Top MArch student earns prestigious Allwork Scholarship

by Joelle Haseley

Published August 26, 2020

Stanicka Mathurin.

Stanicka Mathurin, whose research interests span responsive and interactive architecture, has been awarded the 2020 Allwork Scholarship by the Center for Architecture in New York City.

For Stanicka Mathurin, the study of architecture and preparing for a successful career in the profession began before she even completed high school. The second-year MArch student was just a sophomore when she helped design a children’s mission home and later a school in Haiti as part of a project for His Work International to help orphans.

The projects, which were both successfully completed, served as an early primer for Mathurin. She would go on to shine both in and outside of the classroom during her studies in UB’s undergraduate and graduate architecture program. Most recently, her academic success and enthusiasm for learning led to her selection for the prestigious 2020 Allwork Scholarship by the Center for Architecture in New York City.

The merit-based award honors top-performing students, who must be nominated by a Dean or Department Chair. Candidates also are required to submit a three-project portfolio and letter of nomination to be considered.

“I'm so humbled to have been nominated for this scholarship,” said Mathurin. “This award is a great reminder to keep pushing towards my goals.”

As a student she takes advantage of opportunities to build the breadth of her experience, participating in the Madrid study abroad program and interning with both the Albany and Buffalo offices of the New York State Office of General Services and Long Associates Architects in Buffalo. In 2018, she earned second place, with design partner Morgan Mansfield, in the senior design studio housing competition for her design of housing for Buffalo’s homeless population.

Mathurin is headed into her final semester of the program after completing her pre-thesis research this past spring – an exploration of responsive design, uses light to create a conscious experience of energy within space, thereby making visible the non-visible.

Looking ahead, Mathurin is interested in professional practice at a design firm focused on interactivity, installation and performance in architecture. Among the firms whose work she admires are the eclectic enterprises of Bureau V, which combines music, fashion and design, and SOFTlab, which explores technology, craft and materials through design research.

Image of light obscured in space for Stanicka Mathurin's pre-thesis research.

Mathurin's pre-thesis research, "Choreographing Spatial Experiences: Manipulating Light for a Performative and Participatory," investigates both light’s reaction to supplementary instruments, such as lenses, mirrors, and apertures, and the participant’s response to the images produced by an apparatus comprised of these tools.