Stuckeman architecture professor selected for Villa Albertine Residency Program

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Delphine Lewandowski, a French architect and researcher who recently joined the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School faculty, has been selected for the 2026 Villa Albertine Residency Program, which supports original research in the United States.  

Lewandowski is part of the 2026 cohort of artists, scholars and cultural professionals covering 10 main artistic disciplines and 30 locations across the United States.   

An assistant professor of architecture and affiliate researcher in the Hamer Center for Community Design, Lewandowski’s project will focus on the underground architecture movement in the United States, particularly case studies of earth-sheltered buildings located near Boston and New York from the 1960s to 1980. The movement was popularized by the late Malcolm Wells, a green design pioneer best known for his underground, or “earth-sheltered,” buildings, according to the Architectural Record. 

“Earth-sheltered buildings, covered with soil on the roof or embedded in the ground, were pioneering systems that sought harmony with ecosystems through roof vegetation, bio-sourced materials and bioclimatic strategies,” Lewandowski said. “Although largely understudied, their principles strongly resonate with today’s ecological architecture and the urgent need to adapt to climate change while creating spaces that host biodiversity.” 

Lewandowski’s project aligns with her research interests, which lie in the exploration of relationships between nature and architecture through a multidisciplinary practice that integrates ecological sciences and environmental ethics. Her objective is to develop architectural responses to the ongoing biodiversity and climate crises through her work. 

“The underground architecture movement emerged from the distinct cultural and ecological context of the United States, shaped by a rising environmental consciousness following the 1973 oil crisis,” Lewandowski explained. “Studying it in its original context on site and being able to access archives and other resources in these key areas of the country are essential to fully understanding its values, techniques and potential significance for contemporary architecture.” 

Lewandowski’s residency will run from May to August 2026 in partnership with Paris-Malaquais School of Architecture-PSL and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. 

Villa Albertine is an institution of the French Ministry for Europe and the Foreign Affairs’ Embassy of France in the United States. Now in its fifth year, the organization’s 2026 residency program was developed in partnership with the Albertine Foundation and is supported by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Embassy in the United States, the Ministry of Culture and the Institut français.