John Quale, director of the architecture program in The University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, has announced the first two winners of travel fellowships funded through the Thomas and Susan Schoeman Travel Endowment for Architecture.  

This newly endowed fund provides support for returning graduate architecture students. Schoeman is a graduate of the School of Architecture and Planning from the 1970s and is a big supporter of the architecture program.  

“Congratulations to Matthew and Aaron for being selected for these prestigious traveling fellowships,” said Geraldine Forbes Isais, dean of the School of Architecture & Planning. “I also want to thank all the students who applied for these fellowships and encourage all students to pursue awards and scholarship programs.”

Each winner receives $4,000 in travel funding.

The Winners

  Matthew Cooper
  The Metabolist Movement (Japan)

The Metabolist Movement in Japan during the 1960s was a “vigorous and idealistic phase of modernism,” Cooper said, that worked on both the building and urban scales. The central organizing tenet of the movement was that structures needed to be adaptable to change, both in the form of natural societal shifts but also unexpected crises.

“It is my belief that, given the slow-moving disaster that is climate change and the effects, both expected and unforeseen, that it will force upon our built environment. Architectural practice in the coming years is about to go through a similarly radical change as climate resilience becomes as essential component of our design," Cooper said.

Aaron Ketner
Nordic Healthcare Architecture (Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark)

“While investigating the healthcare program type for the spring 2015 architectural programming course, I discovered that in Nordic Culture the provision of healthcare services is made available to everyone regardless of ability to pay, and that the quality of the physical environments in which these services are delivered matter greatly,” Ketner said.

The professionals who provide healthcare services and plan and design the facilities in which they are offered, are influenced by the evidence that quality environments improve the well-being of their patients and the community.

Ketner said he would like to learn more about the distinctive approach to the design of specialized healthcare facilities that are also good examples of green building principles and contemporary modern design.


“The value of travel for an architecture student is immeasurable. As faculty, we do our best to expose students to important examples of architecture, yet there is nothing quite like the experience of walking through a notable building to help you fully understand the spatial sequence, the materials, the structure and the quality of light. It is not possible to fully comprehend a great building without visiting it,” said Quale.

“The gift from the Schoeman's is an excellent example of their personal leadership, commitment to community and giving back,” said Laurie Roche, the school’s director of development. “The Schoeman Travel Endowment allows these students an outstanding opportunity to further their education while at the UNM School of Architecture & Planning and is a strong recruitment component for the architecture program.”

Architecture Professors Eleni Bastea and Gabriella Gutierrez reviewed the fellowship proposals.