Lateral Office — the architecture firm founded by Assistant Professor Mason White and his partner Lola Sheppard — has won a 2013 Progressive Architecture Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for its project Arctic Food Network. This is the 60th edition of this award, which "recognizes unbuilt projects that demonstrate overall design excellence and innovation." The 2013 jury included Reed Kroloff, Steven Ehrlich, Kimberly Holden, John Frane, and Joan Soranno.
 
Arctic Food Network (AFN) tackles issues surrounding access to healthy food, the loss of traditional fishing and gaming practices, and the desire to engage a growing population of local Inuit youth. The design team includes Daniels Faculty graduates Matthew Spremulli and Ali Fard (M.Arch 2011), as well as Nikole Bouchard and Fionn Byrne (MLA 2011).
 
"The project works at a staggering range of scales," writes John Gendall in Architect, the magazine of the American Institute of Architects, which featured renderings from the AFN project on the cover of its February issue. "It proposes a kit of architectural parts: pre-fabricated cabins that can be used as greenhouses, freezers, meat-smoking facilities, shared kitchens, and towers for lighting and telecommunication signals. Local communities can easily build these units — from wood framing, copper skin, prefabricated joinery, and snow blocks — and tailor them to their specific needs."
 
Lateral Office's quest to develop architectural solutions to the specific cultural and environmental challenges facing arctic communities was also recognized this past December when the firm became the inaugural recipients of the Arctic Inspiration Prize.
 
AIA Juror Reed Kroloof commended the design team for "fulfilling the Hippocratic oath of architecture," adding that AFN "makes life better for the residents — a whole lot better.”
 
For more information on the Progressive Architecture Awards, visit the AIA website. To learn more about AFN, visit Lateral Office's website.