Germane Barnes Awarded the 2021 Wheelwright Prize
The architect’s winning proposal “Anatomical Transformations in Classical Architecture,” examines classical Roman and Italian architecture through contributions of the African diaspora.
By Ryan Waddoups
What’s Happening: The Harvard University Graduate School of Design has named Germane Barnes the winner of the 2021 Wheelwright Prize.
The Download: The Harvard Graduate School of Design’s annual Wheelwright Prize awards $100,000 to a promising early-career architect who’s pursuing travel-based research that may leave a wide-ranging impact on the field. Previous winners have circled the globe to unpack a wide range of social, cultural, environmental, and technological issues, such as Aleksandra Jaeschke’s study of greenhouse architecture and Daniel Fernández Pascual’s research into the intertidal zone.
This year, Harvard GSD selected architect Germane Barnes, whose proposal, “Anatomical Transformations in Classical Architecture,” examines classical Roman and Italian architecture through contributions of the African diaspora. Barnes will start his research this summer, with archival research geared toward generating an index of the portico typology in Italy and Northern Africa, as well as maps that show the spatial mobility of the porch and portico across cultures. Central to his proposal is the idea that “porch-as-portico” may offer a new frame on the spatial and conceptual terrain through which one finds inventions of race, identity, and the built environment.