The GSAPP Incubator is for alumni who are developing new ideas and projects about architecture, contemporary culture, and the future of the city. The Incubator was a co-working space at the New Museum’s NEW INC. in Lower Manhattan from 2015 through 2019, at which time it transitioned to the GSAPP Incubator Prize in order to help the development of innovative alumni-led projects by offering direct financial support to selected recipients. In this form, the Prize advances domestic and international alumni projects dedicated to critical modes of practice that engage the challenges and opportunities facing the built environment today.

The Prize encourages a wide range of experiments initiated by Columbia GSAPP graduates while focusing on a specific topic of inquiry each year. In 2019, the School awarded six alumni prizes of $10,000 each to advance projects dedicated to Climate Change at the Building Scale, spanning a range of creative approaches to tackling environmental urgencies through architecture and urban thinking, design, and practice—from material explorations to novel agricultural systems to resilient coastlines. In 2020, the Prize was dedicated to the topic of Climate, Health, and Cities, and the School awarded sixteen alumni prizes of $10,000 each to to support projects that engage these pressing issues through a range of approaches spanning critical discourse, research, and active practice in architecture and its related fields. As a platform for entrepreneurship and expanded modes of practice, the Prize supports projects that bridge critical discourse and active practice and engagement.

View previous Incubator Prize recipients.

The GSAPP Incubator was founded by Dean Amale Andraos to provide recent graduates with a collaborative environment to explore new ideas and projects at the intersection of culture, technology and the city. Located in the heart of the downtown creative scene at 231 Bowery from 2014 until 2019, the GSAPP Incubator was an anchor tenant of NEW INC., the first museum-led cultural incubator for art, technology, and design founded by the New Museum.

It blends a professional setting and a culture of entrepreneurship with the communal creative energy and rigorous discourse experienced by students during their time at GSAPP. The program expands the territory between academia and the profession, and it allows members to share experiences and skills while building their professional networks and connecting to critical issues in New York and beyond. A unique university-led initiative, the GSAPP Incubator spans multiple disciplines and draws on the strengths of the school, its faculty, the resources of the New Museum and NEW INC, and the proximity to Lower Manhattan’s technology industry.

Directed by Assistant Professor David Benjamin, the co-working space encourages discovery and open exchange among a diverse group of participants who are engaging in topics and interdisciplinary methods that expand the possibilities of architecture. It supports experimental and alternative modes of practice that encompass both research and production. During the first four years, member groups have developed a variety of cutting-edge projects involving virtual reality and digital technology, critical discourse and publishing, civic issues and public spaces, urban regeneration, emergency response, and more.

Michelle Young (‘12 MSUP) of Untapped Cities speaks with four recent members of the GSAPP Incubator: Mustafa Faruki (‘10 M.Arch), Nile Greenberg ('16 M.Arch), Marcelo López-Dinardi ('13 MSCCCP), and Jieun Yang ('08 M.Arch). They discuss their experiences working at the Incubator over the past year, and the challenges and opportunities facing architecture students and practitioners within the current cultural and economic landscape.