Martin Roche Travel Scholarship
© Francisco Lopez de Arenosa
Overview
Established in 1926 by architect Martin Roche, FAIA, the Martin Roche Travel Scholarship gives a student the opportunity to independently study architecture abroad.
Students have studied diverse subjects, such as the transformation of brownfield sites in Germany; the relationship between design and crime in Medellin, Colombia; and modernist religious architecture in Italy.
A grant of $6,000 is available to students enrolled in a NAAB accredited architecture program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology, or the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The proposal must describe an independent study of an architecture-related topic that takes place in a country other than the United States of America and that does not qualify for credit toward your degree program.
Successful applicants have demonstrated a clarity in travel plans and proposal goals and outcomes. Ensure travel plans are reasonable in the amount of the time proposed. For example, traveling to four countries or eight cities in one month may not be practical in accomplishing an effective and thorough research project.
About Martin Roche, FAIA
Martin Roche, FAIA (1853-1927) was among the Chicago architects who designed the city’s earliest tall buildings in the 1880s and 1890s and whose innovative designs came to be known as the Chicago school of architecture. In 1881, he joined William Holabird, FAIA (1854-1923) in the firm Holabird and Simonds which became Holabird and Roche in 1883. In his will, Mr. Roche specified that after his death, his “pictures, paintings and etchings” were to be sold and the funds used by AIA Chicago to support architecture students who “wish to study architecture abroad.” The AIA Chicago Foundation, established in 1969, awarded the first Roche travel scholarship in 1983.
Application must include:
• A proposed itinerary or timeline for your travel study (not to exceed two pages in length).
• A 250-word statement describing your travel study objectives: how will the proposed trip help your architecture career? (one page)
• A concise general budget, outlining anticipated expenses for your travel study (one page)
• At least one letter of recommendation
Scholarship Information
Award: $6,000 Grant
Submissions Open: Paused for 2023
Submissions Close: Paused for 2023
Past Recipients
2022 - Ethan O'Kane, UIC - Research on the Pearling Path - Muharraq, Bahrain
2021 - Erik Schiller, IIT - Study of The Emergence of A Landscape Discipline in The Context of International Development and Post-Soviet Land Use - Republic of Georgia
2019 - Andrea Hunt, SAIC - Water Infrastructures, Technologies, and Futurisms within Mexico City and its Periphery - Mexico2018 - Melis Isil Simsek, SAIC - Architecture as Social Construction or Social Destruction: The Case of Sulukule - Turkey
2017 - Ruta Misiunas, UIC - Rebellious Construction: The Movement for Freedom of Expression in Soviet Construction - Lithuania
2016 - Devon Morris, UIC - Colonizing Heritage: The Adaptive Reuse of Myanmar's Architecture - Myanmar
2015 - Janina Sanchez, UIC - Political Urbanism: An urban catalogue of "Good Living" - Ecuador
2014 - Tim Walser, UIC - Entropolis: Lessons from Manila - Republic of Phillipines
2013 - Taylor Holloway, UIC - Design Better / Design Forward - Sub-Saharan Africa
2012 - Anne Dudek, IIT - China's Rapid Urbanization Population: Architectural Needs and Responses - China
2011 - Jennifer McKenzie, IIT - Room to Grow - Finland
2010 - Maria Paulina Carvallo, IIT - Study of technical textiles to examine projects with new fabrication techniques for creating openings in multi-layer facades - Germany
2009 - Ernest Bellamy III, IIT - Medellin: Public Spaces Perceptions + Reconnections - Medellin, Colombia
2008 - Cady Chintis, UIC - Study documenting architectural and landscape design strategies that have driven the region's incredible post-industrial comeback - Germany
2007 - Andrew Fawcett, IIT - Study of Giovanni Michelucci's Work - Italy
2006 - John Musial, UIC - Netherlands
2006 - Judith Rodriguez - Portieles, IIT - Australia
2005 - Carlyn So, UIC - Central America
2004 - Chris-Annmarie Spencer, UIC - Johannesburg to Cape Town: Social Stratification & Apartheid - South Africa
2003 - Colin Franzen, UIC - Interspersing Natural Landscapes with Buildings - Japan
2002 - William Corcoran, UIC - Five Public Spaces in Spain - Spain
2001 - Robin Ford, IIT - Traditional Building Practices and their Transistion to Modern Use in Restorations as well as Comtemporary Buildings - Iceland
2000 No scholarship given
1999 No scholarship given
1998 - David Brach, UIC - Landscape and the Language of the City: Studying Architecture as Part of a Larger Context of Relationships - Netherlands/France/Spain
1997 - Kindon Mills, IIT - Effect of the Desert on Citymaking and Dwelling - Tunsia
1996 No scholarship given
1995 - Timothy Murphy, UIC - Railway Stations in Paris & London - Paris, France/London, England
1994 - Helen Tsatsos, UIC - Le Corbusier's Four French Unites d'Habitation - France
1993 - Sarah Bader, UIC - Studying Handcrafted Woodworking Techniques in Beaminster, England - England
1992 - Ellen Dineen Grimes, UIC - Studying Urban Design in Rome & Milan and the New pavillion in Barcelona - Italy/Spain
1991 - Edmund D. Newman, UIC - Rome, Italy
1990 - David Fleming, IIT - Studying New Technologies in Japan - Japan