Images by Lindsey Krug
2024 Rotch Scholar
How does this work?
The Rotch Travelling Scholarship is an annual two-stage design competition that results in one person, deemed the Rotch Scholar, traveling the world for six months studying architecture — and we pick up the tab. In the first stage of the selection process, a 72-hour, weekend-long preliminary design competition is held (running from Friday Noon until Monday Noon). Finalists from this competition go on to compete in the second stage, a 10-day competition culminating in a design presentation to a distinguished jury.
2025 Theme
Itinerant
What makes architecture is not brick and mortar but the momentary gathering of spatial factors and people. The 2025 Rotch Scholarship calls participants to explore the material and social protocols that give shape to culturally rich yet temporary and itinerant architectures. By focusing on built environments where the gaze of commercial interests have receded enough for something else to surface, spaces where it is the character of the occupation what makes the space, not the other way around. These are architectures with no assumptions of forevers or fixities, they appear and disappear but remain in the cultural imagination. A Guyanese soccer club, a public park known to be a common quinceanera party location, a daybreak rave spot by the out-of-business Sports Hut, an experimental chinese restaurant serving from a corner bodega in NY. Fleeting cultural/material temporary formations that take place often beyond the surface, in the shadowy, interstitial, fleeting and sometimes even neglected parts of our built environment.
For more information, contact bsa@architects.org.
What are you looking for?
Juries seek “evidence of imaginative capacity.” Specifically, we look for:
- Strong organizing conceptual principle or thesis
- Quality of poetic and philosophical rationale
- Inventiveness
- Effective development of structure, circulation and materials
- Thoughtful consideration of site and context
- Representation of a complete architectural project, both physically and conceptually
- Quality, completion, clarity and effectiveness of presentation
Who is this for?
- Emerging professionals who want to learn and advance their architecture work through a funded scholarship, while documenting global travels
- Candidates must be U.S. citizens who have obtained a professional degree (BArch/MArch) from an accredited school in the last 10 years.
- One year of full-time professional experience in a Massachusetts architecture firm as of January 1 of the competition year — or — an accredited degree from an accredited Massachusetts school of architecture as of January 1 of the competition year
How much do I receive to travel?
The Rotch Scholar receives $25,000 or more to travel and study abroad for a minimum of three months. This sum, distributed in four payments, covers expenses incurred by the Rotch Scholar for the stated period of travel abroad. See below for payment distribution details.
What is my obligation if I win?
The Rotch Scholar must travel for a minimum of three months. The minimum of 3 months of travel should be completed within the end of next calendar year, following award. The Rotch Committee and the Rotch Board of Trustees will allow for some flexibility for personal/professional commitments and will assess health and safety concerns related to travel at the time.
The study topic and itinerary are at the winner’s discretion (subject to Rotch Committee approval).
The winner is required to maintain and regularly update a digital record of travels (in images, drawings and text), that will be linked on the Rotch Travelling Scholarship website, rotch.org. This digital record could take any of the following formats: an Instagram handle, a Twitter feed, or a website/blog. Please provide information with your selected handle or website link.
A final report should include both images and brief text and be formatted in both hard copy and digital formats to be archived in the MIT Rotch Library with the other Rotch Travelling Scholarship reports. This record is also used by the Scholar Mentor on the Rotch Committee and the Rotch secretary to approve payment distribution.
Four payments are made to the winner of roughly half, two-quarters and a small final payment, which is withheld until the Rotch Scholar delivers a compilation of his or her travel research to the Rotch Trustees. The compilation must be a bound report and available to be printed on-demand (lulu.com is a suggested publisher). All reports are kept on permanent file.
2025 Competition calendar
Updated and extended!
| Feb 28, 2025: | Applications due |
| Mar 14, 2025: | Qualified applicants notified |
| Mar/Apr: | Start of preliminary competition 12:00 PM EST |
| Mar/Apr: | End of preliminary competition 12:00 PM EST |
| April: | Finalists notified |
| May 2, 2025: | Start of final competition |
| May 12, 2025: | End of final competition |
| May 19, 2025: | Jury for final competition and Winner Announcement |