2020-2021 Fulbright Fellowship to Norway!

Fulbright Fellow to Norway! 2020-2021

Well, the news has been out since May but I’m finally getting around to actually writing about it on my website. I’m so honored and humbled to say that my Fulbright proposal “Ethnicity, Class, and Regional Building Styles: The Foundation of Immigrant Architecture” was selected to receiving funding for 2020-2021!

Check out the press release on Iowa State’s website here: https://www.design.iastate.edu/news/2020/05/miranda-moen-fulbright/

Please click on the photos above to read the captions for the photos.

Captions:

Søre Traaen house in Rollag, Numedal, Norway: "Gunder’s father, Guul, was born in Søre Traaen in 1803, so it is reasonable to believe he may have lived in this house. The house is referred to as the Mønåstue. Traaen is also spelled Tråen. Photograph 1929 from The Digital Archives of Norway website.

In my project, I will be working closely with the Norwegian Emigrant Museum (Norsk Utvandrermuseum) and the Oslo School of Architecture and Design , where I will analyze parallels between 19th-century working-class residences in Norway and Norwegian-American immigrant-built houses in my home state of Minnesota. As an architectural designer with my own design practice in Austin, Minnesota, I hope to use my findings to jump-start the research branch of my practice and to better inform place-based design for rural communities.

There is so much I could say right now about this, but trying to put it into clear, concise sentence seems like quite a task. What I can say is that I had no idea this would be possible - that I could get a proposal that includes two of my loves - genealogy and architectural research - funded for 10 months of work! I also want to point out that just because I have the privilege to receive a Fulbright, it does not mean that I am in any way smarter than anyone else or that my proposal was better than anyone else’s.

In my mind, it was truly the community of support from friends and family as well as my professors from the Architecture department and staff from the Center for Communication Excellence at Iowa State, in addition to the time I had available to obsessively write draft upon draft of my Statement of Grant Purpose and Personal Statement that led to my success. It is absolutely true that no one gains success on their own. <3

I will be writing about my project on my website blog, and will probably be creating an additional weblink to share photos, etc. so stay tuned! I leave for Norway in January 2021 so let the fun begin!
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Practicing as a Rural Architectural Designer | 03 Continuing the Work

Overview: “Practicing as a Rural Architectural Designer" is a series I developed to provide insight into the development of a rural architectural practice in the Upper Midwest as an emerging professional working towards licensure.

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03 The Past Few Months and What I’ve Learned

Well, it certainly has been a while since I posted on this blog, but that is alright in my books. Today I’m writing about what the past few months have been like for me as I go forward in developing my rural practice and what I have learned along the way.

First off, let’s address the elephant in the room. It is now April 21st and since November (my last post), A LOT has happened. Needless to say, my mind is jumbled just thinking back over the past 5 months.

Progress

 

November

Multiple meetings for the Yes House project and progress on other projects, my sister’s baby shower, Thanksgiving.

December

Continued projects, set up my own retirement fund, discussions with Austin-area executives on project ideas that would benefit local housing initiatives…and I met a wonderful person and community-connector named Benya Kraus who is the head of Lead for MN, a chapter of Lead for America. (Check it out!) She is an amazing advocate of nearby Waseca, MN, her hometown and a real change-maker. I will likely talk about this in future posts as well.

January

Visited MASS Design Group in Boston with Benya - we also learned about their Fringe Cities Design Lab and drove out to Poughkeepsie, NY to visit their office. (Another topic in the future). Tweaked my back, signed up for chiropractic care. Site visits for an artist grant I received - site pictures, light measurements, dreaming up renovation ideas that would be carried onto my watercolor sketches. I was named a Fulbright semi-finalist for my proposal to Norway, was selected to be on the Austin Culture and Arts Commission, and my niece Bluma was born!

February

Busy with three projects, continued chiropractic care, received the ARE 2020 Scholarship from AIA MN to help pay for my ARE exams which amount to somewhere between $1500 if I don’t fail one (uffda). I am very grateful and blessed to have received this. Had our second Austin Culture and Arts Commission meeting.

March

COVID-19 “fun.” Staying informed, getting a little depressed, working on ways to improve my mental health and physical health. Meditation, yoga and other activities including semi-daily walks enter my routine. I don’t think it’s possible to do all of this in my day but it is and its adding much-needed sanity!

April

COVID-19 extensions of MN shutdown. Still working on mental health and physical health and the continued architectural projects, artist grant work, and collaborations on grants with Austin organizations. So far, the month is shaping up well and I may have excluded one exciting element that I’ll announce at another time :).

I write down all of the above to share with others about my progress, but also to remind myself all that I’ve done in the past five months. It’s been exciting, exhausting, and very new but I continue to press forward towards my goals in becoming an asset to the community I live in.

 

Now for a progress update on business (notably excluded from the above updates)…

Setting Up My Business: Delays and Indecisiveness

In my last blog post (02), I wrote about some resources for setting up your business. Needless to say, this aspect of my work has been on the back burner while I I have been doing necessary architectural work, networking, and brainstorming potential projects with local organizations.

This doesn’t mean that setting up my business formally is unimportant. On the contrary, my stagnation has been because I haven’t been able to decided on a name, which is probably one of the oldest excuses and stumbling blocks to many a new business. Part of this was because I jumped head-first into creating my own practice without really having a business plan and spending time prepping for this large step. I don’t necessarily feel this was bad for myself, but I would caution others to do so, just in the name of making a sound business. My own motivation for starting my practice was born out of seeing the lack of design services available to small towns, and the huge amount of need for them. Simply said, there was literally no other architect or designer in Austin, MN. Because of this, I could not get hired at an office in town, and had to pave my own way. I think this is a very real issue for many emerging professionals who would like to move back to small towns to do work and provide a necessary service.

Since November, when I last posted, I have taken several steps to move forward through these stumbling blocks in a variety of ways. I suggest doing these in the very likely event you find yourself in the same situation.

  1. Create or find a community where you can find support and camaraderie.

    • Digital Happy Hours

    • Online support groups - Facebook is a great source!

    • Local community organizations - don’t reinvent the wheel if it’s already there.

I will continue this topic in a later blog post, while I refine the formatting, length, and direction of these posts. It’s safe to say that COVID-19 life has allotted some time for introspection and a needed check-in. In the meantime, please let me know:

 

What are you interested in learning about?

Best,

Miranda