The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced that Martha Pomasonco, from the University of Lima in Peru, has been selected as the winner of the 2023 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding project, "Upgraded Barrios" (Barrios Mejorados).
The RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship offers £7,000 to fund research by an architecture student who demonstrates an original approach to issues relating to the sustainable viability of urban and rural communities.
Martha's proposal aims to assess the impact of neighborhood improvement initiatives across Latin America. Her itinerary begins with the Barrio Mío project in Lima, followed by a visit to Mexico City, and then Medellín, Colombia, to explore the Urban Integration Project. From there, she intends to travel to La Paz, Bolivia, to analyze the "Barrios de Verdad" projects. Moving on to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Martha will study the "Favela-Bairro" project, before traveling south to Rosario, Argentina, and finally to Santiago, Chile, to examine the "Quiero mi Barrio" project.
This year's scholarship received 60 applications, evaluated by a jury comprising Norman Foster, Farshid Moussavi, Simon Allford, and Chitra Marsh. Commenting on the selection, Lord Foster said: “The jury was impressed by the high standard of entries for this year’s Travelling Scholarship. However, they were unanimous in their selection of Martha Pomasonco’s proposal, which aims to gather valuable first-hand information on the impact of neighborhood improvement projects in Latin America. We offer our congratulations to Martha on her well-deserved win and look forward to her sharing the results of such a valuable study.”
In 2021, the scholarship was awarded to Weronika Zdriarska, from the Politecnico di Milano, for her study on gender in Latin American public spaces.
This article was written by Fabian Dejtiar. The translation is powered by AI.
