With a decade-long experience and 9 Pritzker laureates in its juries, YAC is the most prestigious organizer of international architectural competitions in the world.
YAC is an organizer of design and architectural competitions for young architects and designers, recent graduates and students.
YAC is an organizer of design and architectural projects for young architects and designers, recent graduates and students. YAC pursues several goals: firstly, the organizer aims to encourage design-related research by regularly providing tangible architectural or urban planning projects to inspire stakeholders and generate solutions to support and provide physical places for increasingly volatile and dynamic human activities.
According to YAC, architecture is the discipline that creates and shapes the places of human action.
It meets numerous and diverse needs through diversified expressions of the intellect and creativity of each architect. We strongly believe the architectural problem cannot be solved with a mere formal research, functionalism, the budget or technology of the building. The solution is rather the combination of such elements according to the architect’s personality and taste. The projects YAC wishes to award are highly contemporary projects that enable temporariness and customization of the use of the architectural space.
Our history
YAC is one of the most long-established and active organizers of competitions in the world. Hereby follow the key events that consolidated its leadership and notoriety:
2013
The Establishment
YAC resulted from the intuition of 3 young engineers that believed calls for ideas could be a privileged tool to breathe new life into the architectural debate and research. Under the patronage of the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna, YAC srl was established on 8 March 2013.
2014
University partnerships
In less than a year, YAC started collaborating with the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna- which design workshops were based on YAC’s competitions- and signed two agreements with the Department of Architecture of the Sapienza University in Rome and the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe.
2015
YAC in Bologna
In 2015, one of YAC’s first clients, Alberto Masotti – former chairman of La Perla fashion group – got interested in the activities of the young company. He considered YAC an opportunity to support and promote the national architectural heritage. After he became shareholder of the company. YAC’s headquarters moved to Bologna.
2016
Lamborghini’s landmarks
In 2016, the historic vehicle manufacturer entrusted YAC with the curatorship of a competition to design 2 road monuments to replace the historical accesses to the House of the Bull. The outcome of such collaboration were two landmarks that completely changed the look of the countryside of Bologna.
2018
YACademy was founded
5 years after its foundation, YAC decided to open its network of renowned architects to young architects to support their professional career. YACademy launched 4 high-level training courses held by prestigious partners as Ferrari, Technogym and the Italian Agenzia del Demanio.
2020
The Tresoldi Academy was founded
In the year of the pandemic, together with Edoardo Tresoldi, YAC launched a new training project aiming to bring young architects closer to contemporary art and its languages. Thanks to the collaboration with Unipol and Renzo Piano’s G124, 2 artistic installations were made.
2021
Record year in realizations
In 2021, 4 projects by YAC’s participants and students were realized: an alpine bivouac in the Aosta Valley, an urban market in the suburbs of Milan, an artistic installation in Arte Sella and an installation at Fuorisalone 2021.
YAC’s figures
A few figures are enough to prove YAC’s leadership in the contemporary architectural scenario and to explain the importance of its activities in supporting young architects.
Organized competitions
+50
Countries involved
+140
Prizes to young architects
+1 mln €
Realized projects
+12
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