Peter Reyner Banham Fellowship

The Banham Fellowship in the Department of Architecture is intended to support design work that situates architecture within the general field of socio-cultural and material critique.

Peter Reyner Banham taught at UB from 1976-1980 and left an important legacy in experimental architectural criticism.

The fellowship honors the legacy of Peter Reyner Banham, who taught at UB from 1976-80 and produced a foundational body of scholarship on material/visual culture as a reflection of contemporary social life. Banham spent his time in Buffalo engaged in a scholarly project on the imaginary of American industrial architecture at work in early modernism that took the form of historical research, hands-on engagement and seminar instruction, resulting in his landmark work, A Concrete Atlantis.

In celebration of Banham's legacy of experimental criticism, this fellowship supports the research and creative activity of emerging practitioners. Over the course of a year, fellows teach, deliver a public lecture and prepare an exhibition culminating from their research and creative work at the school.

Peter Reyner Banham Fellowship: 20 years, 21 Banham Fellows (2000-2021)
2/17/21
In celebrating Reyner Banham's 99th birthday and the 20th year anniversary of Banham Fellowship at the University at Buffalo, “20 Years, 21 Banham Fellows” is a symposium organized around themes explored in Banham’s experimental criticism.

2022-23 Banham Fellow: Maya Porath

Maya Porath is an architectural designer, educator and organizer. She has worked at various design firms in NYC, gaining experience in public, institutional and private projects. Maya holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, and a Masters of Architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

As a member of The Architecture Lobby, a democratic member driven organization of architectural workers, Maya collaborated with designers and architects across the country on initiatives aimed at building a more just and equitable profession. She served as a co-Steward of the NYC Chapter and more recently, as the Lobby’s National Organizer in 2020-2022. Maya co-founded ParlorTalks, an informal, multidisciplinary critical conversation series about public space. In addition, she has previously taught history and design classes at NYIT and Parsons.

Previous Fellows

2021-22 Banham Fellow Young-Tack Oh to explore the hidden and often-overlooked forces of Buffalo's urban fabric
9/8/21
We're pleased to welcome architectural designer and researcher Young-Tack Oh as our 2021-22 Peter Reyner Banham Fellow. A founding member of the creative collective Archipleasure, he pursues speculative research on the marginal and overlooked occurrences in contemporary urbanism.
Banham Fellow in architecture explores air quality crisis through design
8/24/20
UB's Department of Architecture is pleased to announce designer and researcher Zherui Wang as the 2020-21 Peter Reyner Banham Fellow.
Emily Kutil, designer and activist with We the People Detroit, to serve as 2019-20 Banham Felllow
8/22/19
As this year's Reyner Banham Fellow, Emily Kutil will bring her interdisciplinary approach to an exploration of the history and future of water, land, power, and life in the Great Lakes Watershed.
2018-19 Banham Fellow sets out to design new worlds and challenge old boundaries
10/19/18
Architect, artist and educator Mustafa Faruki is the latest in a line of Peter Reyner Banham Fellows at UB’s School of Architecture and Planning. He is the founding principal of the Lab-lab, a design practice dedicated to exploring unconventional provocations and outputs available to architectural drawing and design.
Banham Fellow wins LafargeHolcim Award
11/1/17
Sarah Gunawan's "Synanthropic Suburbia" proposes a residential design with novel, symbiotic relationships between human resident and animal neighbors. Gunawan is the school's 2017-18 Peter Reyner Banham Fellow.
Ang Li Announced as 2015-16 Banham Fellow
9/11/15
This year's Banham Fellow, architect and writer Ang Li, will lead a yearlong seminar and site-specific installations that explore the role of the industrial monument as a trope in architectural history and practice.