Journalists have a keen eye for innovation--and Architectural Record Special Sections Editor Matthew Marani has a bird’s-eye perspective of architecture trends.
Those insights will prove invaluable when he serves as one of three jurors who will decide which Forge Prize design concept wins $15,000!
“Matthew Marani has spent years examining the cutting edge of architecture,” said AISC Director of Architecture Nima Balasubramanian, AIA, NOMA. “We are all looking forward to his expert perspective on the visionary concepts that the Forge Prize jury will consider!”
The American Institute of Steel Construction’s Forge Prize is the flagship competition of its new Architecture Center. The design challenge gives emerging architects, architecture educators, and graduate students a chance to dream big and imagine how structural steel can shape the space in which people will live, work, and play.
At stake: an industry spotlight and $25,000 in cash prizes! Entries are due November 22, 2024.
Prior to joining Architectural Record, Marani was program manager at The Architect’s Newspaper. He also has several years of experience as a freelance writer specializing in urban planning, historic preservation, and architectural technology.
Marani is a born and raised New Yorker. He holds a bachelor’s in history and political science from Skidmore College and a Masters in Science degrees in architectural conservation from the University of Edinburgh (a passion that has informed his work with the New York Landmarks Conservancy).
About the Forge Prize
The Forge Prize, co-administered by AISC’s brand-new Architecture Center and AISC University Programs, challenges emerging architects, architecture educators, and architecture students to create design concepts that embrace innovations in steel as a primary structural material--with up to $15,000 on the line.
Three finalists will each win $5,000 (plus free registration and travel support to attend the Architecture in Steel conference) and work with a steel fabricator to refine their design before presenting it live to the judges and the world in a live YouTube stream on March 18, 2025. The winner will receive a $10,000 grand prize and a showcase at the 2025 Architecture in Steel Conference (part of NASCC: The Steel Conference, April 2-4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky.).
The competition is open to designers, teams of designers, or interdisciplinary teams led by an architect based in the U.S. who are:
- Emerging practicing architects (those licensed for less than 10 years or on the path to licensure);
- Tenured or tenure-track educators who have taught for less than 10 years in a university-level architecture program in the U.S.;
- Adjunct architecture educators who have taught for less than 10 years and have been licensed for less than 10 years or are on the path to licensure;
- Graduate-level architecture students enrolled in a university-level, U.S.-based architecture program.
The design community has embraced the challenge since the competition’s inception, creating concepts for jaw-dropping pedestrian bridges in San Diego and New York, a revitalized public housing community in Harlem, and, of course, Emily Baker's revolutionary space-frame system that is as beautiful as it is functional.
Submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. Central on November 22, 2024.