The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
2024 Research Prize
Imaging Underground: Illustrating Wastewater Challenges and Opportunities to Inform and Empower Alabama’s Black Belt Communities
Aurélie Frolet
Jillian Maxcy-Brown
Emily McGlohn
The Rural Studio cluster system demonstration site is in Newbern, a rural Black Belt Alabama town. © Tim Hursley.
Call for Applications
Research Prize Applications Open in September 2025
European Research Prize Applications Open in September 2025
Robert L. Wesley Award Applications Open in September 2025
Featured Fellow
Architecture, Infrastructure, and Urban Design and the Emerging Role of Infrastructure Design in the Modern City
2017 China Prize
Yue Wu
Tongji University
Department of Architecture
Umeda Sky Building. © Yue Wu.
Guest House at Kyoto. © Yue Wu.
Speculation of Mega Infrastructure. © Yue Wu.
Past
Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities
The (Im)material Matters Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Professor Liz Gálvez, presents Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, an innovative exhibition examining climate resilience in desert cities. The exhibition at the Center for Architecture + Design in San Francisco highlights design-research, full-scale prototypes, and student work that address the urgent need for alternative cooling solutions in regions facing extreme heat. Read
Recent News
SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Robert L. Wesley Award. Four fellows, Ferras Coulibaly (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, School of Architecture), Erin Kurtycz (University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning), Beni Lawson (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, School of Architecture), and Salma Rodriguez (Texas Tech University, Huckabee College of Architecture) will each receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. Awardees will also be supported by Black Spectacles as they work toward becoming licensed architects.
SOM Foundation Announces Winner of the 2024 European Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 European Research Prize. A team from the Technological University Dublin will receive a €20,000 prize to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future.” The European Research Prize was created in 2021 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2024 Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Research Prize. Two teams—one from Auburn University and one from the University of Minnesota—have been awarded the 2024 Research Prize, and will each receive $30,000 to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future.” The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.