2021 Unbuilt Architecture and Design Awards

Jurors

Chan Haouzi AIA
associate teaching professor of design for environmental justice and public good in the built environment, Northeastern University;
founder, Architecture for Public Benefit;
rose fellow at City of Boston

Caleb Hawkins
associate designer
MASARY Studios

Penn Rudermann AIA LEED AP
director
OPRCH The Office of Penn Ruderman Architects

Tao Zhang ASLA, PLA, LEED AP ND, SITES AP
chair of design culture board of directors
principal, landscape architect
Sasaki

Jury Overview

With relatively fewer financial and technical constraints, the Unbuilt Architecture and Design category offers much intellectual freedom and flexibility to take on acute social, environmental, and design challenges. It’s also an opportunity to open new avenues for the engagement of architectural creativity and design excellence.

Projects can be edgy, conceptual, and forward thinking, and project alternative realities and futures for what architecture can be. It can question who or what it is in service of. These are the designs and ideas that force us to confront the things too often ignored in practice and embrace aspects of the profession that have historically come up short.

This year’s winners were exceptional amidst some thought-provoking projects submitted. The jury was hoping to see bolder impacts or empathy of today’s broader societal challenges. Ultimately, the jury selected projects that delivered solutions for the betterment of communities. The projects submitted this year, including many previously excluded or relegated to the periphery, have been readily visible in museums and other settings throughout the year—yet, continue to resonate across disciplines. We urge future submissions in this category to push boundaries and design further.