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Wallenberg Studio Travel

Taubman College Wallenberg Travel Studio

Raoul Wallenberg, a 1935 graduate of the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning, has been called one of the 20th century's most outstanding heroes and one of Taubman College's most celebrated alumni.

In 1944, as First Secretary of the Swedish delegation in Budapest, Wallenberg is credited with saving more than 100,000 Jews from death at the hands of the Nazis. The following year, he was captured by the Russians. Seven decades later, his fate remains unknown.

Each year the architecture program exhibits and juries the best work from the final undergraduate design studio. Awards, funded by the Raoul Wallenberg Scholarship Fund established in 1985 by the Benard L. Maas Foundation in memory of Wallenberg, are offered in the form of a stipend for international travel to a country of the student's choosing.

Born in 1896, Benard Maas achieved success as an innovator and industrialist for the automotive industry. He dedicated himself and his fortune to enhancing the lives of young people, and became one of the state of Michigan’s most generous philanthropists. The Benard L. Maas Foundation continues his lifelong support of higher education through grantmaking, including the gift to establish the Raoul Wallenberg Scholarship Fund.

In establishing these travel awards, it was hoped that students would engage in the culture of the country they visited, exploring architecture and culture, and getting acquainted with the people. Students are inspired and humbled to learn that Wallenberg was once an architecture student like themselves who had the courage to do the right thing during terrifying and dangerous events in history. It was expected that students would return with a broadened understanding of the world and an appreciation and feeling for the people they encountered.

Students must submit a report about their travel and experience upon their return.

2022 Wallenberg Travel Award Winners

Madeleine Smith, "In Transit Exposing Negligence through Intervention in Order to Remake"
Muzi Li, "MANUFACTURE REFORM Community-making and Identity Building"
Audrey Louie, "Polaris Medical Center”
Madeira Booy de Graaff, “Like a Version”
Sydney Cleveland-Datesman, "Shaping Domestic Space Shifting Women’s Domestic Labor to be a Labor of Love"

2020 Wallenberg Travel Award Winners

Phillip Allore, “Storied Ground”
Cayman Langton & Natsume Ono, “Alternating Duality”
Clare Coburn, “Irrational Territories: Counter-Tactics for a Post-Petroleum Future”
Jamie Johnson & Peyton Stimac, “The Reformatorium”
Gian Anovert & Jesica Yu, “New Kids on the Block”
Yangtian Yan, “Depth of Panels”

2019 Wallenberg Travel Award Winners

Evan Troy Crawford for “Objective Algorithms”
Angel Tang for “New Ground”
Siyuan Zhang for “Timeframe”
Markus Boynton for “Twice as Good”
Malcolm Brom and Lejia Li for “Desert Currency”

2018 Wallenberg Travel Award Winners

Prize Winners:

Christopher Myefski
Re-ranging the American Construct
Nadim Hajj Ahmad and Ellis Wills-Begley
Burkinabe` International Center for Image Production
Willow Davis
Cloaked Communications

Honorable Mention: