In May, 2019, the SOM Foundation announced the results of the 2019 SOM Foundation China Prize. Three winners—Zhu Ziyuan, Jing Qi, and Shen Jie—will each receive a $5,000 fellowship created to support the students as they embark on travel research outside of China.
Awarded annually, the traveling fellowship is open to students pursuing architecture or urban design degrees in China. The prize allows emerging design leaders to broaden their education through travel so that they may gain a deeper understanding of how their work will contribute to the built and natural environments.
Zhu Ziyuan, an undergraduate student in urban planning at Dalian University of Technology, plans to travel to the Netherlands and Spain to carry out his research topic, “The Urban Error System: Evoking Spatial Redundancy/ Residue.”
Jing Qi, an undergraduate student in architecture at Soochow University, will travel to four countries in Western Europe to study, “The Influence of Mega-Structure Buildings on European Urban Space.”
Shen Jie, a graduate student in architecture at Southeast University, will visit six countries in Latin America to research ” High Density Habitation—Urban Planning and Residential Building.”
In addition to the winners of the 2019 SOM Foundatin China Prize, the jury recognized five finalists. The SOM Foundation congratulates the following students for the quality of their submissions: Dukic Milica, a graduate student in architecture at Tianjin University; Shen Chensi, an undergraduate student in architecture at Tianjin University; Tang Meng, a graduate student in architecture at Nanjing University; Li Qiwei, an undergraduate student in architecture at Beijing University of Technology; and Liu Yani, an undergraduate student in architecture at Hunan University.
The winners were selected from among applicants enrolled in the last two years of either an undergraduate or a graduate degree program, in either architecture or urban design at a university in the People’s Republic of China. The jury was composed of architects practicing in China.
About SOM Foundation
The SOM Foundation grants awards to students and faculty of architecture, design, urban design, and structural engineering. The Foundation’s goal is to advance the design profession’s ability to address the key topics of our time through the support of groups and individuals, each with the highest possible design aspirations and desire to undertake rigorous interdisciplinary research. Established in 1981, the SOM Foundation offers five annual awards across the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.