The Harvard Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) has announced the 2020 cycle of the Wheelwright Prize, an open international competition that awards $100,000 to a talented early-career architect to support expansive, intensive design research. 

The 2020 Wheelwright Prize is now accepting applications; the deadline for submissions is Sunday, January 26, 2020. This annual prize is dedicated to advancing original architectural research that is informed by cross-cultural engagement and that shows potential to make a significant impact on architectural discourse.

Image courtesy of Wheelwright Prize

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 Harvard GSD is not required. 

Applicants are asked to submit a portfolio and research proposal that includes travel outside the applicant’s home country. The winning architect is expected to dedicate roughly two years of concentrated research related to their proposal, and to return to Harvard GSD to present a lecture on their findings.

Applicants will be judged on the quality of their design work, scholarly accomplishments, originality or persuasiveness of the research proposal, evidence of ability to fulfill the proposed project, and the potential for a successful project to make an important contribution to architectural discourse. 

Applications will be accepted online only, at Wheelwright Prize website. 

In 2013, Harvard GSD recast the Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship—established in 1935 in memory of Wheelwright, Class of 1887—into an open, international competition; previously intended to encourage the study of architecture outside the United States at a time when international travel was difficult, the Fellowship had traditionally been available only to Harvard 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.

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), in addition to standing jury members Mohsen Mostafavi and K. Michael Hays.

Previous winners include: 2019, Aleksandra Jaeschke (Austin, Texas) for her proposal to investigate greenhouse architecture and typologies around the world, 2018, Aude-Line Dulière (Brussels) for her proposal to examine construction methods and supply systems in the global film industry, 2017, Samuel Bravo (Santiago) for his proposal to examine traditional architectures and informal settlements, revisiting the subject of “architecture without architects”.

The 2020 Wheelwright Prize winner will be named in Spring 2020.

Top image: I Ramarri (Siracusa, Italy, 2012), terraced houses overlooking an agrarian landscape framed by the sea. Project by AION (Aleksandra Jaeschke and Andrea Di Stefano). Image courtesy of Harvard GSD.

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