Double living root bridge in East Khasi, India, 2011. CC BY 2.0 Arshiya Urveeja Bose.
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2026 Structural Engineering Fellowship. Lili Boenigk, a graduate student in the Building Technology program in the Department of Architecture at MIT, will receive $20,000 to conduct original research related to her proposal, “Critical Connectors: Regenerating Structures and Community Through Short-span Bridges.”
During her fellowship, Lili Boenigk will document understudied bridge-building practices, emphasizing the role of collective participation and culture in infrastructure siting, design, and maintenance.
In 2025–2026, the SOM Foundation is supporting research that explores how every scale of movement infrastructure shapes our built environment through its annual research topic “Exploring the Potential of Mobility Corridors.”
Lili Boenigk is a graduate student in the Building Technology program in the Department of Architecture at MIT. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and architecture from Columbia University. Her research focuses on scaling the reuse of structural steel to reduce the cost and carbon intensity of construction, with particular focus on bridges and emerging secondary markets. She is inspired by and seeks to elevate existing, often informal practices of reuse and resale. In parallel, she is interested in how collective material imaginaries shape approaches to maintenance and reuse and has conducted research in construction history on New England’s waterstruck brickmaking tradition. Boenigk is also an avid guerilla gardener and seed collector.
“I am thrilled by the opportunity to do interdisciplinary research exploring how social relationships shape structural systems through design and maintenance,” says Boenigk.
The jury for the 2026 Structural Engineering Fellowship was led by Yunlu Shen (Associate Principal at SOM, New York) and included Victoria Arbitrio (Associate Partner, Gilsanz Murray Steficek, New York); Nathan Brown (Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA); Caitlin Mueller (Associate Professor in Architecture and in Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, Cambridge); and Edward M. (Ted) Segal (Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering, Hofstra University; Segal Structures Group, Hempstead, New York).
Jury chair Yunlu Shen states, “The jury recognized this as an outstanding and thoughtful proposal to study short-span bridges, an often-overlooked category of structure with significant impact on local communities. The research case studies are admirably diverse, ranging from indigenous to innovative construction materials and methods, including material reuse. The resulting report has the potential to provide a valuable synthesis of knowledge for the field.”
“While there are several travel fellowships available to architects, the SOM Foundation Structural Engineering Fellowship provides a rare opportunity for a structural engineer to complete a self-curated research trip,” said Ted Segal, 2026 Structural Engineering Fellowship juror. “This year’s Fellowship winner has crafted a proposal that will take them to a variety of locations to study a range of short-span bridges and how those different bridges were developed based on factors such as site, material availability, and the communities that use the infrastructure. The experience will be transformative for the winner and will impact the profession more broadly after the winner has an opportunity to reflect on their trip and disseminate their research.”