Entries Due March 31, 2026
Given the century-long Neutra legacy of visionary housing philosophy and design, the Neutra Institute is excited to serve as a Community Partner in Frame the Future! LA’s Housing Manifesto + Poster Showdown. The nonprofit Friends of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles (FORT: LA) is leading this open competition and public exhibition, which calls on creatives to use powerful visual and verbal messaging to make the case for a new residential dream for the Southland.
“From his first projects in Europe and Los Angeles, my father pioneered human-centered housing design in many forms—multifamily, workforce, master-planned, and single-family,” said Dr. Raymond Neutra, son of Richard Neutra and president of the Neutra Institute. “He also knew the value of communicating his work and designing not just for people, but with them. We look forward to seeing today’s innovators put the Neutra legacy into practice to advance housing for all.”
Los Angeles has long been a laboratory for domestic innovation, from Neutra and his colleagues’ early modern experiments to today’s adaptive reuse and new models of affordability. Now the region has an urgent need for homes as it also moves beyond car-based, single-family land-use patterns and confronts climate pressures. Good housing ideas already exist, but they often meet pushback. The real challenge is communicating those ideas in a way that can inspire a skeptical public.
Frame the Future! tasks designers with “selling” bold, forward-thinking visions to a community that needs to believe in the future before it will help build it. “This project is about helping people see what’s possible—and want it,” organizers at FORT: LA said.
Designers, architects, artists, writers, students, and creative thinkers are invited to translate complex housing concepts into a visually striking poster, a punchy slogan, and a short manifesto that are clear, optimistic, emotionally resonant, and compelling to a broad public. Anyone can submit an entry through the Frame the Future! Submission Portal.
Frame the Future! will award $3,000 for First Place, $1,500 for Second Place, and $500 for Third Place. In addition to cash prizes, entries will receive significant visibility through FORT: LA and its media and civic partners.
The competition launched with a call for entries on January 14, 2026, with submissions due March 31, 2026. Winners will be announced at an awards celebration and exhibition on April 29, 2026, held at the historic Ebell of Los Angeles, a pioneering civic institution.
Frame the Future! is produced by FORT: LA with Frances Anderton, in collaboration with a coalition of trusted partners whose insight, reach, and credibility expand the project’s impact. Community partners include KCRW, L.A. Forum, Westside Urban Forum, the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation, AIA/LA, LA Design Festival, the Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design, SoCal NOMA, Abundant Housing LA, and The Ebell of Los Angeles.
Submissions will be evaluated by a cross-sector jury deeply engaged in Los Angeles’s cultural and civic landscape. Confirmed jurors include:
- Erika Abrams — Cultural Strategist and Executive Director, LA Design Festival (LADF)
- Frances Anderton — Design and Architecture journalist
- Donna Bojarsky — Founder, Future of Cities (FOC:LA)
- Stacy Brightman — CEO, The Ebell of Los Angeles
- Ryan Conroy — Associate Director of Architecture, cityLAB UCLA
- Joshua Gonzales — Education Director, Abundant Housing Los Angeles
- Alvin Huang — Architect; Director of Graduate Architecture, USC
- Kyle Jenkins — Co-President, Seachange Partners; Board Member, WUF
- Silas Munro — Partner, Polymode
- Quynh Nguyen — Brand Strategist; Board Member, L.A. Forum
- Jacob Newstrom — Charles & Ray Eames Foundation
- Cindy Olnick — Executive Director, Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design
- Danielle Rago — Architecture and Design Consultant; Board Member, FORT:LA
- Nithya Raman, Los Angeles City Councilmember 4th District
- Arnie Seipel — Chief Content Officer, KCRW
- Liam Young — Designer, Director, and Futurist
By centering communication as a civic tool, Frame the Future! aims to shift the public conversation about housing—from fear to curiosity, from resistance to possibility. The project invites Angelenos to imagine a city that is more equitable, more resilient, and more vibrant, and to recognize that shaping that future begins not only with policy or design, but with how the future is framed.
Learn More and Submit Entries by March 31
