Since 1981, the SOM Foundation has supported the work of more than 300 emerging architects, landscape architects, interior architects, urban designers, and engineers. Below are the most recent recipients of the SOM Foundation's awards. A comprehensive list of all past fellows can be found here.
An Ontological Study of Structures and Their Materiality
Luis Berg will explore the relationships among material, people, and nature through case studies of select structures to understand their connection to three core concepts: community impact, environmental sustainability, and engineering innovation. The aim is to motivate material use that, respecting culture and generating knowledge, builds for a better and more efficient tomorrow.
Luis Berg
University of California, Berkeley
“Collective Comfort” aims to develop a public program that rethinks the cooling center as an educational resilience hub. Furthermore, “Collective Comfort” aims to bring education on heat risk and weatherization efforts to the forefront, helping to destabilize the fossil-fuel reliant single-family home by providing alternative visions that foreground collectivity and community resilience in desert cities.
Liz Gálvez
Yale University
School of Architecture
Dalia Munenzon
University of Houston
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design
Taking Back the Air: Collective Learning, Advocacy, and Design for a Healthy Environment
“Taking Back the Air” asks how spatial design pedagogy and research can engage in interpretive, collaborative, and community-centered approaches to weave together the complex histories, political ecologies, material effects, modes of resistance, and everyday experiences of toxic systems to help shape better worlds.
Nida Rehman
Carnegie Mellon University
School of Architecture
Air de jeux: Protecting Children from Air Pollution by Designing Urban Environmental Installations
“Air de jeux” will form a partnership between the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), academics from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the NGO Les Chercheurs d’air, the BuildWind enterprise, and municipal representatives to propose urban environmental installations to mitigate outdoor air pollutant exposure for children.
Maider Llaguno-Munitxa
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning
Chiara Cavalieri
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning
Beatrice Lampariello
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning
Damien Claeys
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning
Gérald Ledent
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning
Christine Fontaine
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning
Geoffrey Van Moeseke
Université catholique de Louvain
Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urban Planning
Examining Social Justice Beneath the Surface: Taking European Public Swimming Pools as a Clue
Chang Guo’s proposal will explore the role of community swimming pools in contributing to social justice through visiting and researching sites in France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
Chang Guo
Southeast University
School of Architecture
Emotional Justice: Emotional Design of Urban Public Space
Han Tu’s research will explore the emotional design and justice of urban public spaces in Thailand, India, and Singapore.
Han Tu
Tsinghua University, Beijing
School of Architecture
Spatial Reproduction in Industrial Areas: Study on Chinese Workers’ Spatial Production in Europe
“Spatial Reproduction in Industrial Areas” proposes to study the impact of Chinese workers in Europe and whether the new production of space can achieve a certain degree of social integration while balancing the interests of both local and immigrant communities.
Yunhan Zhu
Shandong Jianzhu University
School of Architecture and Urban Planning
Howard University Department of Architecture
California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo Department of Architecture
Iowa State University Department of Architecture
The 2023 Special Recognition for Architecture, Design, and Urban Design supports Toni L. Griffin’s project as part of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Laboratory of the Future.
