Applications call for Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Design Excellence.

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.

Prizes

There is a total prize of 35,000USD, a minimum of 9,000USD first prize. The remaining purse is to be allocated at the discretion of the Jury.

How does it work?

From the pool of essay proposals, the PRIZE Committee will select approximately 25-28 as particularly promising. The selected student teams become Semifinalists. These Semifinalists will receive an invitation 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.

Steps

• Meet the Requirements listed below.
• Write a 500-word proposal for an essay on this year’s Essay Question, as posted.
• Provide one photograph of each of your chosen projects.
• Submit the essay and photographs online.

Eligibility

• A two-member team must submit an application.
• Essays must be in English.
• Both finalists will have to provide proof of current registration in the form of copies of actual school transcripts.
• Candidates are still eligible to compete if both of you were an undergraduate student on September 15, 2019, but one or both of you graduate before the awards giving ceremony.

Judging Criteria

Judging for the essay competition is on a numeric system. The members of the BERKELEY PRIZE Committee will 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 criterion is given a score of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest). The top approximately 25 scoring Proposals become Semifinalists.

See the rules To Enter