The 2019 Wheelwright Prize is now accepting applications

Wheelwright Prize

The WheelWright  prize is design for “talented early-career architect to support travel-based research.”

This annual prize is dedicated to fostering new forms of architectural research informed by cross-cultural engagement.

The 2019 Wheelwright Prize is now accepting applications; the deadline for submissions is Sunday, January 27, 2019. 

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. An affiliation to the GSD is not required. Applicants are asked to submit a portfolio, a research proposal, and a travel itinerary that takes them outside their country of residence. Finalists will be asked to travel to the GSD for finalist presentations on March 14, 2019.

History 

In 2013, Harvard GSD recast the Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship—established in 1935 in memory of Wheelwright, Class of 1887—into its current form. Intended to encourage the study of architecture outside the United States at a time when international travel was difficult, the Fellowship was available only to GSD alumni. Past fellows have included Paul Rudolph, Eliot Noyes, William Wurster, Christopher Tunnard, I. M. Pei, Farès el-Dahdah, Adele Santos, and Linda Pollak.

Jury

An international jury will be announced in January 2019. In addition to Dean Mostafavi and Professors K. Michael Hays and Jorge Silvetti, previous juries have included Jose Ahedo, Edward Eigen, Frida Escobedo, Mark Lee, and Michelle Wilkinson (2018 jury); Gordon Gill, Mariana Ibañez, and Gia Wolff (2017 jury); Rafael Moneo, Kiel Moe, Jeannie Kim, Benjamin Prosky, and Eva Franch i Gilabert (2016 jury); Craig Evan Barton, Preston Scott Cohen, Sarah Herda, and Elisa Silva (2015 jury); Iñaki Ábalos, Sílvia Benedito, Pedro Gadanho, Linda Pollak, and Shohei Shigematsu (2014 jury); Yung Ho Chang, Farès el-Dahdah, Farshid Moussavi, and Zoe Ryan (2013 jury).

Application

Applicants will be judged on the quality of their design work, scholarly accomplishments, originality or persuasiveness of the research proposal, and evidence of ability to fulfill the proposed project. Applications are accepted online only, at wheelwrightprize.org. Finalists must be available to travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for finalist presentations on March 14, 2019, at the GSD. A winner will be named in spring 2019.

Benefits

The Wheelwright Prize is a $100,000 travel-based research grant that is awarded annually to early-career architects who have demonstrated exceptional design talent, produced work of scholarly and professional merit, and who show promise for continued creative work.

> The winner will be selected via an open call for proposals and a rigorous review process. The winner of the Wheelwright Prize will receive:

• $100,000 cash prize to support travel and research-related costs
• > invitation to lecture at Harvard GSD
• > possibility to publish research in a Harvard GSD publication

• How to Apply.
• The whole application process is done online. Please note you can only apply as an individual. To apply first you need to check if you are eligible. Click here to if you are eligible. If you are, you may proceed to apply HERE.

 Material from wheelwrightprize.org has been used in this article.

Nigerian Architects Lose Bid To Dissolved it Regulatory Body

Four notable Nigerian architects, who sought to get a judicial verdict to dissolve their regulatory body, Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), have lost that bid.

In a suit instituted by  Tonye Braide, Abimbola Ajayi, David Majekodunmi and Dike Emmanuel against ARCON, the plaintiffs, sought among others a legal pronouncement that the present ARCON had since been dissolved, but the court ruled otherwise.  

Justice Hadiza Shagari of a Federal High Court, Lagos, concluded that the case was unmeritorious and consequently dismissed it. 

While Braide was the immediate past president, Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Ajayi was the General Secretary and Majekodunmi the Chairman of the Students Affairs Committee. Emmanuel was the Chairman, International Affairs Committee in the last executive members of the professional group.

To clear the air over the heated controversy surrounding reports on the court case, the current NIA president, Adibe Njoku said that the plaintiffs in the case went to court in their personal capacity.

According to him, the case has nothing to do with NIA, as there was no time the council of the professional body endorsed the legal action against ARCON. 

Njoku said NIA, as a body never initiated any suit against ARCON in the recent time, describing reports that NIA sued ARCON as misleading.