Raoul Wallenberg was trained as an architect at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1935. He is remembered for his anti-Nazi acts of resistance during World War II, which ended with his arrest in 1945. Many have speculated on the influence of his architectural education on his actions and tactical thinking.
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In 1944, stationed as a Swedish diplomat in Budapest Raoul Wallenberg bribed German, Hungarian and Russian officers and authorities; he faked signatures and distributed thousands of fake Swedish passports to Hungarian and German Jews, identifying them as Swedish citizens and protecting them from inevitable deportation; he rented dozens of buildings throughout Budapest and disguised them as Swedish public institutions benefiting from diplomatic immunity. Transformed into safe houses, these buildings hosted and protected thousands of Jewish lives. Wallenberg’s actions combined saved over a hundred thousand lives.
To honor Raoul Wallenberg’s legacy is to embrace the spirit of his work. This year, the six distinct Wallenberg
studios will interrogate, as broadly as possible, our discipline’s capacity to effect change under a common
theme: “From the Margins.”
