Doctoral candidate Kenfield Griffith grew up in Montserrat, a small island in the Caribbean, surrounded by brightly colored houses. The colors, as opposed to shape and form, were how the local culture expressed itself architecturally, he says. And the houses were usually made of concrete. This is one reason why he has focused his research in the MIT School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P) on how to create completely new designs using concrete forms. He is studying, for example, complex enclosures such as double curvatures, which designers cannot fabricate using two-dimensional devices at this time. He wants to find new structural uses for concrete to give communities a way to express the vibrancy of their local architectural color through the use of this material.

Griffith brings to MIT a different perspective on design informed and enriched by his culture and background. And diverse perspectives are a valuable part of the research and design process at the School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P). They are, in fact, critical for innovation.

"Architects derive inspiration from considering a diversity of viewpoints and experiences in the design process. At MIT SA+P, we encourage educational excellence by welcoming outstanding students from all walks of life. It’s a fundamental component to how we teach and learn here,” says SA+P Dean Adèle Naudé Santos. SA+P has created the Robert R. Taylor Fellowship in Architecture, aimed at bringing more under-represented minority graduate students to SA+P to build a stronger learning community rich in diverse perspectives and approaches to research.

Eligibility for the Taylor Fellowship is limited to U.S. citizens whose ethnic background is African-American, Chicano or Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Native American, or Alaskan Native. This fellowship honors Robert Taylor, MIT’s first African-American graduate, an architect who was in the class of 1892. As MIT had the first accredited architecture department in the country, Taylor was the first credentialed, accredited African-American architect in the U.S. In Taylor’s name, MIT strives to continue its early leadership role in educating a diverse student population.

The Taylor Fellowship, which has been established with initial funding from MIT, is part of a dedicated program in SA+P to increase recruitment of under-represented minority students. This effort has already resulted in an increased number of under-represented minority students applying to SA+P graduate programs.

Support for MIT graduate students

Graduate students make up 60 percent of MIT’s student population, and 90 percent of SA+P’s student population. Through their research, teaching, and subsequent contributions to their fields and the world at large, graduate students are vital partners and participants in the Institute’s mission to advance knowledge and educate students. More and more, these graduate students rely on support from fellowships.

The annual expenses, including tuition and living costs, for a typical MIT graduate student in 2006 totaled $56,540.

Private support for fellowships ensures that discovery and exploration continue in all fields, regardless of how fashionable a particular topic is in the short term. It guarantees that MIT and SA+P will continue to attract the top minds as graduate students, as well as the faculty who want to work with these students. The Institute faces tougher competition from other schools for top candidates. Some of MIT’s competitors offer 100 percent fellowship support over the student’s entire stay in the program — something MIT cannot afford to do. So, to attract the best graduate students and satisfy the needs of faculty and funding agencies, fellowship support is increasingly important.

Financial support increases diversity

Fellowships also provide the Institute with an effective tool to increase the diversity of its graduate student body.

“You really need to have a variety of perspectives to stretch and bring new ideas to the table, new ways of looking at things,” says Dr. Robbin Chapman, manager of diversity recruitment for SA+P.

Chapman was once, herself, a graduate student working in the MIT Media Lab. In that role, as an African-American woman, she also brought new ideas to Lifelong Kindergarten, an innovative learning research group of which she was a part. Chapman helped design technologies to support creative ways of learning. She was responsible for encouraging her peers in the program to make regular visits to schools that were teaching in some way that was completely different from how the Lifelong Kindergarten group was designing its tools.“It was a completely different way of thinking. Bringing in ideas that aren’t part of your normal vocabulary forces you to reflect more deeply on what it is you do, and how you do it. You’re reconciling this new information with the current information, and that’s part of a deep learning process,” Chapman says.

In Kenfield Griffith’s research — he is pursuing his doctorate in design and computation, focusing on how to translate experimental virtual or digital architectural designs into physical representations that are structurally sound — he has benefited from the perspectives of classmates who come from other cultures as well. Griffith’s Caribbean background is one reason some of his research projects have gravitated toward building with concrete, but it was in discussing a project with a colleague from India that he also found new insight. In India, builders use a material closer to adobe, and Griffith learned from his research colleague how tree seed oil is used to make it easier to remove the adobe from molds. This makes the molds reusable.

“He brought up an idea for discussion, something I didn’t think about before. Now, we’re going to pursue that,” Griffith says. “This discussion makes you reflect on your ideas. Sometimes many new ideas can converge into something substantial. It’s an ongoing process, which is healthy for any research.”

When individuals with a variety of perspectives and backgrounds tackle a research problem, they produce more creative solutions. Diverse viewpoints spark innovation. And creating an environment that inspires innovation is the goal of MIT School of Architecture + Planning and the Robert Taylor Fellowship for Architecture.

Giving opportunities

• Endow the Robert R. Taylor Fellowship for Architecture (covering an academic year’s tuition and stipend for one student annually): $1 million
• Endow a partial fellowship: $250,000 minimum