Share

Associate Professor Karl Daubmann Awarded Prestigious Rome Prize in Architecture

Associate Professor Karl Daubmann Awarded Prestigious Rome Prize in Architecture

Karl Daubmann, AIA, Associate Professor of Architecture, was awarded the ​2015-2016 ​​the​ Founders Rome Prize, one of two Rome Prizes in architecture, for his project proposal titled, “Rules for Tools.” ​The American Academy in Rome awards the Rome Prize to a unique group of artists and scholars annually. The winners, selected by independent juries through a national competition process, are invited to Rome the following year to pursue their work in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and artistic experimentation and interdisciplinary exchange.

“Rules for Tools” seeks to uncover historic and tectonic rule sets to parametrically process current predicaments of materials and technologies. The proposal investigates two geographically and intellectually relevant design-builders: Francesco Borromini and Pier Luigi Nervi. While both architects worked in disparate historic periods, both created novel spatial arrangements using specific materials and modes of translation from design to construction. The main design modes used were subtractive through stone cutting and additive with reinforced concrete. Borromini’s stones were assembled into flowing forms which disguised individual building elements. Nervi stacked cast elements which highlighted the incremental, individual parts. Their construction techniques and practices will inform Daubmann’s own work carried out in Rome in light of new material innovations, advanced manufacturing, and quickly evolving industrial robotics. 

Daubmann is the Director of the Master of Science in Architecture Degree at Taubman College, as well as being the principal of DAUB (design, architecture, urbanism, building).

Thirty-one winners were selected from over 900 applications this year, making it one of the most competitive years ever. This year’s winners were presented at the Arthur & Janet C. Ross Rome Prize Ceremony, held at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City on April 16, 2015. For more information about the award, please visit the American Academy in Rome website.
 


2015 Research Through Making Grant Exhibition at Liberty Gallery, RoboPinch by Karl Daubmann