Searching for

About
Awards
Fellows
Events
News
Contact
Support
About
Awards
Fellows
Events
News
Contact
Support

Terms of Use
Join Our Mailing List

Searching for

About
Awards
Fellows
Events
News
Contact
Support
Somf 2025 china fellowship hao chang proposal 01

2025 China Fellowship
Rising Tides, Resilient Lives: Reimagining Vulnerable Communities in the River Deltas of Kampung Melayu, Jakarta

Hao Chang

Reclaiming the Negative Space. © Hao Chang.

Somf 2025 china fellowship lu ming proposal 01

2025 China Fellowship
Reconstructing the Power Order of the “Human-Water Relationship” Along China’s Grand Canal

Lu Ming

Axonometric drawing of the inner part of the city wall in the waterfront area. © Lu Ming.

Somf 2025 china fellowship zhang nan proposal 01

2025 China Fellowship
Four Dimensions of Water Security: Availability, Accessibility, Resilience, and Sustainability

Zhang Nan

Scene of the transformation of the space under the viaduct in the Discover Eco-corridors project. © Zhang Nan.

Somf miros chicago front 02

Miro’s Chicago: The Iconic Public Sculpture That Almost Wasn’t

Miro’s Chicago, Chicago, 1981. Photograph by Hedrich Blessing Photographers. © Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris 2025.

Somf 2025 researcher in residence pablo castillo luna proposal 02

2025 Researcher-in-Residence
A Permeable Atlas

Pablo Castillo Luna

A Tent for Lovers, A Garden for Pollinators, 2022. © Pablo Castillo Luna.

Somf 2025 structural engineering rebecca henig proposal 01

2025 Structural Engineering Fellowship
Reef Resilience: Designing Modular Solutions for Coastal Protection

Rebecca Henig

Coral Rubble at Moore Reef after MARRS star installation. Courtesy of Mars Incorporated and GBR Biology.

Somf 2024 research prize frolet maxcy brown mcglohn proposal 01

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.

Somf 2024 research prize yang yoos rockcastle altheimer cummings carlson cummings proposal 01

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.

Somf 2024 european research prize larkin mcfadden proposal 01

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

Somf 2024 robert l wesley award ferras coulibaly 01

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.

Somf 2024 robert l wesley award erin kurtycz 05

2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Erin Kurtycz

Kalamazoo Post Office Branch. © Erin Kurtycz.

Somf 2024 robert l wesley award beni lawson 01

2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Beni Lawson

Treehouse—Consequences of Your Actions. © Beni Lawson.

Somf 2024 robert l wesley award salma rodriguez 06

2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Salma Rodriguez

“Framing Mobility Through Space.” © Salma Rodriguez.

The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.

Call for Applications
Research Prize Applications Open in September 2025
European Research Prize Applications Open in September 2025
Robert L. Wesley Award Applications Open in September 2025

Featured Fellow
Decolonizing Urban Landscapes: Reclaiming an Indigenous Right to the City through Structural Design

View all Fellows

2021 Structural Engineering Fellowship
Michelle Chang
University of Washington
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Somf 2021 structural engineering michelle chang final report 01

Église du Précieux Sang (Precious Blood Church), Winnipeg, Canada. © Michelle Chang.

Somf 2021 structural engineering michelle chang final report 03

Bunjil Place, Narre Warren, Australia. © Michelle Chang.

Past
Creating New Architecture Through Research: On Materiality

The second International Research and Design Forum took place on Friday, October 14 and Saturday, October 15, 2022, and was organized by the SOM Foundation in partnership with the Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC) at the University of Stuttgart. The two-day event included presentations by academics and industry leaders whose body of work, creativity, and expertise inspire the future of materiality in the built world. Read

View all Events

Recent News


SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2025 China Fellowship

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 SOM Foundation China Fellowship. Hao Chang, Lu Ming, and Zhang Nan will each receive $5,000 to conduct independent travel and research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future.”


Miro’s Chicago: The Iconic Public Sculpture That Almost Wasn’t

Spanish artist Joan Miró’s first large-scale public sculpture was commissioned in the early 1960s by Bruce Graham as part of his design for the Brunswick Building in Chicago. While the building was completed in 1965, Miró’s work remained unrealized, and its future seemed more than uncertain. Fifteen years later, plans for Miro’s Chicago were revived and, in 1981, the now-beloved abstract sculpture finally found her rightful place in Chicago, supported in part by a donation from the SOM Foundation.


SOM Foundation and MAK Center for Art and Architecture Announce Winner of the 2025 Researcher-in-Residence

The MAK Center for Art and Architecture and the SOM Foundation are pleased to announce that Pablo Castillo Luna has been awarded the 2025 Researcher-in-Residence. Pablo Castillo Luna is a Canary Islands-born architect and educator who teaches at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Castillo Luna will receive a $5,000 stipend and a six-week summer residency in Los Angeles in the live/work space at the MAK Center’s Fitzpatrick-Leland House designed by R.M. Schindler (1936) for work related to his research proposal, “A Permeable Atlas.”


View all News

©2025 SOM Foundation

Terms of Use

Join Our Mailing List