The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
Liz Gálvez
Dalia Munenzon
2022 Research Prize
Collective Comfort: Framing the Cooling Center as a Resiliency and Educational Hub for Communities in Desert Cities
Two people take refuge from the scorching sun in the shade offered by a streetlight pole. Tall buildings also absorb and amplify the heat of the sun. A view of downtown Phoenix. © Cassidy Araiza.
Nida Rehman
2022 Research Prize
Taking Back the Air: Collective Learning, Advocacy, and Design for a Healthy Environment
View of Braddock and North Braddock from across the Monongahela River, 2021. © Keyi Chai.
2022 European Research Prize
Air de jeux
Maider Llaguno-Munitxa
Chiara Cavalieri
Beatrice Lampariello
Damien Claeys
Gerald Ledent
Christine Fontaine
Geoffrey Van Moeseke
Photo showing a school street located in the Brussels Capital Region. © Les chercheurs d’air.
2023 Structural Engineering Fellowship
Structures that Breathe
Lydia Moog
Horse Island Research Station by Gray Organschi Architecture and Yale School of Architecture. © Lydia Moog.
Creating New Architecture Through Research: On Materiality
October 14, Stuttgart
Photograph by ftgrf. © IntCDC, University of Stuttgart/SOM Foundation, Chicago.
2023 China Fellowship
Air Purification and Urban Strategies
Xianglan He
2023 China Fellowship
Air Justice: A Study on the Relationship Between Urban Form, Social Class, and Air Quality
Bolun Qiu
2023 China Fellowship
Environmental Tectonics Through Air: Learning from Vernacular
Shuaibo Shi
Upcoming Call for Applications
Structural Engineering Fellowship Applications Open in January 2024
China Fellowship Applications Open in February 2024
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
SOM Foundation Fellows Reception | San Francisco 2023
On Wednesday, June 7, the SOM Foundation organized a fellows reception in San Francisco coinciding with the AIA Conference on Architecture 2023. Read
Recent News
2023 Research Prize Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2023 Research Prize. Two $40,000 prizes will be awarded to faculty-led interdisciplinary teams based in the United States to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Adapting Housing Strategies to Respond to New Realities.” The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
2023 European Research Prize Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2023 European Research Prize. The €20,000 prize will be awarded to a faculty-led interdisciplinary team based in Europe to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Adapting Housing Strategies to Respond to New Realities.” The European Research Prize was created in 2021 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
2023 Robert L. Wesley Award Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2023 Robert L. Wesley Award. The award supports BIPOC undergraduate students enrolled in architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, urban design, or engineering programs in the United States. This year, three students will receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. The award is named in honor of Robert L. Wesley, the first Black partner at SOM.