SOM Foundation Announces Jury and Applications Open for the 2026 European Research Prize

Antti Ahlava is professor of Emergent Design Methodologies at Aalto University in Helsinki, where he leads the research group Group X and has served as head of the Department of Architecture. He is also a partner in helsinkizürich, an architecture office with studios in Helsinki and Zürich. The office’s work includes the renovation of the Helsinki City Art Museum, the Aviapolis Centre at Helsinki Vantaa airport, the urban renewal of the Espoo and Finnoo centres, and the Munktellstaden housing development in Eskilstuna, Sweden. It won first prize in the Andermatt city centre competition and, with K2S Architects, the Espoo City Hospital competition. Ahlava has been a visiting professor in Aarhus, Copenhagen, and Vienna, and a visiting fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. From 2024 to 2026 he was principal investigator of a project on zero-energy campuses funded by the Academy of Finland. In 2024 he was named a First Class Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.

Kent Jackson is a design partner in the London office of SOM. He began his career in SOM’s Chicago office and moved to London in 1999. His projects include the renovation of the United Nations’ Palais des Nations complex and the JTI Headquarters, both in Geneva; Karlatornet in Gothenburg, Sweden; and Manhattan Loft Gardens, a 42-story residential tower beside Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. He leads SOM’s strategic climate action group and is an advocate of the firm’s pledge to meet the AIA 2030 Commitment. Jackson is a global ambassador for the World Green Building Council, a board member of the British Architectural Library Trust, and a member of the Council on Vertical Urbanism, the British Council for Offices, the City Architecture Forum, and the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a registered architect in the United Kingdom, New York, and the Netherlands. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oregon.

Andrew Waugh is a founding director of Waugh Thistleton Architects, a London practice known for engineered timber construction and low-carbon design. He led the design and delivery of Murray Grove, the world’s first all-timber residential tower, which helped start the international movement toward tall timber buildings. In 2010 he received the RIBA President’s Medal for his research into timber high-rise construction. The practice was nominated for the Stirling Prize in 2018, was named UK Practice of the Year at the 2023 AJ Architecture Awards, and won a 2024 RIBA London Award for The Black & White Building. Its work ranges from synagogues to social housing, offices, and public buildings, with research and design projects across Europe and North America. Waugh is a senior fellow at Architecture 2030, sits on the steering committee of Architects Declare UK, and teaches and lectures internationally on sustainability and timber construction.

Peter MacKeith (Chair) is executive director of the SOM Foundation since 2026, coming as a nationally recognized design educator, administrator, curator, and author. Most recently, he served as Dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas from 2014 until earlier this year. In this role he helped to expand student outcomes, research funding, and facilities, notably guiding the design and construction of the Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation, designed by Pritzker Prize recipients Grafton Architects and Modus Studio. In 2025, MacKeith served as the Lead Commissioner for the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, celebrating contemporary American design under the theme of PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity in collaboration with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and independent consultancy DesignConnects.