2011 Fellows

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.

On the occasion of the annual RIBA President’s Medals 2011, Basmah Kaki from the Architectural Association, received the SOM Foundation 2011 Travelling Fellowship Award given to a student who has completed the RIBA Part 1 course of study at a school of architecture in the United Kindom. Basmah’s winning submission for her award is entitled, “An Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism.” Basmah describes her project as, “ Part documentary, part speculation, the project reflects on sites and people lost in the rush of technological progress, but at the same time celebrating the cultivation of hope through acoustic lyrical mechanisms.

Ms. Kaki grew up in Saudi Arabia and completed her secondary education at high school in Switzerland, following which she enrolled at the Architectural Association in London for her Part 1 studies in Architecture. Basmah has just completed her Year Out, having worked initially at the office of Sir Peter Cook where she developed energy studies and prototypes explored in her “ Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism” project, but adapted to different conditions. Halfway through her Year Out, she began work at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners on a project currently under construction, which was designed with a smart/ efficient energy system which should result in low operating costs in the long term. Basmah will return to the Architectural Association in autumn of 2012 for her Part 2 studies, and hopes to continue her research into new technologies that not only provide energy efficient solutions, but also in parallel, resolve social communal problems.

Basmah plans to utilize her Fellowship Award to travel to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 where the theme is, “enclosure, the process of protecting, but also defining inside from outside, private from public, and the individual from the community.” In referring to her project, the “Acoustic Lyrical Mechanism “as a refuge, in a place where a an entire community is being exploited, she calls upon a quote from David Chipperfield to summarize the theme of her project: “As the world seems to increasingly indulge the aspirations of the individual, we seem to find the idea of community, the civic, the public, the common more difficult to define.”

Following completion of her architectural studies, Basmah aspires to join an architectural firm in Saudi, and eventually set up her own firm.