Fellows 2008

Jieun Yang (M. Arch. ’08, Columbia University) has won the 2008 SOM Prize, a $50,000 travel and study fellowship. Yang was chosen on July 24 from a pool of 100 applicants nationally. The competition is open to graduating undergraduate and graduate students from accredited schools of architecture, design and urban design. Applicants were judged on the quality of their design portfolios and their research proposals and travel itineraries.

This grand prize enables Yang to complete in-depth research, collaborate with other designers and pursue independent study outside the realm of established patterns. She will travel extensively in the America, France, Sweden and China studying suburbia as it originated in post-World War II U.S. and Europe and currently is being emulated extensively in China.

“As the western model of the suburb is crumbling down, these models are being copied in developing countries in other parts of the world," explained Yang. " Will these copied versions of the American suburb survive the threat that the originators are facing?"