Harvard awards 2025 Wheelwright Prize to Mauro Marinelli for examining rural mountainous regions

The Harvard Graduate School of Design has awarded the 2025 Wheelwright Prize to researcher Mauro Marinelli. TitledTopographies of Resistance: Architecture and the Survival of Cultures, Marinelli’s project explores the role of architecture in sustaining and revitalizing rural mountainous regions that face challenges related to climate change, infrastructure, and cultural erosion. 

The $100,000 grant will enable Marinelli to design strategies that promote autonomy, sustainability, and local identity by comparing contexts in the Alps, Andes, and Himalayas. Through analysis and field experiments, Marinelli seeks to generate architectural approaches that empower communities and challenge urban-centric biases.

“This support enables me to investigate how architecture can actively engage with the fragile cultural systems of high mountain communities,” Marinelli said. ‘I intend to contribute tangible insights to both the cultural vitality of mountain territories and architectural discourse.”

Mauro Marinelli is an architect and holds a PhD in Architecture and Urban Design from Politecnico di Milano, where he has served as adjunct professor of architectural design since 2016. 

Marinelli follows 2024 winner Thandi Loewenson and was selected over shortlist finalists Meriem Chabani, Mohamad Nahleh, and Alfredo Thiermann by a jury that included Sarah M. Whiting, Chris Cornelius, Grace La, Jennifer Newsom, Tosin Oshinowo, and Noura Al Sayeh.