SOM Foundation Announces Winner of the 2026 China Fellowship

This year’s jury was led by Inho Rhee (Design Principal at SOM, Shanghai) and included Chen Chen (Founding Partner, reMIX, Shenzhen), Michel Hsiung (General Manager, Shui On Management Limited, Shanghai), Sun Yimin (Professor and Academic Leader, School of Architecture at South China University of Technology, Guangzhou), and Tang Shuoning (Chairman and Chief Architect, Tongji Architectural Design & Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd.; Professor, Tongji University, Shanghai). All proposals were evaluated independently by each of the jurors, who then submitted their individual recommendations. Shortlisted proposals were subsequently discussed as a group.

Fan Guo is a recent architecture graduate from Hunan University, China, and will soon begin the MArch program at The University of Hong Kong. His research interests focus on high-density urban environments, community regeneration, and the role of circulation infrastructure as a medium for spatial reorganization. Through his undergraduate design practice, he has continuously explored how architectural and urban systems can respond to contemporary social challenges. By adopting speculative and experimental design approaches, he seeks to balance long-term adaptability with human-centered spatial experiences. His work particularly examines the relationships among mobility, public space, and collective urban life, with the goal of developing more resilient, inclusive, and adaptive spatial strategies for future high-density cities. Looking ahead, he hopes to further transform design ideas into grounded field research and, through comparative studies across different cities and cultural contexts within high-density Asian urban environments, contribute to more sustainable and adaptive approaches to community regeneration and urban infrastructure development. His proposal is titled “Corridors as Urban Infrastructure: Reorganizing Density in High-Density Communities.” Fan Guo will travel to Chongqing, Hong Kong, and Tokyo to explore how corridor systems can function as spatial organizational mechanisms in high-density aging communities, restructuring accessibility and public space.

“The jury recognized the winning proposal, ‘Corridors as Urban Infrastructure,’ as an exemplary and highly thoughtful representation of this year’s theme, ‘Exploring the Potential of Mobility Corridors’,” said Inho Rhee, 2026 China Fellowship jury chair. “This proposal also establishes clear research objectives across diverse dimensions, including adaptive methodologies, the three-dimensional relationships of mobility corridors, and associated regulations and policies. Furthermore, it aims to examine distinct self-generated logic, operational logic, and spatial integration across key urban contexts in several cities.”

Juror Tang Shuoning said that “the proposal offers a profound and highly focused interpretation of the theme of Urban Mobility Corridor, while demonstrating excellent innovation, compelling design expression/language, and a broad perspective.”

Congratulations to Fan Guo and we all look forward to seeing the results of his research in the near future.