The 2024 RAMSA Fellowship jury is pleased to announce Nga Ting (Joanna) Cheung as the recipient of this year's travel prize. Joanna, a Master of Architecture candidate at Columbia University, will be awarded $15,000 to travel throughout southeastern China to study tulou architecture—large, fortified earth buildings constructed between the 12th and 20th centuries. These buildings functioned as both defensive structures and communal residences for individual clans. Joanna will also receive an additional stipend for a two-week-long residency at RAMSA’s office in New York City to further develop her research project with the support of RAMSA staff and resources.
In her submission, titled Tulou: An Urban Typology in Rural, Joanna proposes to visit six villages in the province of Fujian. Each village contains multiple evolutions of tulou, which she aims to document. Her focus includes the inventive application of natural materials, indigenous construction methods, and courtyard spatial arrangements.
The fellowship jurors—RAMSA Partners Bina Bhattacharyya, Johnny Cruz, and Preston Gumberich— enthusiastically agreed upon Joanna's proposal due to their shared interest in the resiliency of this traditional architecture as well as the innovative ideas presented by the typology, particularly related to multi-family or multi-generational living arrangements. The jury stated "It is clear these structures offer numerous important lessons from small-scale architectural details to large-scale programmatic relationships that can be applied to projects today. The contained quality of the tulou also provides a tight focus for architectural and historical analysis."
Impressed by the quality and breadth of this year’s 74 submissions from 19 schools, the jury also designates Michael Chang, a Master of Architecture candidate at Harvard University, as this year's finalist. His submission, titled Hale, Fale, House: Retracing Hawaiian Architectural Tradition Along Polynesian Sailing Routes, delves into the ancient art of Hawaiian house-building, specifically Kūkulu hale, within the broader context of Polynesian domestic architecture. Excited by the geographical narrative and recognizing the local significance of the research, Michael will be awarded $1,500 to continue to pursue his research interests.
About the RAMSA Fellowship
The RAMSA Fellowship is a $15,000 prize awarded annually by Robert A.M. Stern Architects for travel and research. The fellowship promotes investigations into the perpetuation of tradition through invention and is given to an individual who has proven insight and interest in the profession and its future, as well as the ability to carry forth in-depth research. Recent recipients have traveled to Egypt, Italy, and Morocco, where they have studied a wide range of topics from the construction of mudbrick houses in Aswan to the rehabilitation of tuna fisheries in Sicily.
The fellowship now includes an optional residency program, in addition to the travel and research prize. The program provides fellows with a stipend to fund a two-week-long residency at RAMSA’s office in New York City before or after their travel. During the residency, fellows continue to develop their research project with the support of RAMSA staff and resources.
Students in the penultimate year of a graduate-level degree program in architecture or a related discipline at a NAAB-accredited school are eligible for the prize. For more information about the fellowship, read our recently published article “A Discussion About Travel, Research, and the RAMSA Fellowship” on RAMSA Storyboard. To view the proposals of previous recipients, visit www.ramsa.com/fellowship. The fellowship is administered by RAMSA Research, email fellowship@ramsa.com with any questions.
