The ninth annual Spotlight Prize will be awarded to OOPEAA. Founder and Director Anssi Lassila will visit Houston to accept the prize and give a lecture. Admission is free and open to the public.

Anssi Lassila is the founder and principal of OOPEAA Office for Peripheral Architecture. His international breakthrough was the Kärsämäki Shingle Church in 2004 after which he quickly gained a distinctive position among young Finnish architects. His architecture displays an interest in combining a sculptural form with traditional materials and innovative techniques. Lassila has extensive experience in working with wood in architecture. In his approach he emphasizes the potential embedded in exploring new methods and techniques as a means of developing new solutions in building. OOPEAA works on a wide range of projects on varying scales from churches and daycare centers to housing and town planning as well as extensions to historically valuable landmarks.

Eligible honorees for Spotlight must be within their first 15 years of professional practice. The RDA Spotlight committee convenes annually to consider local, national, and international architects who demonstrate design excellence and promise a great design future. Spotlight Prize winners in previous years include Cadaver & Sola-Morales, OUALALOU+CHOI, 5468796, Interboro Partners, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, LA DALLMAN, Sou Fujimoto, and Anton García-Abril.

This event is made possible by support from Generation Park; Louisa Stude Sarofim; Cardno; Cokinos, Bosien & Young; Corporate Care; D.E. Harvey Builders; Hines; Houston First Corporation; Rice Architecture; Betsy Strauch and Lonnie Hoogeboom; TDIndustries; Walter P Moore; Way Engineering, and by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and the Texas commission for the Arts.