Beijing-based firm, MAD Architects—which is designing the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Los Angeles)—has announced the recipients of its annual travel fellowship. Initiated by Ma Yansong—founder of the firm—in 2009, the fellowship program has sponsored a total of 35 Chinese students' travel expenses to work on research topics in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. The program focuses on the importance of understanding and exploring the context of architectural design to "gain a deeper insight into the practice of architecture," the firm writes on their website.
Starting this year, the fellowship program has broadened its scope to include international students. As a result, five students from Costa Rica, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Austria were granted travel fellowships to cover the costs of their research in China. As in previous years, five Chinese students were selected to work on their research projects overseas.
Check out this year's fellowship recipients and their projects:
Utopia as Domicile for Resilience
Roberto Vargas Calvo from Costa Rica, a fifth-year undergraduate student at Veritas University in San José, Costa Rica.
ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2016/2017
Kyriaki Goti from Greece, a second-year graduate student at University of Stuttgart inGermany.
Public Library of Hamedan City
Hossein Goudarzi from Iran, a first-year graduate student at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M.
Walkabout
Federico Fauli from Italy a second-year graduate student at Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.
I heart blob
Shaun McCallum from Scotland, a first-year graduate student at University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria.
Hide the Order of Life
Li Qiwei, a fourth-year undergraduate student at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture in Beijing.
Travel Destination: Russia and Ukraine
Courtyards Vernacular Protos in Expended Fields
Wen Zishen, a second year graduate student at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Travel Destination: Germany, Austria, and Italy
Stereotomyn
Wu You, a first-year graduate student at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
Travel Destination: France
Obama Presidential Library
Yi Zhe, a first-year graduate student at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
Travel Destination: Japan
Disappeared in Field Edges
Wei Tangchenxi, a second-year graduate student at Southeast University in Nanjing, China.
Travel Destination: the Netherlands
