If you can’t make it to Miami this week for the World Architecture Festival (WAF), you can still see what the 40 Under 40 North America cohort is pinning up on the walls. Earlier this year, WAF in collaboration with The Architect’s Newspaper, launched the new initiative to recognize exceptional young architects from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The 40 winners were announced on October 22.
Each winner was required to submit two A2 boards—one featuring a completed building or interior, the other devoted to any design project or speculative idea—and the results are as varied as the practices they represent. Entrants could mix years, stack multiple projects, and design the boards entirely on their own terms.
Even at a glance, the range is striking. There is a quiet, vista-driven house in the Hudson Valley; a middle school conceived as a breathing, wind-shaping organism; and a restoration of a century-old cultural landmark in Mexico City that weaves glass-and-metal additions into richly restored masonry.
Taken together, the boards map a cross-section of what emerging architects across North America are making, imagining, and refining right now. Below, we’ve gathered a selection of the winner’s most interesting projects.
40 Under 40
Adam Wiese studied the material qualities of rammed earth. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Adam Wiese
Alex Pendersen worked on the design for Lawrence East Station in Toronto. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Alex Pedersen
Andrew Linn of BLDUS designed a house in Adelaide Alley. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Andrew Linn
Andrew Weigand is behind this design for the new Art Omi Visitor Center. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Andrew Weigand
Armida Fernandez designed a Mezcal Production Palenque. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Armida Fernandez
Ben Wathen of TVS contributed to the design for an expansion to the Charlotte Convention Center. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Ben Wathen
Brandon Hall experimented with the typology of the workers cottage. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Brandon Hall
For Gensler, Carolina Montilla worked on an office for EP + Co. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Carolina Montilla
The Fourth Wall, designed by Charles-Laurence Proulx activates public space. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Charles-Laurence Proulx
Mooreland Home by ZITA is clad with wood. (Courtesy World Architecture Fesitval)
Erik Martinez worked on TEMIXCO, workspace for a visual artist. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Erik Martinez
Alongside a team of designers from WXY, Farida Abu-Bakare contributed to envisioning Packer Garden House & Facilities Plan. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Farida Abu-Bakare
Ignacio Cabrera Luque renovated a house in Mexico City into a small hotel with 10 suites. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Ignacio Cabrera Luque
In this Mexico City home renovation from Inca Hernandez a staircase is a point of visual interest. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Inca Hernandez
An apartment building from Michan Architecture has a striking exterior presence. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Isaac Michan Daniel
Sanaa Center by Drummond Projects will complete in 2027. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Jimmie Drummond
Juan Rodriguez of MHS Architects is behind a 24-story, transit-oriented development in Jersey City. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Juan Rodriguez
Juan Sala worked on a spa facility in Paris. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)For Kilogram Studio, Kfir Gluzberg worked on Glimmer House. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Kfir Gluzberg
For this project, Khoa Vu converted a villa in Vietnam into a social dining space. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)The pavilion from Laura Salazar was on view at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2023. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Laura Salazar
Lilia Koleva was involved in the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), which stands as one of the largest healthcare construction projects in North America. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Lilia Koleva
Black cladding makes a statement on A House by the Pond, a project from Lily Chishan Wong. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Lily Chishan Wong
Monospace from MATTAFORMA and Lindsey Wikstrom is a concept venue in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Lindsey Wikstrom
Lisa Rammig from Eckersley O’Callaghan worked on the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Lisa Rammig
Marina Leboreiro designed a restaurant in Mexico City that combines Italian-Argentinian cuisine, aptly named Argentalia. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Marina Leboreiro
Mayur Patel worked on an office for IMC Trading in Chicago. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Mayur Patel
The Branch School – Hightower Middle School my Michelle Old is a sustainable, wind- and water-integrated learning environment. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Michelle Old
Miguel Campo’s design concept for the Rio Arts District in Medellín, Colombia includes five main buildings. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Miguel Campo
NO OFFICE’s wood-centric house design situated in the Ganges Delta. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Nimet Anwar
NO OFFICE–designed single family residence in New York State (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
The Hacienda Wabi residential complex in Tulum, Mexico was designed by Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar
Peter Logan of Wong Logan Architects is proposing a roof deck for the Potrero Technology Hub. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Peter Logan
The Mr. C Miami boutique hotel by Raymond Fort of Arquitectonica. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Raymond Fort
Sammy Shams explores the roadmap to net-zero buildings through HKS’s Emory Executive Park Musculoskeletal Institute. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Sebastián Canales’s design for Hamburgo 44 blends contemporary living with community and sustainability in Mexico City. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Sebastián Canales
Field Operations and Taehyung Park designed the public realm for the Manhattan West development. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
Taehyung Park
The STEM Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, was completed in 2023 by Tim Williams and HDR. (Courtesy World Architecture Festival)
