2022–2023 Fellowship Recipients
Minghao (William) Du | Cappadocia, Turkey
Maria Del Carmen Maldonado | Route 66, US
Nadja Martinovic | Montenegro
Tianyang Sun | Toronto & Markam, Canada
Projects
Minghao (William) Du
William traveled to Cappadocia, Turkey, to study vernacular cave house settlements. He embarked on a hot air balloon ride to survey the stunning landforms shaped by erosion and volcanic activity, along with the ancient human dwellings carved into the rock. He resided in a cave house hotel to immerse himself in the experience of cave living. He climbed stone mounds to photograph rock-cut churches and fairy chimney rocks, and he explored rock castles and underground cities to gain insight into how and why people lived this way centuries ago. William was captivated by these underground settlements, which inspired him to consider potential alternatives to suburban dwellings and building systems.
Carmen Maldonado
Carmen traveled to ghost towns on Route 66 in California. She started from the end of the Santa Monica Pier and moved east, stopping at Dagget, Calico, Newberry Springs, Ludlow, Amboy, and Barstow—all infamous yet relatively obscure Route 66 ghost towns. Her intent was to delve deeper into an understanding of the histories of these towns, and to explore their states of decay. She was able to capture this historical route through her photography and by creating impressions of these abandoned spaces using latex. Her latex molds became material referents for what it meant to capture and explore the ghostly and ectoplasmic nature of architectural decay, and she assembled them into a “latex curtain” for her final thesis presentation.
Nadja Martinovic
Nadja traveled to the southeastern region of Montenegro to document spaces of ritual built from stone by examining their form, stone cut and type, methods of assembly, and the labor they require. The sites she visited include Mount Lovćen, Kotor Bay, Gornja Lastva, and Cetinje. During her trip Nadja met with staff from the National Archive and Library in Cetinje, local historians, and curators to collect material for research. Her travel enabled her to faithfully document local building practices in these centuries-old settlements, and to capture the memory of once thriving communities that now exist only as abandoned homes, falling apart stone by stone.
Tianyang Sun
Tianyang visited a recently-established Chinese immigrant neighborhood in Markham, Toronto to study how faux materials facilitate the image of domesticity in new homes. He visited works of architecture as well as anonymous buildings. He stayed in boutique hotels as well as suburban houses. He stopped by an avant-garde studio as well as a Home Depot. He knew he wasn’t meant to study the “good” buildings. He ended up thinking the “bad” ones were not as uninteresting.
