Karolina Czeczek

Karolina Czeczek is a Principal of Only If—, a New York City-based design practice for architecture. Only If’s projects span a range of different types and scales, from interiors, to single- and multiple-family housing, to larger-scale urban planning, research, and speculation.

Only If been recognized as part of Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard (2022), Domus Magazine’s 50 Best Architecture Firms in the World (2020), Architect Magazine’s Next Progressives (2019), and a winner of the AIA’s New Practices New York (2018). Only If’s work has been nominated for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (2022). Only If’s People’s Pool project is part of the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, “Architecture Now: New York, New Publics,” featuring projects that envision a more accessible, sustainable, and equitable New York. Only If is also a winner of the Big Ideas for Small Lots competition, organized by NYC HPD, to develop affordable housing on the narrow lots in New York City.

Czeczek has previously taught design studios at the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, the University of Kentucky, Pratt Institute, and the University of Cincinnati. Czeczek is a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Wirt Winchester Travel Fellowship from Yale School of Architecture. Czeczek is a registered architect in the Netherlands and Poland and previously worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam and Hong Kong