Fellowship Proposal 
My ideas about construction/destruction began three years ago. Back then it was purely a thesis, a suspicion I had about what might be happening in the world. I knew a little bit about history, and sought more and more information over the years to prove or disprove my ideas. When I started, I could barely explain to people what I was researching or looking for. But that didn't stop me. Reading, talking to people, getting a book as a gift and actually being on the fellowship helped me to define in a more concise and understandable way, what was driving me. So here's the sentence I've boiled it down to:

I study those places which have a dialogue with both the past and present, seeing emotion in architecture, defeat, pain, resilience. The events of war lend themself to this pursuit because buildings which were bombed You can see emotion in buildings.

I am looking for examples of architecture which were partially destroyed in war which now have a new use. Because of their nature, these buildings have dialogues, forces, struggles or peace which is compelling in a multi-layered 

 FAQ
1. What is a travelling fellowship?
The idea of travelling fellowships traces its history to architects taking study trips, or even travelling abroad for school, like the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Today, architecture schools, architecture firms, and individuals sponsor fellowships so that students further their learning, through the individual student, as well as the supporting group overall. A travelling fellowship is not a vacation.

 2. Where did you go? How long were you there?
I travelled in Western Europe in these cities: GERMANY: Bad Reichenhal, Berlin, Dresden, Erfurt, Hamburg, Ingolstadt, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Munich, Neubrandenburg, Normandy, Schwerin, Stralsund FRANCE: Bayeux, Caen, and the Normandy Coast, which has lots of little cities. CZECH REPUBLIC: Prague, Theriesenstadt. I was overseas for 60 days total.

3. What was it like?
Travel-related:
I had a really smooth trip, with airplanes, trains, busses, helpful people, etc. The things that helped me the most were having reasonable expectations, getting maps and information before I went, and being flexible once I got there. It also helped me quite a bit that I spoke German. My German definately got better because of the fellowship. I'm not as shy or afraid of making mistakes as I was prior to the trip.

Architecture-related:
Wonderful!!! It was like having a whole lab at my fingertips. I loved going to the famous projects that were finished and published, that I had been reading about in books for many years. I loved going to construction sites (both famous, and in the neighborhood) and seeing how the projects were progressing. I had a digital camera with me, so it was great to be able to take as many pictures as I wanted.

 4. How is Europe relevant to other places?
It's funny because when I talk about a city like Dresden being destroyed, people think of it as an isolated incident. I think that this perception may be just because the U.S. is a "young" nation, and have not experienced the kind of city-wide or nation-wide destruction that other places have in the world. Take cities like Rome, London, Paris, Berlin, they have been destroyed time and again, and rebuilt again and again. The idea behind using WWII and Europe as an case study is that history keeps repeating. Reconstruction is as much a testament to the human spirit to rise again as it is to the actual bricks and mortar itself. Construction is often a metaphor for healing. And it would be wise to keep this in mind as conflicts, war and destruction continue in the world.

 5. Which architects?
Many internationally-famous architects have designed works during the reconstruction effort:  Santiago Calatrava, Sir Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Hans Hollein, Arata Isosaki, Raphael Moneo, Murphy/Jahn, OMA, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Aldo Rossi, O.M. Ungers.  Moreover, many of Germany's architects have designed works for their home land:  von Gerkan, Marg + Partner, Behnisch & Partner, Hilmer & Sattler, Josef Paul Kleihues, Kollhoff & Timmermann.

 6. What projects would I know?
The architecture students I have shown my pictures to knew about most of the projects in Berlin (Parisier Platz, Potsdamer Platz, Sony Center, Reichstag, Jewish Museum, Friedrichstadt-Passagen), and none in the rest of the cities. Berlin gets all the attention, much like New York City or Chicago in the U.S. For a change of pace in Germany, I highly recommend these four: Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Schwerin. And for the U.S., why not, I'll list four for us, too: Kauai, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix.