Wheelwright Prize

The Wheelwright Prize is an international competition for early-career architects. Winners receive a $100,000 (USD) fellowship to foster intensive, innovative architectural research that is informed by cross-cultural engagement and can make a significant impact on architectural discourse.

The Wheelwright Prize is dedicated to advancing original architectural research that shows potential to make a significant impact on architectural discourse. We seek individual applicants who are accomplished but emerging, who are resourceful and risk-taking, and who can make the most of this extraordinary opportunity to advance a research project that will have a significant impact on his or her own professional development, and on the discipline of architecture as a whole.

The winner of the Wheelwright Prize will receive:

$100,000 prize to support the proposed research project
Invitation to lecture at Harvard GSD
Possibility to publish research in a Harvard GSD publication

A man carries several bricks on his head while looking directly at the camera.

Eligibility

Applicant must have graduated from a professionally accredited architecture degree program in the past 15 years. (For the 2026 cycle: Graduates prior to February 2011 are ineligible.) Holders of multiple degrees may apply, provided they received their professional degrees between February 2011 and February 2026. Applicants need not be registered or licensed.

Applicants may not have received the Arthur Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship previously.

Winners of the Wheelwright Prize may not hold other fellowships concurrently.

The Wheelwright Prize is available to individual entrants only; teams or firms will not be considered.

Current Harvard GSD faculty, instructors, and staff are not eligible.

For winners based in the United States, some amount of research must be undertaken outside the country.

The Wheelwright Prize is intended for independent study and may not be applied to university tuition. However, the grant may be applied to fees for workshops and conferences.

Application

The application process is entirely online. No submissions will be accepted by mail. The 2026 Wheelwright Prize application cycle is open through Sunday, February 8, 2026. A winner will be announced in early summer 2026. Applicants will be asked to submit the following materials in English:

Current CV.
Portfolio (maximum of 10 images); each uploaded file should contain a single image, not spreads of multiple images. Each image must be dated and captioned. The jury is looking for personal work that demonstrates design talent; student projects may be included. If work is collaborative and/or generated by a firm, the applicant’s contribution to the work must specifically involve conceptual development and/or design, and the applicant’s role must be precisely identified.
The portfolio may be supplemented by published articles or research papers written by applicant. Authored works should appear in their original format, with publication name and date clearly indicated (maximum 3, each clipping to be saved as a separate PDF). If original publication is not in English, please attach an English-language summary (maximum 2,500 characters) as an addendum to each PDF. If the clipping exceeds 15 pages, please create a compact PDF (no more than 10 pages) including a cover, sample pages, and brief summary (2,500 characters) of the text.
A written description of proposed research project (maximum 6,000 characters). Applicants should articulate the relevance of their proposed research to the contemporary discipline of architecture. What are the consequences of the research project? How might it impact practice? Applicants should describe their proposed methodology and special insight, ability, and skill to execute your proposal. Strong proposals will demonstrate how the resources of the Wheelwright Prize will enable the project to be successful.
List of three professional references (full name, affiliation, contact information, and relationship to the applicant). Letters are not required at this time.

Marina Otero Wheelwright Prize Winner — View of Marina Otero: WORK, BODY, LEISURE, Dutch Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, 2018. Photo Credit: Daria Scagliola.

Black and white image of dome with people standing around it.

A man stands on a dock surrounded by traps.

Traditional Peruvian structure at night, lit from the interior.

A Brief History of the Wheelwright Prize

Established in 1935 in memory of Arthur W. Wheelwright, Class of 1887, the Wheelwright Prize was originally entitled the Arthur W. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship. Over the following decades, the fellowship afforded extraordinary experiences for generations of Harvard GSD alumni. The fellowship was conceived at a time when foreign travel was out of reach for many. The prize enabled several early Wheelwright fellows—including Paul Rudolph (1937–38), Eliot Noyes (1939–40), William Wurster (1942–43), and I. M. Pei (1950–51)—to embark on expeditions that largely followed the tradition of the Grand European Tour.