nARCHITECTS Wins 2023 National Design Award in Architecture

Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang of nARCHITECTS. Photo @ Brian Shumway, courtesy Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Museum

Architects & Firms

nARCHITECTS

Earlier this week, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum announced the 2023 honorees of its annual National Design Awards, which this year spans ten different categories including—as is typically the case during most years—the coveted National Design Award in Architecture.

Recognized this year for “contributions to the built environment that advance the understanding of spatial experiences,” is nARCHITECTS. Established in 1999 by Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang, the Brooklyn-based practice’s socially engaged, typology-spanning work has appeared frequently in RECORD, including the 2023 Record House–winning House Between Forest & Field in Dutchess County, New York. The firm was also recognized as 2004 Design Vanguard in the early years of the annual program spotlighting emerging international architects.

House Between Forest & Field by nARCHITECTS. Photo © Michael Moran

In addition to House Between Forest & Field, other major works by the firm include the much-lauded Jones Beach Energy Nature Center (2020) in Wantagh, New York; Carmel Place, which debuted in 2016 as Manhattan’s first micro-unit apartment building; the as-advertised mass timber CLT House in Clinton, New York; and the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center on the northern tip of Owasco Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes region (2018). Outside of the Empire State where the studio won the AIA NYS Firm of the Year Award in 2017, nARCHITECTS has executed projects—including a bevy of temporary installations in the public realm—in locales ranging from the Chicago lakefront to Beirut.

jones beach energy and nature nature center.

Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center on Long Island, New York. Photo © Michael Moran

The 55-unit Carmel Place, concieved as part of the adAPT NYC housing compeititon, in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. Photo © Iwan Baan

nARCHITECTS follows in the footsteps of past National Design Award in Architecture recipients including Thomas Phifer (2019), Weiss/Manfredi (2018), MASS Design Group (2017), and 2021 and 2022 honorees Ross Barney Architects and Rural Studio, respectively, which were both recognized with a combined Interior Design/Architecture award. Frank Gehry was the first architect to receive a National Design Award (in the Lifetime Achievement category) in 2000 with other early awardees including Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, and Billie Tsien and Tod Williams.

Joining nARCHITECTS as 2023 National Design Award honorees are graphic designer Seymour Chwast (Design Visionary), Biomason (Climate Action), Beatriz Lozano (Emerging Designer), Arem Duplessis (Communication Design), Clement Monk (Digital Design), Naeem Khan (Fashion Design), The Archers (Interior Design), Kongjian Lu (Landscape Architecture), and Atlason (Product Design).

The ten awardees, selected by a five-person jury panel comprising design leaders practicing across a range of disciplines, will be celebrated at a National Design Week–coinciding fête held October 5 at the Cooper Hewitt.

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Matt Hickman is senior news/digital editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Senior Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper and has over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and editor specializing in historic preservation, public space, and the intersection of the natural world and built environment. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Matt holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School.