Dezeen Competitions: the Princeton | Chicago Architecture Center Fellowship competition asks participants to design facilities that welcome immigrants into the city.

Applicants are asked by Princeton Urban Imagination Center and the Chicago Architecture Center to produce drawings and models for the project.

This competition is now closed

Organisers: Princeton Urban Imagination Center (PUIC) and the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC)
Competition: Princeton | Chicago Architecture Center Fellowship
Judges: to be selected by PUIC and CAC
Submission deadline: 11 August 2025
Winner announcement: September 2025
Prizes: up to three people will be awarded $5000, plus additional funds to support the design production, research and participation in a group exhibition at the CAC

Click here to enter ›

Competition overview

Like other major cities in America and around the world, Chicago struggles to accommodate the arrival of immigrants. The politics of if, where, and how immigrants are welcomed in our cities continues to be fraught.

Chicago has always relied on immigration for growth. The city's history provides valuable precedents – from settlement houses to Single Room Occupancy hotels – for addressing today's challenges.

This fellowship will challenge architects to propose visionary civic architecture that includes programmes and facilities for new arrivals. Architecture fellows will each design a speculative project for a specific site in Chicago's central area.

Each fellow will be responsible for producing drawings and models sufficient to fill approximately one-third of a 1,000-square-foot gallery. Other supplementary material will be left to the designers' discretion.

An exhibition of the fellows' work will be held at the Chicago Architecture Center, accompanied by a symposium featuring respondents from Princeton University and Chicago.

The CAC is a publicly accessible facility in downtown Chicago, featuring galleries, educational spaces, and a lecture hall that accommodates up to 120 people.

This inaugural fellowship will commence in September 2025. There will be up to three awardees.

Fellowship structure

The fellowship has two parts. The first part supports design production and research, and the second is an exhibition.

The design portion will begin in September 2025 and conclude in January 2026. During this period, architecture fellows will also make at least two trips to Chicago for site visits, research, and engagement with local experts, as well as a third visit for the exhibition opening and symposium.

This is not a design competition, so conversation, knowledge sharing and collaboration will be encouraged. There will be multiple interim design reviews with representatives from Princeton and the CAC.

A $5000 stipend will be provided for each fellow, plus additional funds to support design production and travel to Chicago.

The exhibition component will take place in Chicago, where architecture fellows will collaborate with the Chicago Architecture Center team to showcase their projects in an exhibition.

PUIC will collaborate with the Chicago Architecture Center to develop a symposium and ensure the project is well publicised for maximum impact. PUIC will cover the shipping costs of the work to and from Chicago, as well as travel expenses for the fellows.

Eligibility and judging criteria

Applications are open to early-career architects who have acquired their first professional degree (B.Arch or M.Arch) within the last five years (no earlier than 2020) or acquired their first post-professional degree (M.Arch II, MAUD, M.S., or similar) within the last three years (no earlier than 2022).

Students currently enrolled in a university degree programme are not eligible to apply.

How to enter

Click here to submit your application.

Applicants should provide:

• 500 to 700 word written response to the call for proposals. Responses should highlight your previous design work, scholarship and training relevant to the topic, as well as initial insights into the challenge.
• detailed CV, including education, work experience, research, publications, exhibitions and awards
• list of three professional or academic references
• five pages of relevant work samples displaying three to five projects. Work samples should represent a variety of media (i.e., handmade and digital) and formats (i.e., 2D and 3D). Samples must be submitted as a single PDF file, with a maximum file size of 10 MB
• brief description of your workspace and access to design production facilities

Submission deadlines

The entry deadline is 11 August 2025.

Winners will be announced in early September 2025.

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