nARCHITECTS and Kongjian Yu Among Cooper Hewitt Honorees

The 24th annual awards, announced yesterday, honor “the ways in which design enriches everyday life.” The awards' ten categories have changed over time since the National Design Awards were established in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, with Climate Action, for instance, added in 2020 to recognize a project that makes “significant contributions to addressing the global climate crisis.” Related to architecture, this year's awards see architecture and interior design — two previously united fields in the Awards — broken into separate honors.

As in past awards from the New York-based institution, public programs celebrating the National Design Awards will be taking place throughout the rest of the year and during the free National Design Week, which takes place at the Cooper Hewitt (2 East 91st Street) from October 2–8, 2023.

The winners are listed below, followed by more information on the winners in the architecture and landscape architecture categories (with text excerpts from the museum's announcement) and the names of the jury members at bottom. Visit the Cooper Hewitt website for more information on all the winners.

• Seymour Chwast, Design Visionary
• Biocement Tiles by Biomason, Climate Action
• Beatriz Lozano, Emerging Designer
• nARCHITECTS, Architecture
• Arem Duplessis, Communication Design
• Clement Mok, Digital Design
• Naeem Khan, Fashion Design
• The Archers, Interior Design
• Kongjian Yu, Landscape Architecture
• Atlason, Product Design

“Given to an individual or firm for their contributions to the built environment that advance the understanding of spatial experiences, this year’s National Design Award for Architecture goes to nARCHITECTS.

“nARCHITECTS was founded by Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang in 1999, with the goal of addressing urgent issues through socially engaging architecture. The firm works for the public good, maximizing the mutual positive impact between communities, buildings, public spaces and their environment. In 2016, nARCHITECTS completed Carmel Place, New York City’s first micro-unit apartment building, and A/D/O, a design center dedicated to improving urban life. In 2018, the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center provided a platform for social justice. In 2020, The Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center opened, educating a new generation of environmental stewards. nARCHITECTS’ commitment to innovative housing and the integration of architecture into landscape emerged from Bunge and Hoang’s early work (Canopy and Switch Building) and graduate design studios taught at Columbia and Yale University.”

“The Landscape Architecture award recognizes an individual or firm for their contributions to the integration between the built, urban and natural environments and for advancing the understanding of spatial experiences. This year’s award is presented to Kongjian Yu. 

“Yu is a globally recognized leader in ecological landscape planning and design. A farmer’s son, he was trained at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is the founder of the Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Yu is also founder and principal designer of Turenscape. His multi-disciplinary firm specializes in the development of landscapes that combat flooding while repairing ecological damage. Several of Yu’s core ideas for nature-based climate adaptations, including the sponge city concept, have been implemented nationwide in China. Yu is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lectures widely and has received numerous awards, including the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award in 2020 from the International Federation of Landscape Architects.”

• Dung Ngo (chair), editor in chief, August Journal
• Tiffany Chu, chief of staff to the mayor, City of Boston
• Carla Fernández Tena, creative director, Carla Fernández
• Noah Schwarz, director of product design, Herman Miller
• Sara Zewde, principal and assistant professor of practice, Studio Zewde and Harvard University