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Langston Dailey, a 5^th-year student in our School of Architecture, was awarded first place in the Lyceum Traveling Fellowship in Architecture. In spring 2022, Dailey entered the national competition offered by the during his studio taught by Professor Ted Shelton in the School of Architecture. As the winner, Dailey receives $12,000 to travel internationally to study architecture.

As he finalizes his three-month travel plan, Dailey is looking to visit New Guinea, The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and southeast China in summer 2023. There, he will study vernacular architecture, the process of designing and building in a region using only materials and systems available in that area. Specifically, Dailey will focus on how climatic conditions impact vernacular architecture and how climate can inform building techniques to result in an energy-saving and sustainable construction.

“Vernacular architecture has long been one of my areas of interest within the field of architecture, as I believe that integrating passive energy-saving techniques can serve as the bridge between the past and the future of sustainability-minded design,” Dailey said. “I have largely focused on hot and humid climates, and with this prize money, I have been granted the opportunity to further my studies of climatically influenced sites. I hope to one day be one of the many architects pushing to right the wrongs done by those in the past century who neglected the many climatic benefits unique to each site.”

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Dailey’s design submission, called Underland, is set in San Antonio, and encompasses Friesenhahn Cave, one of the most archeologically rich sites in North America. His design incorporates an outdoor learning center, fieldhouse for visiting researchers and research center containing a library, laboratory and archive. The main focal point of Underland is its circulatory ribbon, which weaves the programs together on-site while providing users a “time warp” experience to bridge the gap between the Anthropocene and Pleistocene.

In announcing Dailey as the winner, the , “Langston took the idea of boundary and transition and turned it into a basic architectural idea – a ribbon of time going underground, through time, through the eye of our imagination. The jury appreciated the ambition of mixing architectural languages – steel, tectonic forms to stone, geologic forms. The project defines its own architectural language and feels fresh.”

“The Lyceum Competition offered many benefits for the studio,” said Shelton. “The brief was imaginative and compelling, offering a deep cultural context to a technically focused studio. The focus on caves opened worlds of intriguing geological, anthropological and paleontological information. We were fortunate to visit Dunbar Cave with one of the country’s foremost cave art experts, UT’s Dr. Jan Simek, which is always an eye-opening experience. Finally, the competition’s focus on foreign travel aligns perfectly with the school’s long-standing belief that there is no substitute for seeing architecture in situ. I’m sure Langston’s travels will multiply his learning manyfold.”

In 2021, Mikayla Williams from our School of Architecture was named the winner of the Lyceum Fellowship’s Jon McKee Prize. Read the story of Williams’ Lyceum award.