The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
2024–2025 Topic
Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future
Lake Verret, Louisiana, 2017. © Virginia Hanusik.
2021 European Research Prize
Constructive Land
Paloma Gormley
Summer Islam
2024 China Fellowship
Vertical Deconstruction, Housing Equity, and Humanistic Care
Zhangxiang Dai
2024 China Fellowship
Re-Inhabit the “Invisible Room”
Wenxiao Xiang
2024 China Fellowship
Adapting Housing Strategies: Temporary Construction and Code Compliance
Xiangqing Zheng
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.
2023 Research Prize
Block by Block: Advancing New American Dreams and Housing Justice by Aligning Design with Zoning Reform
Gabriel Cuéllar
De Peter Yi
A series of strategies aimed at overcoming the minimum lot size zoning ordinance and designing across lot lines. © Gabriel Cuéllar.
Ian Caine
Esteban López Ochoa
Rudy Niño, Jr.
Christine Quattro
Wei Zhain
2023 Research Prize
A Taxonomy of Vacancy: Are Underutilized Commercial Strips the Answer to San Antonio’s Housing Shortage?
The research team will create a taxonomy of vacant or underutilized parcels, establishing parameters related to size, cost, zoning, location, and use. © Ian Caine, J. William Arch, Melanie Bartholomew, Devon Duffin, Phuoc Luu, Diana Rodriguez, Evey Santillan, and Michelyn Smith.
Aerial view of the urban fabric and context of Southwest Besòs in Barcelona. © REARQ UPC.
Pere Joan Ravetllat
Còssima Cornadó
Marta Domènech
Sara Vima-Grau
2023 European Research Prize
Open System for the Urban Regeneration of Housing Estates: A Case Study in Barcelona
Call for Applications
Structural Engineering Fellowship Deadline: March 14, 2025
China Fellowship Deadline: March 28, 2025
Featured Fellow
The Anatomy of Sprawl
2000 Chicago Institute for Architecture & Urbanism (CIAU)
Brenda Case Scheer
University of Cincinnati
Manhattan 1660 and 1997. The shaded areas are the original blocks of Lower Manhattan, transposed on 1 1997 map on the same area. The land area has increased dramatically in the intervening years, but the original street network remains largely intact. © Brenda Case Scheer.
Residential neighborhoods with different patterns of houses, streets, and lots. © Brenda Case Scheer.
Ongoing
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
2025 China Fellowship Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 China Fellowship. The $5,000 China Fellowship is awarded annually to three students in the last two years of either an undergraduate or graduate program in architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, or urban design in the People’s Republic of China to conduct independent travel and research that contributes to the SOM Foundation’s current topic, “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future.” The China Fellowship was created in 2006 to support emerging design leaders to broaden their education and contribute to their future professional and academic careers.
2025 Structural Engineering Fellowship Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 Structural Engineering Fellowship. The $20,000 fellowship will be awarded to a student currently enrolled in a master’s or PhD program or in the final year of their bachelor’s program based in the United States who specializes in structural engineering to conduct independent travel and research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future.” The Structural Engineering Fellowship was created in 1998 to support research that has the potential to influence the practice and teaching of how structures can positively impact our built environment.
SOM Foundation Supports the Exhibition 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.