Our annual Groundbreakers award showcases the talents of architects working to change the way the built world functions. But this year, our winners aren?t stopping with buildings. They?re out to change the world. The six winners for 2016 were chosen by our esteemed jury: author and longtime KCRW host Frances Anderton, architect and dean of the Yale School of Architecture Deborah Berke, architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti, architect and National Design Award winner Tom Kundig, Curbed architecture critic Alexandra Lange, executive director Predix at GE Digital Peter Marx, and architect and Columbia GSAPP professor Mabel O. Wilson.
Berke writes, "I wanted to highlight architects who are engaged in a meaningful way with the people and places in which they are working." This year?s class runs the gamut from the idealistic 30-year-old traveling to build in Haiti to the prolific workhorse with more than two decades in the business. But they all have one thing in common: socially conscious design is a cornerstone of their practice. As Alexandra Lange notes in her jury selections, "I looked at the clients, the mode of practice and the aesthetic, seeking choices that are outside the norm for the profession in one or more categories." "The toughest problem in design is to create wonderful and usable environments in a world of limitations," says Peter Marx. "The hardest constraint of all is, of course, not having ...