Immediately
following his 2008 graduation form at the Harvard Graduate School of Design,
promising practitioner and young sage Michael Harris was awarded the Institute‘s
second bi-annual Rieger Graham Prize. His resulting three- month affiliated
fellowship at the American Academy in Rome unfolded last fall beginning in
September coincident with the arrival there of the Rome Prize Fellows.
In his initial application Michael proposed a design project combining architecture, urbanism, and underlying cultural principles regarding the River Tiber and its relationship to the Eternal City through which it flows.
However, after adjusting to his studio, he shifted his goal to one with a more full-throttled embrace of the chance to draw far and wide in a rich succession of long exhausting but thrilling days predicated on the “exploration and development of representational techniques, analysis of building and plaza, and most importantly how pavement and coffering systems have been conceived and applied over Rome’s long ongoing design passage.” The Academy thus served as his home base and weigh station for taking stock and reflecting upon his recorded plein aire encounters.
A glimpse of this rigorous discovery is featured below as an initial introduction to his fellowship work. Our laureate is also featured in the spring/summer 2009 issue of our Forum newsletter. We also look forward to his placement ahead in The Classicist as we move our scholarly journal towards peer –review status under Dr. Richard John’s able editorial watch.
I am duly enthralled and I hope you will be as well. It is thanks to member and donor investment in the Institute that such educational possibilities remain in lively force even during this uncertain moment in the nation’s course.
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Listed below are excerpts from Michael Harris' Blog, including his original captions, below each image. For the complete Blog please visit: http://harrisroma.wordpress.com
Pantheon system, s.maria in via lata
piazza s. maria in trastevere
projective geometry in the ghetto; chalk outline of a murdered fountain?
tetrapylon; ink, watercolor and darkness at the arch of janus
s.l. dei francesi side aisles; ascending diamond grid with unique rosettes book matched
quotidian italian
election night 3:30am; results still coming in.
new purchase; magenta
S. Carlo ai Catinari; a few weeks ago i shot the int. coffering system,
now a drawing from the exterior. S. andrea d. valle gets more design
credit probably b/c it’s actually visible from the street unlike this
one where you have to find the right spot, then strain your neck even
get a glimpse of it.
Pina giving a course on Italian wines; salone of the American Academy.
s. maria della pace; p.d. cortona mixes two dome systems: hexagonal/diminishing coffers with ribs.
some of my studio space/s. andrea della valle
google image “caparezza”…
tiber: disconnected from the city. beautiful, natural resource, unused.
apartment on the Gianicolo
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame (BArch) before
Harvard and his stay in Rome, Michael Harris has also spent several years
working for G.P. Schafer Architect in New York City and Pier Carlo Bontempi, Architettura civile e disegno urbano in Parma.
He is now establishing himself in
For his Rieger Graham application back in 2007, Jorge Silvetti, his design studio professor at Harvard wrote, “Michael combines an impressive understanding of the principles, models, and design methods of classical architecture with a sophisticated awareness of complex current state of the field of architecture, urbanism and design in general. He has shown a complementary ability to address contemporary design problems with solutions grounded in timeless principles.” Professor Silvetti has been proven correct.
The purpose of the Rieger-Graham Prize is to promote the
work of students of classical architecture and design, and to foster the
continuity of knowledge of the classical tradition. The next deadline will fall
in November 2009 for a stay in
The website will report emerging details.
Comments welcome as always.
Paul Gunther
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