Recipe for a Room 2026: Places for Repair

Join us for Recipe for a Room 2026: Places of Repair, a live contest featuring the work of NYC-area architecture and design students paired with professional mentors. It's a lively, design-focused evening of presentation, discussion and real-time voting for your favorite project!

This annual event, organized by the AIANY Interiors Committee, features spatial, sculptural, miniature room models and fosters fun, creativity and professional mentorship. The 2026 contest benefits the Repair Café El Barrio, a community-led initiative in East Harlem focused on repair, learning, and collective care through free repair events and workshops.

In reference to 2026 AIANY President Mark Gardner’s theme of REPAIR, student competitors are creating spaces which heal, fix, or assist something they identify as "broken" in New York City. The students' projects focus on social, economic, physical, and ecological forms of repair.

Repair definition (verb): to restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken; to restore to a sound or healthy state; to make good or set right.

2026 Recipe Contest Judges:
Matthew Bremer, 2023 President, AIA New York; Principal, Architecture in Formation
Mimi Hoang, FAIA, NOMA, Principal, nARCHITECTS
Andrea Steele, AIA, Founder, Andrea Steele Architecture

Student Presenters & Mentors:
Michelle Aca, New York Institute of Technology – NYC
Mentor:
Alex Bahensky, RA, STUDIO 397 Architecture PLLC

Simran Maredia, Cornell Tech – Cornell University
Mentor:
Nicole De Feo, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, WEDG, GRP, Trust for Governors Island

Paris Mendes, Parsons School of Design |The New School
Mentor:
Shalini Abeyaratne, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP, Gensler

Edozie Onumonu, Cornell Tech – Cornell University
Mentor: 
Jean-Gabriel Neukomm, AIA, JG Neukomm Architecture

Hao Ou, Pratt Institute
Mentor: 
August Atzenweiler, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects

Tvisha Patel, School of Visual Arts
Mentor: 
Diana Hayden, LEED GA, STUDIO 397 Architecture PLLC

Daniel Scanlon, Columbia GSAPP
Mentor:
Roderick Cruz, AIA, NCARB, Ammor Architecture LLP

Zekaiya Whittington, The Cooper Union
Mentor:
Joan Hyun, RA, LEED AP, CPHC, Ciardullo Architecture & Engineering