2025 Researcher-in-Residence
The SOM Foundation and the MAK Center for Art and Architecture are now accepting applications for the 2025 Researcher-in-Residence.
A fully funded summer residency program based in Los Angeles, the Researcher-in-Residence program provides an architect, artist, and/or researcher dedicated space and time for innovative work that addresses pressing issues related to the built environment. This year’s topic is “Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future,” which corresponds to the SOM Foundation’s 2024–25 research topic.
Residency Overview
The Researcher-in-Residence is a $5,000 award and four-to-eight-week summer residency at R.M. Schindler’s Fitzpatrick-Leland House in Los Angeles, California. The residency is awarded annually to an architect, artist, and/or researcher to conduct original research that contributes to the current topic. The Researcher-in-Residence Program was jointly established in 2024 by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture and the SOM Foundation to provide space and time for rigorous work that addresses pressing issues related to the built environment.
Advancing Toward a Water-Secure Future
As shared during the United Nations 2023 Water Conference, two billion people lack access to safe drinking water; 40 percent of the world’s population is affected by water scarcity; agriculture demands alone account for 70 percent of water usage; more than 90 percent of disasters are water-related; and pressure on freshwater is projected to increase by more than 40 percent by 2050.
From macro multinational ecosystems to microclimates, there is an urgent need for bold and collaborative solutions to a myriad of existing and future water-related challenges. This year, the SOM Foundation will direct its support toward proposals that address the complex relationship between water, people, and the built environment. Creating a sustainable, equitable, and water-secure future will require innovative and multidisciplinary ideas that shape long-term policies, define comprehensive plans, and identify immediate actions.
Topic
Eligibility
The Researcher-in-Residence program is open to professionals researching or practicing in a discipline that relates to the built environment.
The SOM Foundation and the MAK Center recognize that research and innovation benefit from a diverse range of perspectives, backgrounds, and approaches. That said, successful applicants will likely demonstrate a history of commitment to one or more of the following disciplines: architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, engineering, architectural history, sociology, writing, and/or visual art.
• Applicants can be based in the US or abroad. US citizenship is not required.
• Currently enrolled students are ineligible to apply, however doctoral candidates who have completed all coursework (ABD) may apply.
• Couples are eligible to apply together, however only one amount will be awarded, and the residency room must be shared.
• MAK Center employees, SOM Foundation board members and paid consultants, and SOM employees are ineligible to apply.
• Previously awarded SOM Foundation fellows may apply.
Dates &
Location
The term of this residency is four-to-eight weeks between June 1 and July 31, 2025. Exact dates during this timeframe are flexible. The residency is located in Los Angeles at the Fitzpatrick-Leland House. Originally designed by R.M. Schindler as a model home in 1936, the Fitzpatrick-Leland House also serves as the MAK Center’s Study Center. The residency includes a private bedroom, work space, bathroom, and access to communal kitchen and social spaces of the Fitzpatrick-Leland House. The residency spaces are located on the second floor of a residential house, which require one flight of stairs. Due to space constraints, the residency is unable to accommodate additional family members or pets (except service animals).
Award
• A $5,000 award will be provided on the following schedule: 50% within 30 days upon signing the residency contract; and 50% within 30 days after the successful completion of the residency.
• The $5,000 award is intended to cover residency expenses such as flights, rental car, gas, food, materials, etc., as these expenses are not covered by the residency.
• Please note that the Fitzpatrick-Leland House is located at Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon, which is in a residential neighborhood and best accessed via car (a car is not provided by the residency).
Outcomes
During the research period, the MAK Center and the SOM Foundation will schedule periodic check-ins with the recipient.
The MAK Center and the SOM Foundation will provide mentorship and networking support to recipients.
Each residency will culminate with a public talk or program related to the recipient’s research and interests. The nature of this program is flexible and will be proposed by the recipient and organized with MAK Center staff.
The public talk or program can present work in progress or can be final. Work and research conducted during the residency can be continued after the residency period. Research projects are not required to be directly related to Los Angeles in order to be considered.
Apply
Submit information via the application page form no later than Friday, March 28, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. CST. Applications received after that time will not be considered.
You should receive an email confirming the information you submitted. If not, please contact info@somfoundation.com.
FITZPATRICK-LELAND HOUSE
Each resident is given exceptional access to the three-level hillside house designed by R.M. Schindler.
HISTORY OF RESIDENCIES AT THE FITZ
From 2008-10 the Fitzpatrick-Leland House served as a base for the MAK Center’s Urban Future Initiative (UFI), a fellowship program in which cultural thinkers from diverse nations entered into dialogue about urban space with Los Angeles scholars and practitioners. The fellowship provided for two month residencies at the Fitzpatrick-Leland House to promote meaningful exchange between cultural thinkers and Los Angeles practitioners in order to explore the complexity of "the city" in relationship to the built environment, growth and migration, economics, politics, gender, and the natural environment. The fellowship’s mission was to cultivate visionary conceptions of the urban future. In 2022, in partnership with the Danish Art Foundation, the MAK Center hosted Chris Halstrøm and Pettersen-Hein as Designers-in-Residence.
Since then, the MAK Center has dedicated the house to small-scale events and the lodging of international cultural researchers visiting Los Angeles for artistic and scholarly pursuits.
