The European Research Award first created in 2021 is an extension of the US-based Research Awards programme. The initiative tasked entrants with exploring our relationship with materials, of all scales, and the ways in which more sustainable, responsible and ethical relationships can be formed with them and the communities they come from.
The winning project “Constructive Land,” led by Paloma Gormley and Summer Islam, examines the future of the British landscape in the context of the climate crisis. The country’s fertile landscape is constrained by the forces of farming, woodland, and housing, all of which must be reimagined to make way for a post-carbon future. Their research looks at the potential of agroforestry to develop arable farming alongside productive woodland and explores what materials and building systems can be drawn from a new model of regenerative land management.
The team will investigate and test new types of biobased materials drawn from conventionally “unproductive” woodland material. In addition, an experimental timber structure that will host teaching and community engagement with the woodlands will be designed and built by a group of 30 MArch students over the summer of 2022. The project will be developed in partnership with forest management organization Forestry England and non-profit sustainable design and research organization Material Cultures, in which Gormley and Islam are founding directors.
The jury was led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Iker Gil and included Marco Ferrari (Cofounder of Studio Folder, Milan), Kent Jackson (Partner of SOM, London and Secretary of the SOM Foundation), Tim Marlow (Chief Executive and Director of the Design Museum, London), Débora Mesa Molina (Principal of Ensamble Studio, Boston and Madrid), and Sumayya Vally (Founder and Principal of Counterspace, Johannesburg).
The winning project “Constructive Land,” led by Paloma Gormley and Summer Islam, examines the future of the British landscape in the context of the climate crisis. The country’s fertile landscape is constrained by the forces of farming, woodland, and housing, all of which must be reimagined to make way for a post-carbon future. Their research looks at the potential of agroforestry to develop arable farming alongside productive woodland and explores what materials and building systems can be drawn from a new model of regenerative land management.
The team will investigate and test new types of biobased materials drawn from conventionally “unproductive” woodland material. In addition, an experimental timber structure that will host teaching and community engagement with the woodlands will be designed and built by a group of 30 MArch students over the summer of 2022. The project will be developed in partnership with forest management organization Forestry England and non-profit sustainable design and research organization Material Cultures, in which Gormley and Islam are founding directors.
The jury was led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Iker Gil and included Marco Ferrari (Cofounder of Studio Folder, Milan), Kent Jackson (Partner of SOM, London and Secretary of the SOM Foundation), Tim Marlow (Chief Executive and Director of the Design Museum, London), Débora Mesa Molina (Principal of Ensamble Studio, Boston and Madrid), and Sumayya Vally (Founder and Principal of Counterspace, Johannesburg).
![SOM: Engineering x [Art + Architecture]. Image courtesy SOM](/sites/default/files/styles/mopis_home_news_category_slider_desktop/public/lead-images/metalocus_som_expo_bienal_chicago_2017_01.webp?h=c4ed616d&itok=72WeB_I_ "SOM: Engineering x [Art + Architecture]. Image courtesy SOM")
