Brandon Clifford has been selected as the recipient of the prestigious 2011 SOM Prize, a $50,000 Research and Travel Fellowship. Mr. Clifford received his Master of Architecture degree in May 2011 from Princeton University. Having grown up in Clear Lake, Texas, near Houston, Brandon attended the Georgia Institute of Technology from which he earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree in 2006.

In the interval between graduation from Georgia Tech and commencement of his graduate studies at Princeton, Brandon’s professional experiences included guest lectureships and participation on Juries at US schools of architecture; designer of Installations and participant in design Exhibits in the US, Europe and Asia; as well as a writer of frequently published articles in design journals and professional publications.

In continuing an interest in translating past methods of making into a contemporary digital process, Brandon plans to utilize his Research Fellowship for travel to countries on four (4) continents to carry out his research on the topic, “Volume: Researching Past Methods of Stereotomy ” As Brandon explained, “ We have lost the ability to work with Volume. So much of the discussion surrounding digital design has focused on surface. This research is intended to mine the lost knowledge of stereotomy (the art of cutting solids, most typically stone) as a way to inform our contemporary methods of making with the dimension of “volume.”

Brandon’s next position will be as the LeFevre Emerging Practitioner Fellow at The Ohio State University where he will teach and carry out research on the broader topic of stereotomy in the digital era with the intent to leverage the knowledge gained through his travels.

View Mr. Clifford's portfolio submission.

Read more about the SOM Prize in architecture, design and urban design.

Masoud Akbarzadeh, who in June 2011 received an M. Arch degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the 2011 Recipient of the Foundation’s $20,000 Research and Travel Fellowship. Prior to entering graduate school at MIT, Masoud pursued an honors program in Civil Engineering at Iran University of Science and Technology, IUST, from which he received his Master of Science in Earthquake Engineering and Dynamics of Structures degree in 2007.

Masoud’s Masters Thesis has provided the first step to further study on his research topic, “Hydro Power Cities: Generative Form Potentials of River Hydrology and Urbanization“. Masoud’s research proposal is based on a cultural and technical moment of infrastructure transition that is taking place globally as water becomes increasingly more valuable. Modern hydropower megaprojects have caused widespread social, cultural and environmental damage. Masoud’s research will explore new relationships between traditional water-based infrastructure and emergent urban form along river way sites in China, Brazil and Africa. His work will focus on the creation of multiple smaller scale hydro power stations which support local environments and populations through the design of new forms of urbanism and energy extraction in a living river system.

In September 2011 through June 2012, Masoud will continue his studies at MIT, with the intent to earn a Master of Science in Architectural Design degree in Computation and study computational aspects of Hydropower Cities design. Masoud’s professional plans include teaching and establishing a professional practice that focuses on the design issues of transformative large scale infrastructure.

View Mr. Akbarzadeh's Portfolio Submission.

Read more about the Travel Fellowship in architecture, design and urban design.

Ashley Thrall

Ashley Thrall will receive her PhD from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University in May 2011, where she has also earned an MA in 2009 and an MSE in 2008. Working with Professors Sigrid Adriaenssens, Maria Garlock, and David Billington, her PhD research has focused on improving the sustainability of movable bridges by generating new forms that integrate the structural and mechanical systems. For this research, she has developed a structural optimization code that designs the geometry of the systems and the section profiles using a multi-objective function approach to minimize the use of material and the operating power subject to the constraints of current bridge design code. This research has been supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Based on her winning essay, “Deployable Structures: Elegant Kinematics for Social Responsibility,” for which she was awarded the 2011 SOM Structural Engineering Fellowship, Ashley will continue to expand her interest in kinematic structures by studying the application of deployable structures for disaster relief. Her itinerary will include 1) visiting the site of a recent disaster, 2) meeting designers at research centers and design firms, and 3) evaluating deployable structures through site visits. She will begin her itinerary in Haiti with the site visit of a recent disaster and then will proceed to study deployable structures in the United States and throughout Europe.

Prior to studying structural engineering, Ashley grew up in Canton, Connecticut and graduated from Canton High School in 2000. She then earned a BA in Physics from Vassar College. While studying physics, she pursued research opportunities at Vassar College, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of California – San Diego, CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research), and the University of Michigan. She was eventually drawn to structural engineering through seeking a field which blended her passion for design with her technical interests. In September, Ashley will join the faculty at the University of Notre Dame as the Cardinal John O'Hara Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences.

View Ms. Thrall's Portfolio Submission (394 kb PDF).

Read more about the Structural Engineering Fellowship.