Young & Ayata formed as a partnership in New York in 2008 to explore the conceptual and aesthetic possibilities of architecture and urbanism.
The practice is dedicated to building commissions, exploratory mediations, and published arguments where the reality of the contemporary environment is engaged as a provocation for experiments in form, material, and imagery. Both principals teach and view pedagogy as crucial to the continual development of architectural ideas. Young & Ayata have received the Progressive Architecture award, the Design Vanguard Award, the Young Architects Prize, the AIA Honor Award, and a first-place prize for the design of the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, Germany.
Michael Young is an Assistant Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union. He is the recipient of the 2019-20 Rome Prize from the American Academy of Rome. He is the author of The Estranged Object (Graham Foundation 2015) and Reality Modeled After Images (Routledge 2021). Michael received his Masters of Architecture from Princeton University and his Bachelor of Architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Michael is a Registered Architect in the State of New York.
Kutan Ayata is an Associate Professor and the Vice Chair in the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at UCLA, where he also serves as the Director of Master of Architecture Program. He received his Masters of Architecture from Princeton University and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art. He is a registered architect in the Chamber of Architects in Turkey.