by: AIA New York
Hosted by the AIANY Interiors Committee, Recipe for a Room is a model-making contest about building spatial, sculptural, miniature rooms while fostering fun, creativity and professional mentorship. For the 2021 edition, two-person teams, each comprised of a student and architect mentor, designed small-scale rooms for an educational setting to benefit the local non-profit Volunteers of America-Greater New York, one of the oldest and largest human services nonprofits in the metropolitan New York area, with programs including Operation Backpack and Bronx Early Learning Center.
The competition asked student competitors to create a space for learning for children, ages preschool to high school. These spaces could be located anywhere: outdoors, indoors, on the roof of a Manhattan high-rise, in a park, or on the basketball court of a NYCHA property. Winners were determined during a real-time virtual event on Thursday, August 19, 2021:
Judges Favorite: Evanescent
Chenyi Jhon, Parsons School of Design, The New School
Abigail Coover, Founder and Director, Overlay Office
Audience Favorite: Colorful Grid
Eesha Jain, Pratt Institute
Nathaniel Broughton, AIA, Associate Director, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Honorable Mention: The Atrium
Cristina Stivala, City University of New York
Kate Bedford, Architectural Designer, Leroy Street Studio
The following additional teams had an opportunity to present their completed room to a live audience. Congratulations to all the participating teams!
Olivia Haley-Schmitt, Parsons School of Design, The New School
Alexandra Barker, FAIA, LEED AP, Principal, Barker Associates Architecture Office
Aashna Bajaj, Pratt Institute
Austin Sakong, AIA, LEED GA, Senior Associate, FXCollaborative
Sheng Wei (Wilson) Yang, New York School of Interior Design
Yutaka Takiura, AIA, The Design + Architecture
Eesha Jain, Pratt Institute
Nathaniel Broughton, AIA, Associate Director, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Colin DeLeo, Parsons School of Design, The New School
Elizabeth Stoel, AIA, Associate Partner, Rogers Partners
Thank you to our renowned jury:
Kai-Uwe Bergmann, FAIA, Partner, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group
Kenneth Lewis, AIA, RA, NCARB, Managing Partner, SOM; 2021 President, AIA New York
Gabrielle Shelton, Owner of Shelton Studios, Architectural Metalwork
Rosalind Tsang, AIA, LEED GA, New York City Representative, BDP (Building Design Partnership); Co-Chair, AIANY Women in Architecture Committee