2017 Norden Fund awarded to “Pikionis’ Pathway: Paving the Acropolis” and “Deep Skins: Roger Anger’s Façade Operations”

Every year, the Architectural League of New York's Deborah J. Norden Fund invites students and recent grads of architecture, architectural history, and urban studies for a chance to receive up to $5,000 in travel/study grants. The Norden Fund was established in 1995 in memory of architect and arts administrator Deborah Norden.

For 2017, the Architectural League awarded one grant to “Pikionis’ Pathway: Paving the Acropolis” by Kevin Malawski, who will travel to Athens, Greece to retrace and document Dimitris Pikionis’ 5-kilometer-long pathway to the Acropolis. The other grant went to Priyanka Shah for “Deep Skins: Roger Anger’s Façade Operations.” She will travel to Paris and Grenoble to investigate the geometric articulations and arrangements of the facades of Roger Anger’s high-rise residential buildings. 

Read on for more about the winning proposals.

“Pikionis’ Pathway: Paving the Acropolis” by Kevin Malawski

Kevin Malawski currently works as a Project Lead and Designer for EwingCole and received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Drexel University.

Project summary: “In order to explore the relationship between modern planning principles and regional sensitivity and building methods, Kevin Malawski will travel to Athens, Greece to document the intricacies of Dimitris Pikionis’ 5-kilometer-long pathway to the Acropolis. The mid-20th century pathway is a product of Pikionis’ academic background in modernist design and construction coupled with his personal research in regional Greek cities. Malawski will examine how Pikionis designed his mosaic-paved walkways to address functional concerns common to the Mediterranean climate by including guttering and trenches to divert water from seasonal downpours, while also situating the walkways within olive tree groves to frame vistas for the visitor. In order to fill an academic void, Malawski will document the pathway through sketches, photographs, and diagrams to explore this case study of Pikionis’ architecture, which ‘employs a mix of operative regionalist undertones with modernism to define a space which authentically relates to the ancient Acropolis it is sited on.’

“Deep Skins: Roger Anger’s Façade Operations” by Priyanka Shah

Priyanka Shah received her Master of Science in Architectural Studies and Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and currently works as an Architectural Designer at Grimshaw Architects.

Project summary: “Shah will travel to Paris and Grenoble to document the geometric articulations and arrangements that characterize the façades of Roger Anger’s high-rise residential buildings. An influential French architect in the 1950s-60s, Anger’s façade designs present a ‘direct antecedent to contemporary computational design’ because of the links between spatial planning and façade patterning. The façade variations are not simply a result of surface formalism, but refer to the buildings’ interior programs. Upon Anger’s death, the majority of his work was kept with his estate and remains inaccessible to the public. Shah will consult various archives in Paris and Anger’s completed buildings in Paris and Grenoble to create a comprehensive digitized monograph of his most complex residential projects and façade designs.”