Former Wortham Fellow (2017-19) and spring 2023 visiting critic at Rice Architecture Ajay Manthripragada has won the 2023-24 Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome.
Rome Prize winners are selected annually by independent juries of distinguished artists and scholars through a highly competitive national competition—3.6 percent of this year’s applicants were accepted in eleven disciplines. Fellows are provided with a stipend, room and board, and a studio space for half-year or full-year terms.
Ajay was awarded the Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize in Architecture. As recipient of the full-term fellowship, he will be in residence for a year at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, starting in September 2023. About the prize and his proposal, Ajay stated, “The title of my project is Imbrex and Tegula, referring to the two interlocking roof tiles that are ubiquitous in Rome. I am interested in how this ancient and everyday material technology can reveal complex histories and geopolitical effects. This includes implications for architectural ceramics in contemporary practice. For example, my current work for a terra cotta roof tile factory in India is hypothetically tied back to Roman influence via Switzerland, as the industry along the Indian Malabar Coast was founded by the Basel Mission in the 1860s. The Rome Prize will allow me to both reflect on and develop these ideas as they relate to my work. Many of them emerged from conversations with faculty and students at Rice in my various roles there over the last few years.”
To review the full announcement from the American Academy in Rome of all the 2023-24 Rome Prize winners and Italian Fellows, read it here.