Public Programs
Awards and Grants
About HDRG
With its vast, complex, and diverse territory, Houston faces many of the environmental, architectural, and urban issues now affecting cities worldwide.
The Houston Design Research Grant (HDRG) aims to promote quality design research for Houston-specific urban conditions that can also inform urban discourses and debates more broadly. The grant is open to U.S. university students and faculty looking to work on research projects that contribute to the improvement of Houston’s urban environments and urban life for all its citizens. Winning proposals in both categories (faculty and student) should demonstrate the potential to catalyze a Houston-based design project that is relevant both locally and globally.
The grant is open to a broad array of urban topics, scales, and methodologies, providing seed funds for further research and expansion of the topic. All applications must address Houston’s built environment, its history, present condition, and future development and show specific connections to architecture, design, and spatial thinking. Potential areas of research could include but are not limited to design innovation, preservation, gentrification, climate change, affordable housing, environmental issues, public space, and
urban transportation.
The Rice University School of Architecture administers the grants which have been made possible thanks to a generous gift from The Mitsui U.S.A. Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc. (“Mitsui USA”).
Previous Winners
Spotlight Award
The Spotlight Award was founded in 2009 under the leadership of Lonnie Hoogeboom with John J. Casbarian, Carlos Jiménez, and Rafael Longoria.
Every year, the Spotlight Award committee, formed by architects, academics, and design practitioners, convenes to consider local, national, and international architects within the first 15 years of their professional practice who have demonstrated design excellence and curiosity through their body of work. The Spotlight Award is by invitation only.
The 2024 Spotlight Award was awarded to Bangkok Tokyo Architecture, an architectural studio founded by Wtanya Chanvitan and Takahiro Kume in 2017. They are fascinated by open-ended structures and the assembly of ordinary elements—blurring the lines between ordinary and exceptional. Their practice explores resilient forms of living, seeking ways to liberate architecture and find models of sustainability.
Troy Schaum, associate professor at the Rice University School of Architecture, said of Bangkok Tokyo Architecture’s work, “Wtanya and Takahiro are reformulating elemental logics of structure and form in surprising and inventive ways. In every project, they are ceaselessly asking if the architecture can do more.” Assistant Professor Georgina Baronian commented, "The unabashed pragmatism displayed in the work of Bangkok Tokyo Architecture belies its subtle sophistication, displaying a reverence for the everyday while achieving an architecture of enchantment. Modest yet magical, the recent projects of this young firm speak to larger questions of our present moment—of maintenance, tradition, economy, and adaptation."
Image
House K, 2023, Bangkok, Thailand. Photo by Soopakorn Srisakul.