The coveted award gives one lucky graduate time and money to explore the more theoretical side of their field and to travel anywhere they like. Lynch, a graduate of the University of Manitoba who also works at the Winnipeg firm DIN projects, plans to spend the coming months in Europe scoping out famous contemporary buildings created by some of the biggest names, including Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel and Peter Zumthor.

Her goal is to choose five locations and then immerse herself in observing the relationship between those buildings and the people who use them. Her observations will be documented through photography, video, drawing, measuring and writing. “The range of media,” says Lynch, “offers flexibility in order to capture and communicate relevant occurrences and details over time.”

Furthermore, at each site she plans to build five unique cameras that will vary in form, from basic pinhole set-ups to film cameras, with the intention of best capturing the most relevant aspects of each specific place. “I’m interested in what the cameras can reveal and in discovering the active parts of a building that may be only intuitively present in a normal experience. I am ultimately hoping that they’ll act as tools toward generating new architectures.”

The prize also includes an internship stint at Fat Koehl Architekten in Berlin.