Ross C. Hoekstra, M.Arch.’09, M.S.’10, awarded 2012 George G. Booth Traveling Fellowship for Sweden, Denmark travel
Ross C. Hoekstra (M.Arch.’09, M.S.’10) was selected as the 2012 George G. Booth Traveling Fellow. Ross will investigate the role of architecture in living history museums through close reading of Skansen (Stockholm, Sweden) and Den Gamle By (The Old Town, Aarhaus, Denmark) to document two of the first living history museums ever constructed. One of the many questions he will attempt to answer is, how does architecture participate in the reenactment of living history? Ross will produce an almanac to highlight the supporting roles architecture is asked to portray to understand their repurposed role within the curated park.
The jury was looking for original and clearly defined strategies for travel-based research. The jurors evaluated each proposal along these three criteria:
- Does the project require travel in order to answer the questions being asked?
- What is its relevance to the discipline and how well does the applicant articulate the connections between the travel and questions of architecture?
- How feasible is the proposal? Do the budget, itinerary, and strategy for engaging the sites match the ambitions outlined in the proposal?
The jury was impressed and excited by several proposals, but the in the end unanimously agreed that Ross Hoekstra’s proposal was the clear winner. Their comments, “The winning submission not only stood out in each of these categories, but Ross’s interest in looking at the dislocated geographies of living history museums is a very compelling proposal for travel-based research. And he demonstrated the currency of this research relative to contemporary questions of representation and simulation in architecture.” The jury included Assistant Professors Meredith Miller, Rosalyne Shieh and Sean Vance.
For more information on the Booth Travel Fellowship: click here.
