Peter Reyner Banham

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.

Celia Chaussabel recently earned her master of science in architecture studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has a bachelor of architecture degree from California Polytechnic State University. Her prior experience includes design roles at firms in New York and San Francisco, along with research work focused on material reuse, notably at Belgian cooperative, Rotor.

At the heart of her research is a focus on reuse of building materials in architectural design and a deep curiosity about the stories embedded in those reclaimed materials – their ability to connect us to different times and places and their potential to destabilize our perception of objects as static. This work represents the beginning of a larger aim to shift cultural sensibilities toward the materials that make up our built environment.