From left: Juan Medina, Laura Salazar and Pablo Sequero of salazarsequeromedina
School of Architecture faculty member Pablo Sequero’s firm, salazarsequeromedina, has been named to the newest cohort of winners in the biennial Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young practitioners.
“An open call for designers with a story to tell,” the 2025 competition asked entrants to interrogate “Plot,” this year’s theme, by mapping out the throughlines that shape their work and examining how architecture engages with plot, whether as “land, drawing or scheme.”
Like League Prize’s past, this year’s theme was developed by the Young Architects + Designers Committee, a rotating group comprising previous winners. For the latest cycle, the committee included Rayshad Dorsey, Liz Gálvez and Miles Gertler. Joining them on the competition jury were Behnaz Assadi, Mario Gooden, Jia Yi Gu and William O’Brien Jr.
In its prompt, the committee asked designers to plot it all out: “Every building has its lore, and plots are known to thicken. Which dramas are shaping architecture’s arc today? The truth may be stranger than fiction. Despite the best-laid plans, design so often deals in circumstance. That is, while architects may endeavor to write their own stories, projects always present twists. … We invite young designers to chronicle that which bookends their practices and to demonstrate plot’s persistent role as main character.”
The Outdoor Room, Pavilion at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (2023), Seoul, South Korea (with Frank Barkow)
This year’s League Prize theme programming will be explored through a hybrid onsite and online model. A three-part online lecture series will be held at midday on Wednesdays, starting in June. Each lecture will feature presentations from two of the winners followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A session. Salazar, Sequero and Medina will present on June 11 at 12:30 p.m. ET; advance registration is required. Winners will also create installations of their work either onsite in their respective locations or in entirely digital formats, all of which will be presented in an online exhibition on archleague.org.
“Congratulations to Pablo and his firm on this remarkable accomplishment,” says Michael Speaks, dean of the School of Architecture. “The exceptionally talented designers and educators at salazarsequeromedina are at the forefront of contemporary architecture. Their innovative approach blends civic engagement, sustainability and repurposed materials to create projects that bridge cultural, environmental and social contexts.”
Now in its 44th edition, the portfolio-based competition is open to architects and designers less than 10 years out of a bachelor’s or master’s degree program and has represented an important career milestone for several generations of designers. The program exemplifies the League’s longstanding commitment to identifying and nurturing the development of talented young architects and designers. To learn more about past winners, visit archleague.org/leagueprize.
Greenhouse for plants and humans (2023), El Carmen, Peru
salazarsequeromedina is a collaborative architecture practice founded in 2020 and led by Laura Salazar, Pablo Sequero and Juan Medina. Their projects in Peru, Spain, South Korea and the U.S. focus on civic works engaging diverse communities and geographical contexts. The practice addresses the environmental impact of building and aims to establish a sensitive dialogue with what is found. Their work considers the transmutability of building function and the role of open-ended structures as two vectors capable of reconciling building practice with the challenges of our time.
In 2024, the practice was shortlisted for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (U.S.), as well as named finalists at the XIII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (Peru), ARQUIA/Próxima Festival for Emerging Practices (Spain) and the COAM Awards (Madrid). The work of salazarsequeromedina has been exhibited at the 4th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (2023) and the Oslo Triennale (2022), and has been published in The Architectural Review, Arquitectura Viva, Revista PLOT, Revista Casas and Space Magazine, among others.
Laura Salazar holds a master of architecture degree from Princeton University’s School of Architecture. She is an assistant professor of architecture at Pratt Institute and has previously taught at Syracuse University’s School of Architecture and Montana State University.
Pablo Sequero holds a master of architecture degree from the Technical University of Madrid (ETSAM) and is a licensed architect in Spain. He is currently a visiting critic at Syracuse University’s School of Architecture and a visiting professor at PUCP Pontificia Universidad Católica de Lima, in Peru. Sequero has previously taught at Cornell AAP and Montana State University.
Juan Medina is a Ph.D. candidate at the Technical University of Madrid (ETSAM). He is currently a professor of practice at Tulane University and has taught previously at the ETSAM.
