2026 Future Forward Grant Awarded to research supporting deconstruction and material reuse
The Future Forward Grant, a project by the Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT) and the AIA Young Architects Forum (YAF), supports students, emerging professionals and early career architects in testing innovative ideas that challenge traditional architecture practices.
WASHINGTON – July 16, 2026 – The American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2026 Future Forward Grant has been awarded to Elaina Berkowitz, AIA, for her research proposal titled “Design for Deconstruction: A Prototype Workflow for Circular Architectural Practice.”
The Future Forward Grant, a project by the Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT) and the AIA Young Architects Forum (YAF), supports students, emerging professionals and early career architects in testing innovative ideas that challenge traditional architecture practices. The goal of the $10,000 grant is to foster innovation by providing the necessary resources to pursue untested ideas and drive exploration and disruption in the profession.
Buildings’ embodied carbon is a major source of U.S. emissions. In response, architects have prioritized adaptive reuse whenever possible. However, a larger opportunity remains underused: designing buildings for future disassembly and material reuse. The research proposal Berkowitz developed provides a practical framework for bringing design for deconstruction and material reuse into U.S. architectural practice. As adaptive reuse continues to grow, practical tools can help architects unlock the full potential of buildings as future material resources and speed the adoption of circular design at scale.
Building on prior research in Japan and Belgium, this project translates proven strategies into a toolkit for U.S.-based firms. It addresses three key barriers:
- Technical challenges related to material reuse.
- Contractual and insurance structures that discourage circular practices.
- The integration of regional salvage and material supply chains into project delivery.
The result will be a publicly accessible platform and practice-oriented toolkit that helps architects apply circular design in real projects. By combining historic Japanese principles of disassembly with contemporary Belgian systems for material recovery and policy support, the project offers a new model for U.S. practice—one that expands the architect's role in shaping material life cycles beyond a building's initial construction.
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