“I will conduct a forensic analysis the Baroque, not as a historical style, but as a suite of design strategies and effects. I will empirically collect evidence in the field: identifying spatial effects, tracing their means of production, documenting the pressures they exert bodies and perception, and analyzing the programs they suggest and the events they activate. Feeding research into praxis, I will speculate on ways of adapting these strategies and techniques to a contemporary architectural context. The manifestation of this research as design will include the production of speculative drawings and architectural objects.”
Current
Rome Prize Fellows and Projects
The American Academy in Rome awards the Rome Prize to a select group of artists and scholars, after an application process that begins in the fall of each year. The winners, announced in the spring, are invited to Rome to pursue their work in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and artistic freedom, interdisciplinary exchange, and innovation. The 2011-12 Rome Prize winners are listed here with a brief project summary in their own words.
To download the brochure from the Rome Prize Ceremony held in New York on 13 April, 2011, announcing the 2011-2012 Rome Prize winners click here.
Architecture
Gorham P. Stevens Rome Prize
Lonn Combs
Principal, EASTON + COMBS, New York, NY
Clinical Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
New Vectors of Liquid Stone: Speculations on the Material Innovations of Pier Luigi Nervi and the Roman Tradition
“The proposal begins with an analytical approach to the structural systems and material innovations found in Nervi's applications of reinforced concrete, specifically thin shell systems with novel structural performance and environmental effects. The case studies will focus on the lineage of material innovation from classical to modern times. The research will seek to construct a platform for design speculation incorporating emerging material innovations and computational strategies for managing structural performance, material organization and environmental effects. The examinations of the innovations of Nervi will depend on extensive site visitations in Rome and throughout Italy. It is through this context of historical and incremental innovation in building culture that this project will explore alternative futures with the use of advanced computational strategies as well as physical material research that focus on recent breakthroughs in performance enhancement, fabric reinforcement and environmental performance of emerging material methodologies of concrete and cast material systems.”
