Deadline: November 1, 2018
The International Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Design Excellence 2019 Essay Contest is open. The Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Design Excellence endowment was established in the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design to promote the investigation of architecture as a social art. Each year the PRIZE Committee selects a topic important to the understanding of the interaction of people and the built world that becomes the focus of the Essay Competition.
Students enrolled in any accredited undergraduate architecture program or diploma in architecture program throughout the world are invited to submit a 500-word essay proposal in English responding to the Question. Undergraduate architecture students may team up with undergraduates from allied arts and social sciences programs.
Essay Question
In your city, how do individual communities demonstrate their presence through the buildings designed to serve that group’s social and cultural needs and endeavors?
Prizes
There is a total prize of 25,000USD, minimum 5,750USD first prize. The remaining purse is to be allocated at the discretion of the Jury.
Eligibility
- Open to students enrolled in any accredited undergraduate architecture program or diploma in architecture program throughout the world
- The competition is open to all current full-time registered students in an undergraduate architecture degree program or undergraduates majoring in architecture in accredited schools of architecture worldwide. Diploma in Architecture students who have not yet completed their Diploma are also eligible.
- Essays must be submitted in English.
- Finalists will be required to provide proof of current registration in the form of copies of actual school transcripts. You are still eligible to compete if you were an undergraduate student on September 15, 2016, but graduate before the awards are scheduled to be given.
Judging Criteria
Judging for the essay competition is on a numeric system. The members of the BERKELEY PRIZE Committee are asked to evaluate each essay in terms of the following criteria:
- Does the Proposal address the Question?
- How creative, or creatively developed, is the Proposal?
- Would the Proposal be clear to a broad audience?
- How does the Proposal rank in terms of writing style?
- How socially significant is the Proposal?
- What is the potential for developing this Proposal into a strong essay?
Each Proposal is given a score of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest). The top approximately 25 scoring Proposals become Semifinalists.
Application
- Meet the Eligibility Requirements.
- Write a 500-word proposal for an essay on this year’s Essay Question, as posted.
- Provide one photograph each of your chosen projects.
- Submit the essay and photographs online.
From the pool of essay proposals received, approximately 25 are selected by the PRIZE Committee as particularly promising. The selected individual students, or student teams, become Semifinalists.
These Semifinalists are invited to submit a 2,500-word essay, again in English, expanding on their proposals. A group of readers, composed of Committee members and invited colleagues, selects five-to-eight of the best essays and sends these Finalist essays to a jury of international academics and architects to select the winners.
Click here to enter.
For more information, visit Berkeley Undergraduate Prize.
