This summer, the Center for Architecture will launch an open call and invite two lab residents (individuals or organizations) to participate in an exhibition on view in the Center for Architecture’s ground floor and mezzanine galleries from May 2026 through August 2026. 

Mark Gardner, AIA, NOMA, 2026 President, AIA New York, will serve as an advisor to the residents, guiding them through the exhibition process and consulting on content for the show. For the 2026 edition, the jury will select two participants for the January–August residency, each receiving a stipend of $12,500 for the eight-month duration. The residency will include an exhibition on view from May–August 2026 and the opportunity for participants to facilitate public programs alongside their projects.

2026 Theme: Repair – Democracy and Urban Spaces 

The year 2026 marks the 250th Anniversary of America, an experiment still being made. Heritage sites associated with civil rights are struggling and urgently need our collective support. These buildings, sites, and landscapes represent triumphs in the pursuit of civil rights—and help us acknowledge and remember the traumas of systemic racism, the exclusion of groups, and the dismantling of possibilities. 

The 2026 Lab cohort will respond to the prompt of “Repair – Democracy and Urban Spaces.” Applicants are asked to address the urgent need to repair not only the physical infrastructure of our environments but also the political and social inequities embedded within them. This call invites architects, urban planners, designers, artists, cultural conservationists, and community activists to examine how the concept of repair can serve as a lens to reimagine democratic, equitable spaces. 

Applicants may consider repair through a range of lenses, including, but not limited to:  

• Physical Repair: Addressing infrastructure decay and creating adaptive, resilient designs for shared spaces.  
• Social Repair: Examining how architecture can heal inequities and foster inclusivity in underserved communities.  
• Ecological Repair: Highlighting design solutions that integrate sustainability and environmental restoration  
• Political/Civic Repair: Highlighting design solutions that highlight the spaces of protest, citizenship, belonging and Identity. 

Selected residents will have two months to refine their ideas prior to the beginning of the residency, with the support of the Center for Architecture. 
 

Requirements:

Applicants must submit: 

1. A statement on their proposal 

2. A statement on your background and relevant experience 

3. At least two references (letters or points of contact) 

4. Supplemental Material - Portfolio (5 pages maximum) – can include:  

   1.  Past projects 
   2. Speculative work 
   3. Sketches or collages related to the proposal 
   4. Additional materials

This portfolio will help the jury understand your proposal 

Please make an account and review the submission steps on this website.

Individuals or organizations may apply. Applicants must submit a statement on their proposal, a portfolio containing assorted visuals, a statement detailing their background and relevant experience, and at least 2 references (letters or points of contact). Applicants may provide additional optional supplement materials. 
 

Eligibility:
Individuals and organizations are invited to apply. Applicants must be 18 years or older to participate in CFA Lab. 

Fee:
There is no fee to apply for the residency.  

Residency details
Each resident will receive: 

• Stipend of $12,500 for the duration of the residency (8 months total)  
• Informal meetings with a selection of AIANY and Center for Architecture Board members, Advisory Committee members, and additional partners 

Center for Architecture Lab residents must:
Participate in an exhibition at the Center for Architecture storefront, located at 536 LaGuardia Place

• Galleries: Approx 2,200 square feet 

Additional platforms available for residents:
Digital 

• Social media channels (48.2K Instagram, 42.7K Twitter, 21K Facebook) 
• Center for Architecture News vertical, with inclusion in bi-weekly newsletter (35,000+ subscribers) 
• Digital exhibition on Center for Architecture website 

In-Person 

• In-person, hybrid, or virtual events, webinars, lectures, symposia, or workshops, organized in collaboration with the Center for Architecture 
• Dedicated event space at Center for Architecture will be made available to residents 
• Desk space available at the Center for Architecture during the length of the residency 
   

Schedule 

2025 
July 23-September 12: Open Call
October 21: Residents announced 
October-November: Refinement of the resident content and plans 

2026  
January-August: Residency  
May-August: Exhibition open at the Center for Architecture  

Criteria 
The CFA Lab Advisory Committee will review proposals with the following in mind: 

Accountability – How can we ensure that architects and designers are actively holding themselves accountable to diversity and inclusion, fair labor, and social justice standards in their work? What are the greatest barriers preventing this from happening?  

