MSU architecture students awarded prestigious travel awards

Contact: Christie McNeal

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Two Mississippi State architecture students received prestigious travel awards, including the $20,000 Aydelott Travel Award.

Established by the late Memphis architect Alfred Lewis Aydelott and his wife, Hope Galloway Aydelott, the $2.4 million endowment provides an award each year to four students currently enrolled in the professional architecture degree programs at MSU, the University of Arkansas, Auburn University, and the University of Tennessee. MSU’s latest Aydelott award winner is Jesús Morales.

“This opportunity has the capability of providing unique experiences and insights into my life and work, and the growth that I will continue to make in this career path will hopefully be showcased by what I discover abroad,” said Morales, a third-year architecture student from Atlanta, Georgia. “I am truly honored to represent the School of Architecture here at Mississippi State.”

Morales will use the travel award to research colonial architectural typologies across different environments and cultural contexts. He will focus on four buildings during his travels to Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean: the Cathedral of St. Peter by Adrien Laforgue in Rabat, Morocco; San Agustin Church by the Augustinian Order in Manila, Philippines; Casa de Aliaga by Colonial Builders of the Spanish Colonial Administration in Lima, Peru; and El Capitolio by Eugenio Rayneri Piedra in Havana, Cuba.

“My research will analyze how these buildings are able to organize power, climate and occupation across centuries,” said Morales, who will be guided in this research by his faculty mentor Assistant Professor John Ross. “In this sense, architecture excellence can be revealed through typological clarity, structural intelligence, longstanding durability and continued relevance.”

Kimberly Sosa is also receiving a $5,000 Trussell Travel Award sponsored by MSU School of Architecture alumnus Ted T. Porter.

“Receiving this award means everything to me,” said Sosa, a third-year architecture major from Hattiesburg. “As a product of immigrants, I have grown up understanding how important culture, community and shared support systems are. This opportunity gives me the chance to learn from different cultures and perspectives, which I believe is essential in order to design for others in a meaningful and responsible way.”

Sosa plans to use the funds to travel to Europe to study cooperative housing projects that challenge conventional affordable housing models and instead prioritize community, shared governance and cultural identity.

Her research will focus on La Borda Cooperative Housing in Barcelona, Spain; Genossenschaft Kalkbreite in Zurich, Switzerland; KARL Cooperative Housing in Bremen, Germany; and Spreefeld Cooperative Housing in Berlin, Germany.

“What excites me most is the opportunity to experience these spaces firsthand,” she said. “Drawings and photographs can only communicate so much, but being physically present will allow me to understand how these environments are actually lived in and how design decisions shape everyday experiences.”

F.L. Crane Professor and Interim Director Jassen Callendar said, “Travel has always held value for the education of an architect, and Mississippi State University is fortunate to be able to award two significant international travel awards each year. These programs allow architecture students to visit and document some of the most important buildings in the world and, more importantly, begin to answer questions that they themselves have deemed meaningful.”

For more information about the Aydelott and Trussell Travel Awards and other fellowships in MSU’s School of Architecture, visit www.caad.msstate.edu/current-students/architecture/fellowships-awards.

MSU’s School of Architecture offers the state’s only professional architecture degree accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. Learn more at www.caad.msstate.edu/academics/majors/architecture.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.