Travel Scholarship over the decades

Applications for the 2026 Travel Scholarship close on Friday 5 June 2026. The 2025 winner of our annual scholarship was Alex Hulton, whose chosen area of research is the architecture of interwar New Delhi and the fragmentary, complex narratives that continue to shape the fabric of the postcolonial city today, concentrating in particular upon the legacy of Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Since launching the scholarship in 2005, we have been inspired by the passion, creativity and curiosity shown by the young architects who apply each year. From Italy to Israel and Cuba to China via numerous other countries across the globe, the travel scholars document their journeys with remarkable insight, offering us something new even when the subject might apparently be well known to us.

Rather like the subjects they interrogate, the way in which the scholars go about documenting their findings varies enormously. Some have been the length of a university thesis; others have been presented as a series of photographs and measured drawings. All scholars are required to present their work to the practice in the form of a talk, as well as in written form. Abigail Benouaich’s research focused on Architecture of Emancipation: Ghetto of Rome. A British Israeli, born in Jerusalem, Abigail was keen to continue her field research in Jerusalem and Rome, to explore the history connecting the two communities and their architecture. Her project contained a selection of her limited-edition artwork and photography and concluded with her design project for the Jewish Centre of Culture.

In contrast, Tarn Philipp, a South Africa, London-based architect and researcher used his scholarship to return to Ethiopia to study the rock-hewn churches in the Tigray and Amhara regions, meeting the craftsmen responsible and witnessing the process of excavation first-hand. He has returned to Ethiopia every year since, to continue his significant research on these churches.

It is a measure of the success of the programme that some of the research visits have resulted in design projects, and others have gone on to directly influence scholars’ careers. Perhaps the most glamorous consequence of any of the research projects was film director Baz Luhrmann’s invitation to Paige Johnson, who researched the art deco landscape, to consult on his 2013 film The Great Gatsby.