MArch student William Hansen has received the 2021 John Belle Travel Fellowship. The $10,000 grant will support his research proposal, Hip-Hop architecture: Learning to listen to the post-occupancy report of modern housing projects in New York City and trying to heal these communities by consulting them. Through interviews, sketches, pictures, and tours across New York City, William intends to examine the role of modernist housing projects in the emergence of hip hop music. The jury cited the field work and neighbourhood engagement components of the project as particularly impressive.
Awarded annually by the Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation, the fellowship was established in honour of John Belle, founding partner of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners. The fellowship aims to “expand students’ understanding of the public realm in existing cities through travel & research, and to gain applicable knowledge for contemporary urban needs and design challenges.” The fellowship is open to architecture, historic preservation, and urban design students in their penultimate year of study at thirty-five school across the world.