Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA – The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce the fourth round of the Wheelwright Prize, an open international competition that awards $100,000 to a talented early-career architect to support travel-based research. The 2016 Wheelwright Prize is now accepting applications; the deadline for submissions is February 15, 2016. This annual prize is dedicated to fostering new forms of architectural research informed by cross-cultural engagement. 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 programme in the past 15 years (after 2001). 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.

In 2013, Harvard GSD revamped the Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, which was established in 1935 in memory of Wheelwright, Class of 1887. Intended to encourage the study of architecture outside the United States at a time when international travel was difficult, the award 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. “We are pleased to see the enormous response to the prize over the past three years,” remarked Harvard GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi. “Having reviewed hundreds of applications from every corner of the globe, it’s clear that, worldwide, there is an emerging generation of architects with a strong desire to push the boundaries of this profession, to consider political, social, cultural, and environmental issues. Beyond giving a boost to talented young architects, the Wheelwright Prize is helping to define new territories of concern for the profession.” The 2016 jury will be: GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi; K. Michael Hays; Eva Franch i Gilabert; Jeannie Kim; Kiel Moe; Rafael Moneo; and Benjamin Prosky. 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. A winner will be named in April 2016.