News

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2022 Structural Engineering Fellowship. Luis Berg will receive $20,000 to conduct original research. This year’s topic, “Envisioning Responsible Relationships with Materiality,” encouraged applicants to explore materiality from the micro- to the macroscale in order to envision sustainable, responsible, and ethical relationships with materials and the communities that they come from. Berg’s proposal, “An Ontological Study of Structures and Their Materiality,” aims to study thirty exemplary structures across four continents to understand the connection between community impact, environmental sustainability, and engineering innovation.

The 2021 Robert L. Wesley Award recipient is included in Metropolis Magazine’s Future100 Architecture Undergraduate Winners. The list celebrates the top 100 architecture and interior design students graduating in North America this year.

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2022 China Fellowship. The $5,000 China Fellowship will be awarded 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 this year’s topic, “Envisioning Responsible Relationships with Materiality.” 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.

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2022 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, “Envisioning Responsible Relationships with Materiality.” 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.

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Robert L. Wesley Award. Alexander Htet Aung Kyaw, Sanjana Lahiri, and Xiluva Mbungela will each receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. In addition to the three fellows, the jury decided to expand the number of fellows to include two $5,000 awards, given to Kevin Chow and Viridiana Hernandez Sevilla.

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2021 European Research Prize. One team from the University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins will receive a €20,000 prize to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Envisioning Responsible Relationships with Materiality.” The European Research Prize was created in 2021 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.

The 2019 Research Prize fellows talk about the potential of irrigating agricultural land with sewage, based on their research in the Mezquital Valley, in the inaugural episode of Harvard GSD’s podcast, Design Now.

As part of a series highlighting the history and initiatives of the SOM Foundation, in this piece we look at the Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism under the leadership of Janet Abrams (1991–1992).