The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
2025–2026 Topic
2025 China Fellowship
Rising Tides, Resilient Lives: Reimagining Vulnerable Communities in the River Deltas of Kampung Melayu, Jakarta
Hao Chang
Reclaiming the Negative Space. © Hao Chang.
2025 China Fellowship
Reconstructing the Power Order of the “Human-Water Relationship” Along China’s Grand Canal
Lu Ming
Axonometric drawing of the inner part of the city wall in the waterfront area. © Lu Ming.
2025 China Fellowship
Four Dimensions of Water Security: Availability, Accessibility, Resilience, and Sustainability
Zhang Nan
Scene of the transformation of the space under the viaduct in the Discover Eco-corridors project. © Zhang Nan.
Miro’s Chicago: The Iconic Public Sculpture That Almost Wasn’t
Miro’s Chicago, Chicago, 1981. Photograph by Hedrich Blessing Photographers. © Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris 2025.
2025 Researcher-in-Residence
A Permeable Atlas
Pablo Castillo Luna
A Tent for Lovers, A Garden for Pollinators, 2022. © Pablo Castillo Luna.
2025 Structural Engineering Fellowship
Reef Resilience: Designing Modular Solutions for Coastal Protection
Rebecca Henig
Coral Rubble at Moore Reef after MARRS star installation. Courtesy of Mars Incorporated and GBR Biology.
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.
Dingliang Yang
Jennifer Yoos
Maura Rockcastle
Ross Altheimer
Roger Cummings
Daniel Carlson
Changó Cummings
2024 Research Prize
Soft-Urban Riverfront: A New Paradigm for Headwater Metropolises
Mapping of the “Soft-Urban Riverfront” along the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities, highlighting Pig’s Eye as a crucial site with a history of pollution, rich Indigenous heritage, and ecological significance. © Dingliang Yang and Michael Keller.
2024 European Research Prize
Coastal Register: Research and Design of Nature-based Solutions for Wetland Water Security
Map of Clew Bay in County Mayo. © Helen McFadden.
Steve Larkin
Helen McFadden
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Ferras Coulibaly
“Glitched Systems” is a product of manipulating established architectural works, reinterpreted through the theme of “glitch.” © Ferras Coulibaly.
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Erin Kurtycz
Kalamazoo Post Office Branch. © Erin Kurtycz.
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Beni Lawson
Treehouse—Consequences of Your Actions. © Beni Lawson.
2024 Robert L. Wesley Award
Salma Rodriguez
“Framing Mobility Through Space.” © Salma Rodriguez.
Call for Applications
Research Prize Applications Now Open. Deadline: November 10, 2025
European Research Prize Applications Now Open. Deadline: November 10, 2025
Robert L. Wesley Award Applications Now Open. Deadline, November 13, 2025
Featured Fellow
The Anatomy of Sprawl
2000 Chicago Institute for Architecture & Urbanism (CIAU)
Brenda Case Scheer
University of Cincinnati
Manhattan 1660 and 1997. The shaded areas are the original blocks of Lower Manhattan, transposed on 1 1997 map on the same area. The land area has increased dramatically in the intervening years, but the original street network remains largely intact. © Brenda Case Scheer.
Residential neighborhoods with different patterns of houses, streets, and lots. © Brenda Case Scheer.
Past
Imagining Future Cities: Global and Minnesota Visions, Past and Present
Imagining Future Cities: Global and Minnesota Visions, Past and Present examines the enduring pursuit of the Future City, both globally and in Minnesota. The concept of future cities as a means to create more habitable, just, and sustainable places for people to live, work, and play has captivated visionaries across place and time. The exhibition at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis has been supported in part by the SOM Foundation as part of the 2024 Research Prize. Read
Recent News
SOM Foundation and the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid Announce the Third William F. Baker International Research and Design Forum
The SOM Foundation, in partnership with the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM), is pleased to announce the third William F. Baker International Research and Design Forum. This year’s edition will take place on Thursday, November 6, 2025, and will be organized in partnership with the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) on the campus of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The full-day event will include presentations by academics and industry leaders whose body of work, creativity, and expertise inspire the future of materiality, assembly, and technology in the built world.
2025 Robert L. Wesley Award Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 Robert L. Wesley Award. The award supports BIPOC undergraduate students enrolled in architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, urban design, or engineering programs in the United States. This year, three students will receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. The award is named in honor of Robert L. Wesley, the first Black partner at SOM.
2025 European Research Prize Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 European Research Prize. The €20,000 prize will be awarded to a faculty-led interdisciplinary team based in Europe to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Exploring the Potential of Mobility Corridors.” The European Research Prize was created in 2021 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
2025 Research Prize Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2025 Research Prize. Two $30,000 prizes will be awarded to faculty-led interdisciplinary teams based in the United States to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Exploring the Potential of Mobility Corridors.” The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.