The 2010 Research Through Making Faculty research grant recipients were announced by Dean Monica Ponce de Leon and awarded to Taubman College architecture faculty on April 30, 2010. Five grants of $20,000 each were competitively awarded for the production of a research or creative project that is predicated on MAKING.

Funds can be used for project materials, student assistance, and other expenses. Entries to this competition were anonymously evaluated by a distinguished jury from outside the College. Projects will completed by January 8, 2011. The work will be exhibited in the College Gallery.

Jurors were Ned Cramer, editor-in-chief of Architect Magazine; Karen Fairbanks, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Professional Practice in Architecture and the Chair of the Department of Architecture at Barnard College; and Joe Rosa, the John H. Bryan Curatorial Chair of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago and recently named UM’s Art Museum (UMMA) director.

Grants were awarded to to the following projects and faculty members:

Storm Glass
Associate Professor Craig Borum

Stratus
Associate Professor Geoff Thun and Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov

WATERSHED (or) Wrapping Sheds with Water
Assistant Architecture and Urban Planning Professor Maria Arquero and Assistant Professor Jen Maigret

Hair, Spikes, Heather and Sedge: the research of thatch through Making
Lecturer Vivian Lee

Re-vault: Extending from finding with computation, ecological inputs and robotic fabrication
Lecturer Maciej Kaczynski, Fab Lab Director Wes McGee, and Visiting Professor of Architecture Dave Pigram.

The program, initiated by Dean Ponce de Leon in 2009 and sponsored by Taubman College to promote making, was continued this year based on the success of last year’s projects. The 2009 Research Through Making grant recipients and information about their projects can be found here: taubmancollege.umich.edu/rtm