As writers about design, we proudly present the first two winners in what we’re pretty sure is the only design writing competition in existence, the Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism:

Thomas de Monchaux will receive the Writing Award for his three submissions: “Constructing the Melnikov House,” “Solving for X: Dek: Calculating Idealism Among Young Architects” and “Here Come The Jets!: Notes on a Stadium.”

Katherine Feo will receive the Education Award for her submission: “In Defense of Stupidity” (we’d like to read all the winning entries but this one sounds right up our alley).

Both will be properly celebrated at the Design Legends Gala on October 25 in New York. More about the esteemed winners:

De Monchaux is a writer and designer. He has written for Architectural Record, I.D. Magazine, and The New York Times, along with journals such as 32BNY and N+1. He majored in art history and history at Brown University, and later studied architecture at Princeton. He lives and works in New York City and is currently assisting Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano of the firm LOT-EK at Columbia University’s “Housing Architecture Studio.”

Feo has just completed her M.A. in design history at the Royal College of Art in London. She received her B.A. in painting and social welfare from the University of California at Berkeley in 2002. Currently, she is working as a research assistant at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and is a visiting lecturer in the department of illustration at the University of Westminster.