Equity – How do we improve BIPOC equity in the architecture and design field? What roles do education, compensation, personal bias, etc. play in perpetuating the field’s racial and cultural disparity? How can this be remedied?  

Impact – How does architecture shape the politics and strategy of social movements, public health policies, and accessibility? Should Universal Design regulations be the field’s norm?  

Perspective – How do we better incorporate the insights of professionals in other fields most directly impacted by the decisions architects and designers make? How do we ensure that the voices of those in underrepresented communities are given equal weight in developing designs that will directly impact them?  

Transgression – How can solutions, proposals, projects, etc. destabilizing and critically questioning the status quo of the profession improve architecture’s social impact? 
 

Jury: CFA Lab Advisory Committee Members 
Barry Bergdoll, Hon. AIANY, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University 
Graham Clegg, AIA, Principal, Studios Architecture 
Kholisile Dhliwayo, RA NY, DC & CT, NCARB, ARBV, NSWARB, Architect & Curator  
Anjelica Gallegos, Co-Founder, Indigenous Scholars of Architecture, Planning, and Design 
Mark Gardner, AIA, NOMA, Principal, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects; Assistant Professor of Architectural Practice and Society, Parsons The New School for Design 
Christine Gaspar, Community-engaged designer and Nonprofit Leader 
A.L. Hu, NOMA, AIA, NCARB  
Ken Lum, Co-Founder and Chief Curatorial Advisor, Monument Lab 
Karla Andrea Pérez Co-Founder/Director Manhatitlan, Community Organizer & Curator  
Monica Rhodes, President and Founder, Rhodes Heritage 
Shawhin Roudbari, Dissent x Design, Assistant Professor, Program in Environmental Design, University of Colorado Boulder 
Jennifer Sage, FAIA, Partner, Sage and Coombe, President, Center for Architecture 
Tya Winn, Executive Director, Community Design Collaborative 

Past Residents 
CFA Lab: Seeking Refuge and Making Home in NYC featured Center for Architecture Lab’s 2023 residents. The residents were selected from over 50 applicants who responded to the idea of “Home,” a concept that can take on many different meanings, especially in post-COVID New York City. Each resident explored the domestic sphere through their own unique lens and installed their work at the Center for Architecture. The projects by CFA Lab residents were Making Home: Affirming Black Diasporic Agency
by Kholisile Dhliwayo, NCARB, ARBV, NSWARB; Queeries: Designing Reality Equitably and Madly (Q:DREAM)
by A.L. Hu, NOMA, AIA, NCARB, EcoDistricts AP; and Undocumented
by Karla Andrea Pérez. Read more about the residents here.  

In 2021, the inaugural residents of Center for Architecture Lab were the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning and Design (formerly the Indigenous Scholars of Architecture, Planning, and Design) and the Community Design Collaborative. Working during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic when the Center for Architecture building was closed, the final product created by the residents took the form of a digital exhibition. 

Explore the digital exhibitions of ISAPD and Community Design Collaborative. 
 

About CFA Lab 

Center for Architecture Lab is a multi-month, multi-disciplinary residency program that offers new voices in architecture and design full authorship over dedicated areas of the Center for Architecture's platforms, allowing them to develop and share compelling and provocative content meant to elevate underrepresented perspectives. The Center for Architecture, inaugurated in 2003 as the American Institute of Architect (AIA)’s first-ever cultural institution, engages local and international audiences with the value, impact, and wonder of architecture. 

Created in 2021 in response to the destabilizing forces of the global COVID-19 pandemic and reinvigorated racial justice movement in the United States, Center for Architecture Lab invites a greater diversity of professionals to participate in the fields of architecture and design and encourages our community to consider new perspectives, critical questions, and innovative solutions to systemic problems.  

The Center for Architecture will pursue opportunities to collaborate with participants even after the residency period has concluded, supporting public programs that continue the conversations brought up during the length of the program. Residents will also be invited to join the Center for Architecture advisory committee and take part in the selection process for future cohorts.