The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
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.
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
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.
2021 European Research Prize
Constructive Land
Paloma Gormley
Summer Islam
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
Weather Permitting: The Journey of a Storm Chaser
2006 SOM Prize for Architecture, Design, and Urban Design
Catie Newell
Rice University
School of Architecture
Rain or shine. © Cathlyn Newell.
Floating world. © Cathlyn Newell.
Sulphur pool. © Cathlyn Newell.
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
Recent News
SOM Foundation Announces Winner of 2025 Structural Engineering Fellowship
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2025 Structural Engineering Fellowship. Rebecca Henig, a spring 2025 graduate of the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, will receive $20,000 to conduct original research related to her proposal, “Reef Resilience: Designing Modular Solutions for Coastal Protection.” During her fellowship, Henig will scuba dive at seven reef sites worldwide to research and reimagine structural solutions for threatened coral reefs, with a goal of enhancing coastal protection while protecting marine ecosystem vitality.
Clearfell House receives the 2025 Architects’ Journal Small Projects Award
Congratulations to Material Cultures and Central Saint Martins, University of The Arts London who, along with OEB Architects and WonKy, have jointly won the 2025 Architects’ Journal Small Projects Award. Material Cultures’ Clearfell House was supported by the SOM Foundation through the 2021 European Research Prize. The three projects were considered as best in class among the thirty projects costing up to £399,000, with judges recognizing the separate strengths of all three winning schemes in terms of environmental sustainability, social purpose, and materiality. Judges said Clearfell House “was very strong” in comparison to the other shortlisted projects, and praised its educational aspect. The scheme was developed as a new home for Forestry England in Dalby Forest, Yorkshire, with Central Saint Martins’s Regenerative Construction unit. The jury said it was also “probably the most sustainable on the 30-strong list” in terms of materiality.
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.