Awarded every other year by the AIA College of Fellows, the Latrobe Prize is a major award—$100,000—granted to a two-year project that leads “to significant advances in the architectural profession.” This year, the award, which is named after architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, was given to a team of three faculty members of Northeastern University’s School of Architecture and Resilient Cities Laboratory.

Their project is titled “Future-Use Architecture”, and focuses on “the balance between flexible and fixed building systems to respond to unforeseeable contingencies while conserving the essential architectural design and performance.” In other words, the project seeks to study how to design for unknown futures, with a focus on adaptive reuse and regeneration. The researchers are examining the tectonic and performative attributes of a building within the purview of its future use in the long-term, acknowledging persistent change as fundamental. According to the press release, the jury was impressed with “the holistic quality” of “Future-Use Architecture”, as well as its “cogent framework” and substantial potential. 

“Predicting the future is impossible, but designing for the future is not,” states David Fannon, AIA, Member ASHARE, LEED AP BD+C, Assistant Professor of Architecture and of Civil and Environmental Engineering, one of the three team members. The other members are Peter Wiederspahn AIA, Associate Professor of Architecture, and Principal of Wiederspahn Architecture and Michelle Laboy PE, Assistant Professor of Architecture and co-founder of FieLDworkshop.