The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Ferras Coulibaly
“Glitched Systems” is a product of manipulating established architectural works, reinterpreted through the theme of “glitch.” © Ferras Coulibaly.
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Erin Kurtycz
Kalamazoo Post Office Branch. © Erin Kurtycz.
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Beni Lawson
Treehouse—Consequences of Your Actions. © Beni Lawson.
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Salma Rodriguez
“Framing Mobility Through Space.” © Salma Rodriguez.
2024 Research Prize
Imaging Underground: Illustrating Wastewater Challenges and Opportunities to Inform and Empower Alabama’s Black Belt Communities
Aurélie Frolet
Jillian Maxcy-Brown
Emily McGlohn
The Rural Studio cluster system demonstration site is in Newbern, a rural Black Belt Alabama town. © Tim Hursley.
Dingliang Yang
Jennifer Yoos
Maura Rockcastle
Ross Altheimer
Roger Cummings
Daniel Carlson
Changó Cummings
2024 Research Prize
Soft-Urban Riverfront: A New Paradigm for Headwater Metropolises
Mapping of the “Soft-Urban Riverfront” along the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities, highlighting Pig’s Eye as a crucial site with a history of pollution, rich Indigenous heritage, and ecological significance. © Dingliang Yang and Michael Keller.
2024 European Research Prize
Coastal Register: Research and Design of Nature-based Solutions for Wetland Water Security
Map of Clew Bay in County Mayo. © Helen McFadden.
Steve Larkin
Helen McFadden
2021 European Research Prize
Constructive Land
Paloma Gormley
Summer Islam
2024 Structural Engineering Fellowship
Exploring Innovative Housing: A Playbook for Optimism
Elizabeth Claypool
Schoonschip. Floating sustainable housing collective in Amsterdam, Netherlands. © Isabel Nabuurs.
2024 Researcher-in-Residence
Hospes: Housing Justice and Multispecies Cohabitation at the Wildland-Urban Interface
Maya Livio
3D representation of Los Angeles habitats. Courtesy of Maya Livio.
2024–2025 Topic
Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future
Lake Verret, Louisiana, 2017. © Virginia Hanusik.
Call for Applications
Structural Engineering Fellowship Deadline: March 14, 2025
China Fellowship Deadline: March 28, 2025
Researcher-in-Residence Deadline: March 28, 2025
Featured Fellow
Land Narratives—Fantastic Futures
2023 Special Recognition for Architecture, Design, and Urban Design
Toni L. Griffin
Toni L. Griffin, 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Lesley Lokko. Photography by Matteo de Mayda. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.
Toni L. Griffin, 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Lesley Lokko. Photography by Matteo de Mayda. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.
Past
Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities
The (Im)material Matters Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Professor Liz Gálvez, presents Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, an innovative exhibition examining climate resilience in desert cities. The exhibition at the Center for Architecture + Design in San Francisco highlights design-research, full-scale prototypes, and student work that address the urgent need for alternative cooling solutions in regions facing extreme heat. Read
Recent News
SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Robert L. Wesley Award. Four fellows, Ferras Coulibaly (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, School of Architecture), Erin Kurtycz (University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning), Beni Lawson (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, School of Architecture), and Salma Rodriguez (Texas Tech University, Huckabee College of Architecture) will each receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. Awardees will also be supported by Black Spectacles as they work toward becoming licensed architects.
SOM Foundation Announces Winner of the 2024 European Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 European Research Prize. A team from the Technological University Dublin will receive a €20,000 prize to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future.” The European Research Prize was created in 2021 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2024 Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Research Prize. Two teams—one from Auburn University and one from the University of Minnesota—have been awarded the 2024 Research Prize, and will each receive $30,000 to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future.” The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.