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Cambridge, MA — Harvard University Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) is pleased to name Brussels-based architect Aude-Line Dulière the winner of the 2018 Wheelwright Prize, a USD 100,000 fellowship supporting travel-based research and investigative approaches to contemporary design. Dulière’s winning proposal Crafted Images: Materials Flow, Techniques, and Reuses in Set Construction Design aims to examine construction methods and supply systems in the global film industry, engaging the space-making elements of film and set design as well as potential innovations around material use and reuse throughout architecture and construction generally.
Dulière was among four finalists selected from more than 125 applications from nearly 40 countries. She previously was an architect at David Chipperfield Architects in London and a project manager at Rotor Deconstruction in Brussels, as well as a movie-production design assistant at studios throughout Europe.
Dulière’s Wheelwright proposal Crafted Images argues that film-set construction, through its cyclical and fast-paced nature, is the ideal incubator for testing innovative practices of material reuse. Through visits to a variety of film sets in Russia, India, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, Dulière will research material reuse strategies for the film industry, with an eye to applications for commercial building and contemporary architecture practice.
“The movie industry has the potential to offer clues for streamlining material reuse protocols and offers opportunities for experimentation on sustainability for contemporary architectural practice,” Dulière writes. At the same time, finding solutions to reduce waste within the film industry is also integral to Dulière’s mission, she continues. “How much waste for an image?” she asks.
Through an itinerary responsive to strategic moments in film schedules—from initial construction to ultimate demolition—Dulière expects to visit a number of studios in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, China, India, Nigeria, Hong Kong, and Russia. Additionally, Dulière plans to visit on-site productions as they occur around the world. To fuel this itinerary, she plans to organize a network of set-design suppliers and resellers operating globally.
“Aude-Line’s work demonstrates a sophisticated vision of spatial quality in a variety of forms that translates into her interest in the architecture of set design,” says Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design at Harvard GSD. “By exploring material reuse strategies at the intersection of film, construction, and architecture, Aude-Line’s project offers exciting possibilities for innovative approaches to sustainability, infused with an equally important and very sensitive consideration of aesthetic beauty.”
Dulière holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard GSD and previously studied in Brussels at the Institut Superieur d’Architecture La Cambre and at Sint-Lucas (KU Leuven). Since 2003, Dulière has worked as an architect and film-production design assistant. She was a designer at David Chipperfield Architects between 2010 and 2015 and later at Rotor Deconstruction in Brussels, which focuses on material flows in the construction industry.
In addition to being a registered architect, Dulière is a member of the British Film Design Guild, and a board member of the Brussels-based space La Loge, dedicated to contemporary art, architecture, and theory. She co-authored Once Upon a Time… Monsterpieces of the 2000s! (ORO Editions), presented at the Architectural Association (AA) and at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and has taught at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels of La Cambre, the KADK, and the AA Summer program. At Rotor, Dulière was involved in large-scale projects relating to the reuse of building materials through so-called “deconstruction” and design projects.
Dulière follows 2017 Wheelwright Prize winner Samuel Bravo, whose proposal Projectless: Architecture of Informal Settlements is taking him to the Amazon, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and elsewhere.
Now in its sixth year as an open international competition, the Wheelwright Prize supports travel-based research initiatives proposed by extraordinary early-career architects. Previous winners have circled the globe, pursuing inquiries into a broad range of social, cultural, environmental, and technological issues. The Wheelwright Prize originated at Harvard GSD in 1935 as the Arthur C. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, which was established to provide a Grand Tour experience to exceptional GSD graduates at a time when international travel was rare. In 2013 Harvard GSD opened the prize to early-career architects worldwide as a competition, with the goal of encouraging new forms of prolonged, hands-on research and cross-cultural engagement. The sole eligibility requirement is that applicants must have received a degree from a professionally accredited architecture program in the previous 15 years.
The 2018 Wheelwright Prize jury consisted of Jose Ahedo (2014 Wheelwright Prize winner), Edward Eigen, Frida Escobedo, Mark Lee, Michelle Wilkinson, and standing Committee members Mohsen Mostafavi and K. Michael Hays. (For extended biographies, visit wheelwrightprize.org.)
