Architecture at the Forefront: 2025 Design Vanguard Winners, Part I  

Ben Pennell is an independent architectural designer and Professor of Practice at Virginia Tech. He graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2015, and in 2019 received his Masters Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

His interests include figurative form and symbolism, as well as digital fabrication in contemporary architecture. His designs persist across multiple scales, regions, and what a historian would have called “iconological programs.”

Matthew Au is the co-principal of Current Interests with over fifteen years of experience. His professional expertise is in design with an emphasis on fabrication, custom software development, complex building systems, and architectural installations. Matthew is a member of the design faculty at Southern California Institute for Architecture (SCI-Arc) and has had visiting appointments at Princeton University and Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Mira Henry is the co-principal of Current Interests. Mira Henry is a registered architect with over fifteen years of professional experience. Her professional expertise is in design and project management of large-scale building programs, residential construction, and retail and restaurant interiors. Mira is a member of the design faculty at Southern California Institute for Architecture (SCI-Arc) and has had visiting appointments at Princeton University and Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Meredith Miller is an architect and Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where she joined as an A. Alfred Taubman Fellow in 2009-2010 where she also directs the Master of Architecture Program. Her research and practice links architecture’s materiality to global resources, climate change, and post-natural ecologies. Her writing has been published in Journal of Architectural Education, Avery Review, MONU, Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, and Political Economy, Pidgin, Thresholds, and ARPA Journal. With Thom Moran, she is developing Post Rock, a composite building material made from waste plastics and aggregates. Her material research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, American Institute of Architects, The Graham Foundation and others.