Young & Ayata formed a partnership in New York in 2008 to explore the conceptual and aesthetic possibilities of architecture and urbanism. The practice is dedicated to both built commissions and experimental research. The practice views the reality of contemporary building as a provocation for architectural form, material and technology. In following these trajectories it is necessary to understand architecture in its historical processes. Both principals teach and view the educational experience as crucial to the continual development of architectural ideas.

Young & Ayata are the recipients of the 2016 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record. The Apartment building DL1310 designed in collaboration with Michan Architecture received the 2019 Progressive Architecture Award from Architect Magazine. In 2015 they were one of two first prize winners in the International Competition for the New Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, Germany. They were finalists in the 2015 MoMA YAP Program in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2014, the partners were the recipients of the Young Architects Prize from Architectural League of New York, and their entry in the international competition for the Dalseong Citizen's Gymnasium in South Korea received an honorable mention. In 2022 their entry in the open international competition for the New Agricultural Resource Management Building in Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea received the first-place prize and is moving forward with construction to start in the winter of 2023-24.

Recently, the firm's work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Istanbul Modern, the Graham Foundation, Yale University, SCI-Arc, and Princeton University.

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Michael Young is an Associate Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union. He is the recipient of the 2019-20 Rome Prize from the American Academy of Rome. He previously held teaching positions at Princeton University, SCI-Arc, and Columbia University. Michael was the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University and the Esherick Visiting Professor at the University of California Berkeley. He is the author of Reality Modeled After Images (Routledge, 2021) and The Estranged Object (Graham Foundation, 2015) Michael received his Masters of Architecture from Princeton University and his Bachelor of Architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He is a Registered Architect in the State of New York.  C.V.

Kutan Ayata  is an Associate Professor and the Vice Chair in the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at UCLA, where he also serves as the Director of Master of Architecture Program. He previously held teaching positions at University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute, Cornell University and Columbia University. He received his Masters of Architecture from Princeton University and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art. Prior to forming Young & Ayata, Kutan worked at Reiser + Umemoto, Agrest & Gandelsonas and Friedrich St. Florian Architect. He is a registered architect in the Chamber of Architects in Turkey.   C.V.