Entries must be received at the League office by 5 p.m. or postmarked by
this date. There will be no exceptions to this deadline. The League cannot
be responsible for entries received by mail after the jury date, which will
be approximately a week after the deadline.

Call for Entries

Young architects and designers are invited to submit work to the annual
Young Architects Competition. Projects of all types, either theoretical or
real and executed in any medium, are welcome. The jury will select work for
presentation in public forums, an on-line installation, and an exhibition at
the Architectural League beginning in May 2008. Winners will receive a cash
prize of $1,000. A poster of the winning entries will be published and
distributed nationally, as will a catalogue of winning work published by
the Architectural League and Princeton Architectural Press. The Young
Architects Forum is an annual competition, series of lectures, and
exhibition organized by the Architectural League and its Young Architects
Committee. The Forum was established to recognize specific works of high
quality and to encourage the exchange of ideas among young people who might
otherwise not have a forum. For more information about the Architectural
League and work by last year’s Young Architects Forum winners, please
visit the Architectural League web site, www.archleague.org.

Eligibility

Entrants may submit work done independently, as an employee or as a
teacher. Entrants must be ten years or less out of graduate or
undergraduate school; students are not eligible for this competition. Work
completed for fulfillment of course requirements at academic institutions
is not eligible. Past Young Architects Forum winners are not eligible. Work
undertaken as an employee must be accompanied by a letter from a principal
in the firm stating that the entrant can be given sole credit for the work
submitted. The competition is open to residents of the United States,
Canada, and Mexico only.

Theme

Resonance

Architecture is a profession of ideas. Choice, agenda, and a means both to
respond to problems and project solutions are key to professional vitality
and progress.

But how do architectural ideas resonate beyond professional boundaries?
What are the means by which an architect’s ideas/acts take effect? It is
clear that architects’ productive power has never been greater than it is
today. Technological advances in building methodologies, expanded
communication networks, and cross-fertilization from other disciplines and
industries have expanded and diversified the architect’s toolset immensely.
This is especially true in young practices—generally more apt to
incorporate new tactics and techniques into their developing body of work.

What is less clear, however, is whether this increase in productive power
allows for a corresponding increase in the ability of architectural ideas
to resonate with issues and concerns outside the discipline—ones that
matter to the world at large.

Architecture, perhaps to a greater extent than most other disciplines, has
the ability to incorporate multiple layers of information from a diverse
array of sources. But it is also an extremely contingent discipline,
requiring negotiation with a vast range of financial, regulatory, social,
and cultural interests. How do we align the ambitions and capabilities of
our discipline with the needs and desires of a diverse and changing world?
Are architects developing productive ways to engage with today’s global
priorities or merely finding new ways to maintain an inadequate status quo?
What are the priorities? Where and how can architectural thought and duty
merge to address these problems constructively? What specific collaborative
models, operational practices, production techniques, and design processes
allow for architectural ideas to resonate?

We are calling, not for demonstrations of instrumental capacity, but for
ideas, implemented or not, that leverage that capacity creatively and
proactively in the world.

Submission requirements
The competition theme is given as a basis for young architects and
designers to reflect upon and reevaluate their work. A written statement
not to exceed 250 words is requested, which defines and considers the work.

A single portfolio, which may include several projects, must be submitted
in a binder no larger than 11” x 14”. The binder may not contain more
than thirty double-sided pages. CDs, models, slides, and transparencies
will not be accepted. Entries must be received at the League office by 5
p.m. February 11, 2008 or postmarked by that date.

Entry fee

Each entrant must submit an entry fee of $20.

Entry forms

Each submission must include an entry form. Insert form, intact, into an
unsealed envelope attached to the inside back cover of the submission. To
maintain anonymity, no identification of the entrant may appear on any part
of the submission, except on the entry form and return envelope (see below).

Portfolio return

Portfolios will be returned by mail only if a self-addressed envelope with
postage is also enclosed. Please ensure that return postage does not expire
before August 2008. The Architectural League assumes no liability for
original drawings. The League will take every precaution to return
submissions intact, but can assume no responsibility for loss or damage.

Selection

Winning entrants will be notified by late February 2008.

Jury

Karen Fairbanks

Jesse Reiser

Mark Robbins

Calvin Tsao

and the Young Architects Committee

Julie Beckman

Chris Lasch

Jonathan Lott

Architectural League Program Director

Anne Rieselbach

Sponsors

Artemide, Inc.

Dornbracht

LEF Foundation

Susan Grant Lewin Associates

Tischler und Sohn

League programs are made possible, in part, by public funds from the New
York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency and the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs.