The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
Topic
Creating New Architecture Through Research: On Materiality
October 14, Stuttgart
Photograph by ftgrf. © IntCDC, University of Stuttgart/SOM Foundation, Chicago.
Felecia Davis
Ali Ghazvinian
Benay Gürsoy
Farzaneh Oghazian
John Pecchia
Andre West
2021 Research Prize
MycoKnit: Cultivating Mycelium-based Composites on Knitted Textiles for Large-Scale Biodegradable Architectural Structures
Knitted Base Model. © Felecia Davis.
2021 Research Prize
Soil Sisters: An Intersectoral Material Design Framework for Soil Health
Anna Dyson
Mae-ling Lokko
Grounds for Return. © Selma Gurbuz.
Summer Islam and Paloma Gormley. © Material Cultures.
Paloma Gormley
Summer Islam
2021 European Research Prize
Constructive Land
2022 Structural Engineering Fellowship
An Ontological Study of Structures and Their Materiality
Luis Berg
ArboSkin, Stuttgart, 2013. © ITKE University of Stuttgart.
Upcoming Deadlines
Structural Engineering Fellowship March 17, 2023
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.
Past
The Right to Sewage: Digesting Mexico City in the Mezquital Valley
Montserrat Bonvehi Rosich and Seth Denizen will lecture on “The Right to Sewage: Digesting Mexico City in the Mezquital Valley,” recipient of the 2019 Research Prize. Their project asks what hydraulic, soil, ecosystem, social, and policy conditions can increase chances for success and what its prospects for socioecological sustainability are. Read
Recent News
2023 Structural Engineering Fellowship Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2023 Structural Engineering Fellowship. The $20,000 fellowship will be awarded to a graduating student based in the United States who specializes in structural engineering to conduct independent travel and research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Shaping Our World Through Air.” 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.
Society of Architectural Historians Honors SOM Foundation at the Charnley-Persky House 130th Anniversary Celebration
The Society of Architectural Historians is celebrating the stewardship of the Charnley-Persky House on Thursday, November 10 at the Arts Club of Chicago. The celebration marks 130 years since the building was completed and 50 years since it was designated as a Chicago Landmark. The SOM Foundation is among the honorees at the event, in recognition for the years the Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home served as its headquarters.
The Charnley House: From a Private Residence to Headquarters of the SOM Foundation
With 2022 marking the fiftieth anniversary of the designation of the Charnley House as a Chicago landmark, we look back at its transformation from a private residence to the headquarters of the SOM Foundation and Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism.