8 Up-and-Coming Architects You Should Know
The definition and scope of architecture are constantly expanding, thanks in part to the innovative and interdisciplinary work of young and emerging architects. Across the United States and around the world, they are not only erecting buildings, but also using their medium to address environmental, social, and cultural issues. Featured here are a handful of the architects piloting the developments and experimentations that are taking the discipline to new levels.
Their practices incorporate diverse methods and processes and draw from various fields like art, ecology, anthropology, and engineering. They value experimentation with materials, construction methods, and technology, and work between multiple media such as sculpture, installation, industrial, and landscape design, in addition to architecture itself. Another factor in expanding the field is a marked shift toward working collaboratively—many newer firms are actually partnerships between several architects.
Some of these practitioners are already quite noticeable, constructing towering skyscrapers and huge institutions all over the world, while others are a little less visible, designing smaller-scale homes and installations in farther corners of the country. In either case, they are certainly worth watching out for.
From L.A. to Tokyo, here is a list of up-and-coming architects you should know.
Thomas Bercy & Calvin ChenBercy from Belgium, and Chen from Taiwan and Australia, met as classmates at the University of Texas, Austin, and formed Bercy Chen Studio LP together in 2001. They bring an international influence to the southwestern landscape with their many residential and commercial projects, but also have offices in Los Angeles, Taiwan, and Mexico, and have submitted plans for larger institutional projects. The two are also dedicated to cultural initiatives and ecological concerns in Austin and abroad. Their 2010 mixed-use “East Village” complex, pictured, uses bright, geometrical forms that seem to float across the façade, doubling as sun shades and balconies.
Benjamin Ball & Gaston NoguesBoth alumni of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and Gehry Partners, Los Angeles-based designers Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues work together as Ball Nogues Studio. Their work is an amalgam of architecture, art, and industrial design, favoring sculptural fences, lattices, curtains, and installations over skyscrapers and residences. For the 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., the duo created a “Pulp Pavilion” from an innovative construction process of recycled paper pulp sprayed onto a rope base. The result was a sturdy but temporary structure that was fully recyclable and compostable at the end of the event.
Andrés JacqueAndrés Jacque works in his native Spain as well as New York City. His firm, Office for Political Innovation, takes an interdisciplinary approach to architecture, employing sociologists, economists, and journalists, and keeps social and environmental inclusivity a top priority. The pictured “House in Never Never Land” in Ibiza, Spain is a fantastical tree house built mostly above ground to minimize impact to the natural site. Jacque is also helping to shape a new generation of architects and innovators as a professor of architecture at both Columbia and Princeton.
Jeanne GangJeanne Gang is the founder of Studio Gang Architects in Chicago, where most of her work exists, but her talents and ambitions are poised for a wider national and global reach. In 2011 she was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, as well as numerous awards for the firm and individual projects. Her 2010 Aqua Tower in the photo is covered in unique, undulating balconies rippling down its 87-story façade, and is the largest project ever awarded to a woman-led American architectural firm. However, Gang is preparing to outdo herself with a 93-story tower proposed in downtown Chicago for completion in 2019.
Roberto de Leon & Ross PrimmerAlthough Roberto de Leon and Ross Primmer are based in Louisville, Ky., they make anything but old Kentucky homes. Established in 2003, De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop emphasizes economical design, simple materials, and traditional craft and construction methods, while their practice focuses on public and non-profit projects. This ethos lends itself well to historical restoration, renovation, and expansion projects for cultural institutions. Take the Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitor Center in Lawrenceburg, Ky., completed in 2013. The commercial shop and tasting room is nevertheless a marker of the area’s history and culture, as one of the original members of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Leon and Primmer employed a simple barn silhouette, updated with more intricate wooden latticing and window designs.
Emmanuelle MoureauxFrench architect Emmanuelle Moureaux has lived in Tokyo for nearly 20 years, where in 2003 she established her firm emmanuel moureaux architecture + design. Her light-filled, rainbow-colored designs are inspired by the simplicity of Japanese minimalism and hints of bright kawaii culture, and are also guided by the principle of shikiri—a concept she invented meaning “dividing and creating space through colors.” In her 2010 project for the Sugamo Shinkin Bank, she turned the usually stodgy space of a financial institution into a fanciful fairyland with bright furniture, landscaped courtyards, and a colorful façade.
Matthias Hollwich & Marc KushnerMatthias Hollwich and Marc Kushner met in Berlin, but hopped the pond to New York City to form their firm HWKN in 2007. Their diverse projects range from retail and commercial endeavors, to residential towers, community centers, and public installations. Their award-winning 2012 project Wendy for the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program was not only an architectural structure for the museum’s courtyard, but also an active air purifier and water feature for the hot summer it was up. The duo also founded Architizer, the largest online platform and resource for architecture.
Caroline O’DonnellIt was by way of Ireland, England, New York, Germany, the Netherlands, and finally a professorship at Cornell University that brought Irish-born Caroline O’Donnell to establish her firm, CODA, in the small town of Ithaca, N.Y. No wonder, then, that her experimental practice is also decidedly transatlantic, with designs for projects in Germany, Croatia, Russia, and Norway to name a few. She was the 2013 winner of MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program, for which she built a modular pavilion with pools, stages, and picnic benches woven into its abstract structure.
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