Center for Architecture Lab

Center for Architecture Lab is a multi-month, multi-disciplinary residency program that offers new voices in architecture and design full authorship over dedicated areas of the Center for Architecture’s platforms, allowing them to develop and share compelling and provocative content meant to elevate underrepresented perspectives.

Created in 2021 in response to the destabilizing forces of the global COVID-19 pandemic and reinvigorated racial justice movement in the United States, Center for Architecture Lab programming invites a greater diversity of professionals to participate in the fields of architecture and design and encourages our community to consider new perspectives, critical questions, and innovative solutions to systemic problems.

The Center for Architecture aims to continue to collaborate with its residents even after the residency period has concluded through public programs that continue the conversations brought up during the length of the program. Residents will also be invited to join the Center for Architecture advisory committee and be part of the selection process for future cohorts.

The year 2026 marks the 250th Anniversary of America, an experiment still being made. Heritage sites associated with civil rights are struggling and urgently need our collective support. These buildings, sites, and landscapes represent triumphs in the pursuit of civil rights—and help us acknowledge and remember the traumas of systemic racism, the exclusion of groups, and the dismantling of possibilities.

The 2026 Lab cohort will respond to the prompt of “Repair – Democracy and Urban Spaces.” Applicants are asked to address the urgent need to repair not only the physical infrastructure of our environments but also the political and social inequities embedded within them. This call invites architects, urban planners, designers, artists, cultural conservationists, and community activists to examine how the concept of repair can serve as a lens to reimagine democratic, equitable spaces.

Applicants may consider repair through a range of lenses, including, but not limited to:

• Physical Repair: Addressing infrastructure decay and creating adaptive, resilient designs for shared spaces.
• Social Repair: Examining how architecture can heal inequities and foster inclusivity in underserved communities.
• Ecological Repair: Highlighting design solutions that integrate sustainability and environmental restoration
• Political/Civic Repair: Highlighting design solutions that highlight the spaces of protest, citizenship, belonging and Identity.

Selected residents will have two months to refine their ideas prior to the beginning of the residency, with the support of the Center for Architecture.

Applicants must submit:

• A statement on their proposal
• A statement on your background and relevant experience
• At least two references (letters or points of contact)
• Supplemental Materials
  • Portfolio 5 pages maximum – can include:
    • Past projects
    • Speculative work
    • Sketches or collages related to the proposal
    • Additional materials
    • This portfolio will help the jury understand your proposal 

Please make an account and review the submission steps on Openwater.

Individuals or organizations may apply. Applicants must submit a statement on their proposal, a portfolio containing assorted visuals, a statement detailing their background and relevant experience, and at least 2 references (letters or points of contact). Applicants may provide additional optional supplement materials.

Eligibility:
Individuals and organizations are invited to apply. Applicants must be 18 years or older to participate in CFA Lab.

Fee:
There is no fee to apply for the residency.

Residency details
Each resident will receive:

• Stipend of $12,500 for the duration of the residency (8 months total)
• Informal meetings with a selection of AIANY and Center for Architecture Board members, Advisory Committee members, and additional partners

Center for Architecture Lab residents must:
Participate in an exhibition at the Center for Architecture storefront, located at 536 LaGuardia Place

• Galleries: Approx 2,200 square feet

Additional platforms available for residents:
Digital 

• Social media channels (48.2K Instagram, 42.7K Twitter, 21K Facebook)
• Center for Architecture News vertical, with inclusion in bi-weekly newsletter (35,000+ subscribers)
• Digital exhibition on Center for Architecture website

In-Person 

• In-person, hybrid, or virtual events, webinars, lectures, symposia, or workshops, organized in collaboration with the Center for Architecture
• Dedicated event space at Center for Architecture will be made available to residents
• Desk space available at the Center for Architecture during the length of the residency

2025 
July 23-September 12: Open Call
October 21: Residents announced
October-November: Refinement of the resident content and plans

2026  
January-August: Residency
May-August: Exhibition open at the Center for Architecture

The CFA Lab Advisory Committee will review proposals with the following in mind:

Accountability – How can we ensure that architects and designers are actively holding themselves accountable to diversity and inclusion, fair labor, and social justice standards in their work? What are the greatest barriers preventing this from happening?

Equity – How do we improve BIPOC equity in the architecture and design field? What roles do education, compensation, personal bias, etc. play in perpetuating the field’s racial and cultural disparity? How can this be remedied?

Impact – How does architecture shape the politics and strategy of social movements, public health policies, and accessibility? Should Universal Design regulations be the field’s norm?

Perspective – How do we better incorporate the insights of professionals in other fields most directly impacted by the decisions architects and designers make? How do we ensure that the voices of those in underrepresented communities are given equal weight in developing designs that will directly impact them?

Transgression – How can solutions, proposals, projects, etc. destabilizing and critically questioning the status quo of the profession improve architecture’s social impact?