SOM Foundation announces the 2023 China Fellowship winners

He added: "My hometown, Shijiazhuang in the Hebei province, used to have a very serious air pollution problem. However, with the closure of factories and restrictions on private car travel and other initiatives, there has been an improvement in the environment. I want to know what other more developed regions are doing, such as how some of the Nordic countries are fostering responsible ecological policies. The most important thing in improving environmental issues is still people, so getting people and architecture to work together is a very thought-provoking idea."

She was joined by Chongqing University undergraduate Bolun Qiu, whose project 'A Study on the Relationship Between Urban Form, Social Class, and Air Quality' will bring him to Tokyo and Copenhagen to research the equitable distribution of clean air through to the public. Jing Li said the scope reminds her of "the ways Alexander von Humboldt’s meticulously documented atlas of the great mountains in the world." Qiu added that he wanted to study the issue through an urban planning perspective in relation to his coursework. 

The winners were rounded out by Shi's proposal, 'Environmental Tectonics Through Air: Learning from Vernacular,' which called for a look at the effects o thermodynamics and air on vernacular architecture. Shi said he hopes a "new paradigm for regional environmental tectonics can be provided." The Southeast University postgrad student's research will be spread across five interrelated aspects: environmental-climate selection, spatial-form type, spatial climate-gradient, climate regulation-interface, and material-construction method.

Duncan commended the proposal finally as “a topic of potential significance in both the conservation of traditional villages in China and through learnings applied in urban regeneration nationally.”

More information about SOM Foundation fellowship opportunities can be found here.