2021 RAMSA Prize Recipients Alp Demiroglu and MG Lewis are in Miami Beach this week studying art deco architecture. They will meet with local historians, view archival collections to better understand historical influences, and document architectural landmarks through photography and plein-air sketching.
Alp and MG won the 2021 RAMSA Prize with their proposal Migration to the Magic City: Early Modernisms in an Ever-Expanding Miami.
The jury—RAMSA Partners Meghan McDermott and Paul Whalen—felt that “Alp and MG chose a fascinating subject to study. Miami’s Latin American and Caribbean immigrant communities have had a unique and significant impact on the city’s rich art deco and modernist architecture. Their proposal was clear, feasible, and aligned with the spirit of the prize.”
Now in its sixth year, the RAMSA Prize is a travel and research grant awarded to individuals within the firm. The prize promotes explorations into a location’s sense of place and is intended to encourage RAMSA staff to engage in targeted, in-depth research into a city, town, or region in a way that can meaningfully inform design work. In addition, the prize allows staff to pursue personal interests as an extension of the firm’s research-based design principles.
Past recipients have traveled to Argentina, India, Japan, Mexico, and throughout the Caribbean and the Netherlands studying a wide range of topics from Spanish colonial architecture in the Dominican Republic to social housing in Amsterdam.
For more information about the RAMSA Prize, visit www.ramsa.com/prize.
