Cullen Sayegh, a fourth-year student in the College of Architecture and Design’s School of Architecture, was chosen as the 2018 Aydelott Travel Award recipient for his proposal “Architecture as Infrastructure: Investigating Spatial Networks.”
Now in its third year, the Aydelott Travel Award was established by the late Alfred Lewis Aydelott, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and his wife, Hope Galloway Aydelott, to enable students to research architecturally significant structures around the world.
Using his $20,000 award, Sayegh, of Farragut, Tennessee, will travel to four historical sites: the Trollstigen Visitor Center on the Geiranger-Trollstigen National Tourist Route in Norway; the Ouvrage Hackenberg in Vekring, France; the Humble Administrator’s Garden in the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, China; and the Angkor Wat Temple in Angkor, Cambodia.
Cullen chose these sites to compare their significances within a larger network and contrast the differences in time period, location, and cultural intent.
“The four sites are exemplary works of network architecture—buildings that are physically and experientially connected to their surrounding landscape and to existing infrastructural systems,” Sayegh said. “I am very interested in how architecture acts within these networks, which have broader cultural, political, and economic implications than just a singular building.”
After returning from his current study abroad term in Rome, Cullen plans to depart for Norway on May 30 and return to Knoxville from Cambodia in mid-July.
“I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to experience the sites in person, in addition to immersing myself in four distinctly different cultures,” stated Sayegh. “Some of the sites are places I have wanted to visit since I was a kid. I am very grateful to the Aydelott family for generously providing funds for the research and travel.”
The endowment provides more than $100,000 to four students currently enrolled in professional architecture degree programs at the University of Arkansas, Auburn University, Mississippi State University, and UT.
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CONTACT:
Amanda F. Johnson (865-974-6401, amandajohnson@utk.edu)
Karen Dunlap (865-974-8674, kdunlap6@utk.edu)