SOM Foundation Announces Jury for the 2023 Research Prize

Carlos Bedoya is an architect based in Mexico City and a principal of PRODUCTORA, a firm he cofounded in 2006 with Wonne Ickx, Victor Jaime, and Abel Perles. He studied architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and received a master’s degree in criticism and design from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona. Before forming PRODUCTORA, he worked at Josep Maria Botey and Flores & Prats Studio in Barcelona, and with Enrique Norten and Fernando Romero as a project director in Mexico City. Bedoya has lectured about PRODUCTORA’s work worldwide and has written about architecture in different media. He has taught at TEC de Monterrey, the Universidad Iberoamericana, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, and has led workshops in the United States, South America, and Europe. He is a founding partner of LIGA, Space for Architecture in Mexico City, an independent platform that, since 2011, has stimulated an interchange of ideas and investigation on contemporary Latin American architecture. He has also been a member of the editorial board of Domus Mexico.

Iker Gil (Chair) has been the executive director of the SOM Foundation since 2019. He is the founder of MAS Studio and editor in chief of the nonprofit MAS Context. Gil has edited or coedited several books, including Radical Logic: On the Work of Ensamble Studio and Shanghai Transforming. He has curated multiple exhibitions, including Nocturnal Landscapes, Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac, and BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was cocurator of Exhibit Columbus 2020–2021 and associate curator of the US Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. He has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Escola da Cidade (São Paulo). Gil has been selected as one of “Fifty Under Fifty: Innovators of the 21st Century” by a jury composed by Stanley Tigerman, Jeanne Gang, Qingyun Ma, and Marion Weiss, named New Progressive by Architect Magazine, and included in the Hall of Fame in Newcity’s annual Design 50.

Johanna Hurme is an architect and cofounder of Winnipeg-based design studio 5468796 Architecture. The firm has been awarded numerous international recognitions, including “50 Best Architectural Firms in 2020” by Domus, Rice Design Alliance Spotlight Award, the RAIC Emerging Architectural Practice Award, WAN 21 for 21, Architectural League of NY Emerging Voices, the Design Vanguard issue of Architectural Record, and was Canada’s official representation at the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture. 5468796 is led by Hurme with Colin Neufeld and Sasa Radulovic. In addition to practice, Hurme is an activist, advocate, and educator, having initiated and cocreated a number of design related events and programs, including the 2013 Professional Prix de Rome prize-winning project Table for 12 + 1200. She is past chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, currently on the Executive Board of RAIC I Architecture Canada, and a member of the International Council of the New York-based Van Alen Institute. In 2019, she was named visiting Professor-Morgenstern Chair at the College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology, and most recently, she was invited to Cornell AAP as the Gensler Visiting Critic. She has also taught design at several Canadian universities, and lectures extensively across the world. Hurme contributed to Innovative Solutions for Creating Sustainable Cities (edited by Sylvie Albert, 2019) and is coauthor of platform:MIDDLE: Architecture for Housing the 99%, coming out in fall 2023.

Lorcan O’Herlihy is an internationally renowned architect and urban designer with offices in Los Angeles, California, and Detroit, Michigan. After a career working with esteemed firms including Kevin Roche, I. M. Pei and Steven Holl, O’Herlihy founded Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects [LOHA] in 1994 where he is the founding principal and creative director. He has built a robust portfolio of work rooted in embracing architecture’s role as a catalyst for change. Enacting a powerful alliance of inventive designs with vigorous social ideals, O’Herlihy’s work prospers whether it is supportive affordable housing in South Los Angeles, working with grassroots neighborhood advocates in Detroit, or designing cultural institutions like Chapman University Dance School. In addition to building over 100 projects across three continents, Lorcan has been published in over twenty countries and recognized with 150-plus national and international awards, including the 2021 AIALA Gold Medal, The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Practice North America Firm Award, the AIALA Firm of the Year Award, the AIA California Distinguished Practice Award, and was ranked the #1 Design Firm in the US by Architect Magazine in 2018.

Irene Sunwoo is the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the museum, she has curated solo exhibitions by Himali Singh Soin (2022) and Jonathan Muecke (2022). From 2016 to 2021, she was curator of the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery and director of exhibitions at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her exhibition program at Ross Gallery included Frida Escobedo: No. 9 (2017), Liam Young: New Romance (2017), Eternal Gradient: Arakawa and Madeline Gins (2018), Cooking Sections: Offsetted (2019), and Torkwase Dyson: 1919: Black Water (2019). Previously, she was associate curator of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015). An architectural historian, Sunwoo received a PhD from the Princeton University School of Architecture, where her research focused on the architectural pedagogy of Alvin Boyarsky.