The Architectural League of New York has announced the six winners of Plot, the 44th cycle of its biennial League Prize for Young Architects + Designers—one of North America's most significant platforms spotlighting emerging design talent.
Founded in 1981 and open to architects and designers within ten years of receiving a degree, the League Prize challenges early-career practitioners to reflect on the evolving narratives shaping their work. This year’s theme, Plot, asked entrants to consider “how architecture engages with plot, whether as land, drawing, or scheme.” As the organizers described it: “Every building has its lore, and plots are known to thicken. Which dramas are shaping architecture’s arc today?”
The 2025 winners, selected for their innovative responses and dynamic portfolios, are:
- BALSA CROSETTO PIAZZI (Boston, MA and Troy, NY)
- Otros Entregables (Mexico City, Mexico)
- David Costanza (Ithaca, NY)
- DEBORA.STUDIO (New York, NY)
- 11 x 17 (Toronto, Canada and Denver, CO)
- salazarsequeromedina (New York, NY and New Orleans, LA)
Each of these practices explores architecture as a medium of inquiry—reimagining its boundaries through material, spatial, social, and narrative experimentation.
Inside the Winners’ Work:
BALSA CROSETTO PIAZZI, led by Juan Manuel Balsa, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, and Leandro Piazzi, operates between the U.S. and Argentina. Their practice is rooted in material sensibility and context-driven design across scales, from public installations to homes. “We consider the networks and cycles of materials, people, ecologies, knowledge, and resources that are part of the construction of architecture,” the team states.
Otros Entregables, the Mexico City-based platform founded by Karina Caballero and Camila Ulloa Vásquez in 2023, reframes the architectural toolkit through podcasts, events, and curatorial experiments. Their work blurs disciplinary boundaries, often created in collaboration with students, institutions, and unconventional makers.
David Costanza, founder of David Costanza Studio and director of the Building Construction Lab at Cornell AAP, uses a research-driven, design-build approach to question “how architects can operate as engaged participants in the act of making.” His work spans computational design, experimental tectonics, and sustainable housing.
DEBORA.STUDIO, helmed by Deborah Garcia, explores architecture through multisensory storytelling. Her site-specific installations and research projects often use sound as an architectural medium—“to investigate the crossed wires of what we hear, the stories we are a part of, and the things we feed back into the system,” she says.
11 x 17, the experimental design practice of Mahsa Malek and Alex Yueyan Li, addresses architecture at multiple scales—from buildings to books. With offices in Toronto and Denver, their projects probe the intersections of materiality, labor, and form. “We approach building construction as a conceptual device to engage larger issues around resources, labor, and form,” the duo explains.
salazarsequeromedina, formed by Laura Salazar, Pablo Sequero, and Juan Medina, centers its practice on civic engagement. Based in New York and New Orleans, their work—often made with repurposed materials—translates community-driven dialogue into open-ended spatial structures. Their portfolio spans Peru, Spain, South Korea, and the U.S.
A Hybrid Stage for Emerging Voices The League Prize continues to blend digital and physical formats. This year’s exhibition will debut online at archleague.org on June 10, 2025, showcasing original installations by each winner. A virtual lecture series kicks off the next day, with weekly talks held via Zoom on Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Lecture Series Schedule:
- June 11: 11 x 17 and salazarsequeromedina (moderated by Miles Gertler)
- June 18: Otros Entregables and DEBORA.STUDIO (moderated by Rayshad Dorsey)
- June 25: BALSA CROSETTO PIAZZI and David Costanza (moderated by Liz Gálvez)
The 2025 League Prize Committee—comprising Rayshad Dorsey, Liz Gálvez, and Miles Gertler, all past League Prize winners—organized the competition with League staff Anne Rieselbach and Zoe Fruchter. The jury included Behnaz Assadi, Mario Gooden, Jia Yi Gu, and William O’Brien Jr.
True to its founding mission, the League Prize continues to mark a turning point in the careers of young architects and designers. As this year’s theme reminds us, every practice has a plot—and every plot offers new ground to explore.
To learn more about the winners and past recipients, visit archleague.org/leagueprize.
