Recipe for a Room: Places of Food and Culture

Event Pass Information

Event Pass Type
Price
Quantity
In-Person - Student with Valid IDFREE
In-Person - General Public$15.00 USD
In-Person - AIA Member (Not AIANY)$15.00 USD
Zoom Ticket - Student with Valid Email AddressFREE
Zoom Ticket - General Public$7.00 USD
Zoom Ticket - AIA Member (Not AIANY)$7.00 USD

Event Details

The AIANY Interiors Committee launched its Recipe for a Room competition in 2020 to benefit NYC design students who had lost their summer internship opportunities, and to raise awareness and financial support for the New York City Restaurant Employees Relief Fund. Each following competition cycle has focused on a different prompt, model-building media, and local beneficiary. For the program’s five-year anniversary in 2025, the theme Food and Culture acknowledges that we are once again experiencing global instability due to funding cuts for global help organizations and suppression of cultural differences.

Join us as eight teams, each comprised of a student and architect mentor, present their small-scale Places of Food and Culture—rooms for food preparation and enjoyment. Two winners will be selected during the event: an audience favorite and a judges’ favorite. The projects will explore food as the center of community celebrations, inspired by exquisite culinary creations that are like art, and recipes as food traditions passed down in families.

Food distribution within food deserts can be a lifeline. Net proceeds from the 2025 program will benefit Rethink Food, a NYC non-profit that bridges the gap between excess food and the communities that need it.


Student and Mentor Teams:

Ashley Guarquila, NJIT Hillier College of Architecture and Design
Mentor: August Atzenweiler

Tate Horstkotte, New York School of Interior Design 
Mentor: Roderick Cruz, AIA

Etty Jajati, CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture 
Mentor: Luz Disla, RA

Sergei Konchekov, Columbia GSAPP
Mentor: Samantha Josephat, AIA

Hong Anh (Jenny) Nguyen Le, Pratt Institute
Mentor: Christina Galati, AIA

Kevin She, Parsons School of Design | The New School
Mentor: Luz Wallace

Ryan Wang, Cornel AAP NYC
Mentor Eric Gering, AIA

JiaLin Yue, Columbia GSAPP
Mentor: Jean-Gabriel Neukomm, AIA

Jury:
Brian Messana, FAIA,
 Partner, Messana O'Rorke
Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, FAIA, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Architecture, Parsons School of Design
Adam Yarinsky, FAIA, Founding Principal, Architecture Research Office (ARO)