residence and private gallery in Houston, Texas, and White Oak Music Hall, part of a locally owned cluster of music venues in Houston’s historic Near Northside neighborhood.
Irene Gardpoit and Eiri Ota, UUfie
From the Architectural League: Irene Gardpoit and Eiri Ota founded UUfie in Tokyo in 2009. They relocated to Toronto in 2013. The firm’s output includes architecture, industrial design, art, and landscape design. The partners write: “Our work aims to make architecture a sensory and visceral experience, an interactive process that engages people in fluid interplays and unique juxtapositions of architecture and landscape.” Recent projects include a sculptural façade fabricated from glass bricks for fashion retailer Ports 1961’s flagship store in Shanghai, a vertical circulation space or verticalité in Paris department store Printemps Haussmann, and Lake Cottage, a treehouse-inspired home in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada.
Ben Waechter, Waechter Architecture
From the Architectural League: Ben Waechter founded his eponymous Portland, Oregon practice in 2007. The firm has completed a variety of projects in the Pacific Northwest, from multi-family housing to mixed-use commercial developments. Its projects aim for conceptual and formal clarity; Waechter writes that the power of architecture is “to distill the clutter of the everyday and reveal the underlying relationships and potentials of inhabitation.” Recent projects include the new Society Hotel, a boutique schoolhouse conversion hotel in Bingen, Washington, Origami, a multi-family residential development in Northeast Portland, and a renovation and expansion of Furioso Vineyards in Dundee, Oregon.
See the winners of last year's Emerging Voices firms here.
