Morphosis has announced the educational initiative led by the firm’s Pritzker Prize-winning founder, Thom Mayne Young Architects, has been extended through the remainder of the 2017-2018 academic year in partnership with Hall Elementary School in Bridgeport, CT. 

This program enables 6th grade students who participated last semester to continue developing their design skills in this 12-week course. The after-school classes are led by Pratt Institute architecture students, and task the students with creating a beautification proposal for their classroom. Each student received a new Pixelbook laptop donated by Google with state-of-the-art design software to develop their design skills. 

Students will demonstrate their grasp of architectural concepts and their mastery of design software in mid-term and final presentations, as well as exhibit their final projects from last semester in a special showcase at the Pratt School for Architecture (February 12 – 17).

Launched in 2017, the Young Architects program grew out of Mayne’s role in President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH), where he was involved in TurnAround Arts, a national program initiated in 2012 by Michelle Obama and PCAH that provided arts education to the nation’s bottom five percent performing public schools, including Hall Elementary School. 

Thom Mayne said, “The program we’ve built doesn’t just give [students] an introduction to architecture; it helps them hone their problem-solving skills and apply them in all areas of their education."