David Benjamin and Soo-in Yang are co-founders and principals of The Living. The New York City-based practice emphasizes open-source research and design, seeking collaboration both within and outside the field of architecture, and viewing each project as part of larger threads of experimentation and construction. Work by The Living has been exhibited at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and the Innovation Lab in Copenhagen; has received the Architectural League's Young Architects Forum award in 2006 and three separate finalist prizes from the Metropolis Magazine Next Generation Design competition; and has appeared in many publications, including Life Size (Columbia Books of Architecture, 2007), a non-monograph about the firm's work, and Transmaterial (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006). Benjamin graduated from Harvard with a BA in Social Studies and played in the rock band Push Kings. Yang graduated from Yonsei University with a BE in Architectural Engineering and managed the construction of apartment complexes in Seoul. Benjamin and Yang both received their Masters of Architecture from Columbia University. They currently teach at Pratt Institute and Columbia University, where they are co-directors of the Living Architecture Lab.

Support
The Van Alen Institute New York Prize Fellowship is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. The 2007-2008 New York Prize Fellowship in Systems and Ecology is sponsored by Denny Abrams. Living City is additionally supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and by the Living Architecture Lab at Columbia University.