Lyceum Fellowship Competition 2026
Competition Brief
The Lyceum Fellowship is an enduring annual competition in architectural design for students which is a mixture of design-based research and travel experience supported by grant money. It was initiated in 1985 and its main goal is to support the architectural profession by involving students in both, their respective design activities and travel for exposing them to different ideas and contexts. The 2026 edition, named Spatializing Justice: Building Blocks, challenges competitors to pinpoint a particular issue in political, economic, social, or spatial terms and to show it in a visual way, and then to suggest the necessary conditions and strategies that would allow to preform the conflict through design and spatial intervention.
Intent
The fellowship aims at pushing students out of their comfort zones by asking them not only to come up with architectural solutions but also to define the brief and the context underneath their proposal. This technique puts a stronger emphasis on the analysis of spatial and power dynamics within organizations and simultaneously empowers critical thinking concerning the design’s function in solving systemic problems.
Purpose
The Lyceum Fellowship serves a dual purpose; it is meant to illuminate architectural education in the broadest sense possible by getting students to participate in global context-deepening cognitive and gimmick-heedless visits. The competition grants that go to winners as travel support are aimed at research and learning experiences that contribute to the students’ academic development.
Requirements
The following conditions apply to applicants:
- Be the maker of the submission which expresses both analysis and design aspects of the project.
- Must be already enrolled at an accredited architecture school when the jury reviews their work (eligibility may vary according to the institution offering the fellowship and the year the competition is held).
- Provide a design narrative that describes the conflict and illustrates it, then gives an invitation to come up with a self-designed brief and the design conditions necessary to tackle the conflict.
Jury
- Teddy Cruz – Partner, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman
- Fonna Forman – Partner, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman
The remaining judges for 2026 will be revealed a few months before the submission due date, indicating an ensemble of opinions that comprises the academic, professional practice, and public impact areas.
Fees Table
| Entry Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Submission Fee | Varies by year and institution |
(Note: Specific fees for the 2026 edition are typically listed during registration; student eligibility and travel grants are core benefits.)
Rewards Table
| Prize Type | Reward |
|---|---|
| 1st Place Travel Fellowship | $15,000 grant for three months of travel abroad |
| 2nd Place Travel Fellowship | $10,000 grant for two months of travel abroad |
| 3rd Place Travel Fellowship | $5,000 grant for one month of travel abroad |
| Jon McKee Prize | Discretionary award recognising exceptional travel statement and/or project engagement |
(Prize values are based on current 2026 competition information.)
Dates Table
| Milestone | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Submission Deadline | 21 May 2026 |
(Exact dates for registration and final submissions are usually published alongside the competition brief each cycle.)
✦ ArchUp Competition Review
The Lyceum Fellowship 2026 is offering students the chance to present their projects, which are based on a political, social, or economic conflict analysis and the design conditions and strategies. The designers will get travel grant assistance of up to 15,000 USD. The competition is strictly academic and aims at promoting the teaching of architecture. The jury consists of highly respected architects, with more members being announced just before the submission, thus granting some degree of transparency about the evaluation. The value of the prizes matches the amounts required for research and travels, but the chances of making practical use of the findings are small. The competition mainly aids the participants in their portfolio development, critical thinking, and international exposure, rather than in the direct execution of their professional project.
Critical Conclusion
The Lyceum Fellowship competition has such a unique position that it supports architectural design education through both deep analysis and global travel experience. It is the competition’s structure that requires students to first identify both the conflict and the brief, which in turn sets up a challenge to the conventional ideas about competitions, and even more so, such a competition would lead to extensive and critical thinking. At the same time, this open-ended setting might create confusion for some participants who are more comfortable with a clearer definition of roles. The travel grants are quite considerable and match the educational purpose of the fellowship yet, the yearly change in the jury panel and sometimes submission requirements can make it hard for the audience to predict the evaluation criteria at an early stage of the process. The fellowship turns out to be a highly regarded and intellectually demanding opportunity for the architects of the future who want to merge their design research and the international exposure.
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