Dr. Martin Radermacher
Award amount: $3,590 USD
This project will investigate how urban built environments contribute to dignified spaces. It will focus on migrant and minority religions in cities around the world and their aspirations for recognition and representation. I propose to use this funding to initiate a larger networked project in collaboration with colleagues from other disciplines, including architecture, theology, and urban design. It is one of the pressing social issues in the face of growing diversity to understand how urban spaces provide or lack dignity for religious migrant and minority groups. The research will adopt the assumptions that: dignity is among the constitutional values of contemporary societies, the design and experience of built environments is a crucial aspect for the spiritual identity and development of these communities, and diverse post-secular societies need to understand much better the relevance of dignified places for believers of various faiths.
Victoria L V Schulz-Daubas
Award amount: $5,000 USD
The aim of this project is to examine the concept of the sublime in relation to architectural practice, with the objective to identify factors that play a role in a place being experienced as ‘sublime’ or ‘awe-inspiring,’ and ‘transcendental’. I also aim to establish how these factors can be translated into practice, and also made tangible to the point where they can be shared with other practitioners and a wider audience. I propose that the sublime, with its capacity to shift thinking and help us to see connections, may result in more joined-up thinking in order to coordinate better solutions to the pressing issues we are confronted with, and the fact that architecture and the society it derives from are two inseparable matters.