The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
Topic
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.
2022 Structural Engineering Fellowship
An Ontological Study of Structures and Their Materiality
Luis Berg
ArboSkin, Stuttgart, 2013. © ITKE University of Stuttgart.
Creating New Architecture Through Research: On Materiality
October 14, Stuttgart
Photograph by ftgrf. © IntCDC, University of Stuttgart/SOM Foundation, Chicago.
Upcoming Deadlines
Structural Engineering Fellowship March 17, 2023
China Fellowship April 21, 2023
Featured Fellow
Architectural Afterlives
2013 SOM Prize for Architecture, Design, and Urban Design
James Leng
Harvard University
Graduate School of Design
Buildings spring up opportunistically where ever the terrain allows. © James Leng.
North Korea. © James Leng.
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 China Fellowship Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2023 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, “Shaping Our World Through Air.” 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.
SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2022 Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Research Prize. Two teams—one from Yale University and the University of Houston, and one from Carnegie Mellon University—will each receive a $40,000 prize to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Shaping Our World Through Air.” The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2022 European Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2022 European Research Prize. One team from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) will receive a €20,000 prize to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Shaping Our World Through Air.” The European Research Prize was created in 2021 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2022 Robert L. Wesley Award
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Robert L. Wesley Award. Bria Miller, Kai Benjamin Parel-Sewell, and Gabriela Robles-Muñoz will each receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators.
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.