The Seventeenth Annual Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence 2015
Berkeley Prize 2015

The 2015 Essay Prize Competition

An essay contest in Three stages open to all current full-time registered students in an undergraduate architecture degree program, undergraduates majoring in architecture, or diploma students in accredited schools of architecture worldwide. 15,000USD Purse.

Background

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. This year the topic is: Architects Confront Poverty.

The Committee poses a Question on this website related to the topic. 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 (see eligibility requirements).  Undergraduate architecture students may team up with undergraduates from allied arts and social sciences programs.

From the pool of essay proposals received, approximately 25 are selected by the PRIZE Committee as particularly promising. The 25 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.

At the conclusion of the Essay Competition submittals, all Semifinalists are also invited to submit for one of several BERKELEY PRIZE Travel Fellowships. Details for the Fellowships will be announced in the spring 2015. Past Travel Fellowship Competition requirements, winning submissions, and follow-up reports by the winners are available to read here on the website.


Additional Help and Information

Are you in need of assistance? Please email info@berkeleyprize.org.
Meeting Room, Amalgamated Dwellings, New York City, USASpringsteen and Goldhammer, 1929
Boundary Street Estate Workshops, London, UK, London County Council, 1899
Vending stalls, Hismen Hin-Nu Terrace, Oakland, CA, USA, Pyatok Architects, 1995
Workshops, Perseigne Housing Estate, Alençon, France, Lucien Kroll, 1979
BDD Chawls, Worli, India, Bombay Development Department, 1920
Campus for Magic Bus, Panvel, India, 2007, RMA Architects
Cantagallo, Peru
Casa do Ataide, Paraisopolos, Sao Paolo, Brazil, URBZ Brazil, 2013
Casa do Ataide, Paraisopolos, Sao Paolo, Brazil, URBZ Brazil, 2013
Casa Familiar, San Ysidro, Califonia, USA, Estudio Teddy Cruz, Ongoing
Community Toilets for SPARC, Mumbai, India, RMA Architects, Ongoing
The Construction of Low-cost Community Centres. New Delhi, 1978.
Dolma Ling Nunnery and Institute, Sidhpur, Dharmasala, India, MN Ashish Ganju, 1998
Fez River Project, City of Fez, Morocco, Aziza Chaouni Projects, 2012
Jungle Gym, Shivagi Nagar, India, Aditya Vipparthi and URBZ, 2014
KPSP, Kibera, Kenya, Koukuey Design Initiative, Ongoing
Lima, Peru
Livonia Commons, Brooklyn, NY, Urban Quotient, 2011
Manila, Philippines
Metrocables of Medillin, Medillin, Colombia, Edison Escobar and María Patricia Bustamante, 2004
Metrocables of Medillin, Medillin, Colombia, Edison Escobar and María Patricia Bustamante, 2004
Mother and Child Care Centre, Dakshin Habal Village / Bagman Village, West Bengal, New Delhi, MN Ashish Ganju, 1979.
Nairobi, Kenya
Solar Initiative, Various Locations, Mexico, BaSiC Initiative 2003-2010
Sudhir House, Saki Naka, Mumbai, India, URBZ, 2013
Technical Facilitation of Indira Awas Yojana In Gujarat, India, Hunnarshala Foundation, 2011
Bangkok, Thailand
Manufactured Sites: Emergency Housing, Estudio Teddy Cruz
Low Cost Housing Programme, Karachi, Pakistan, Orangi Pilot Project, 1987
Floods: Relief And Rehabilitation, Sindh, Pakistan, Orangi Pilot Project, 2011
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Emma Cosio and her children are laying out the foundations of their house. Mexicali, Mexico, Christopher Alexander
Emma Cosio’s completed house in 1976. Mexicali, Mexico, Christopher Alexander
Jose Tapia’s house in 1976. Mexicali, Mexico, Christopher Alexander
Jose Tapia’s house in 1984. Mexicali, Mexico, Christopher Alexander
Mrs. Rodriguez in front of her home in 1984. Mexicali, Mexico, Christopher Alexander
The homes the five families built for themselves in 1976. Mexicali, Mexico, Christopher Alexander
Inside the Tapia’s home that they built with the help of students, 1976.
Tow Build - 1st workshop - Nansan Town Council Official brief 4th Architecture Students on the Planning & Housing challenges in Nabweru
Local market in the heart of Kampala
Local Resource and skills - use of sheet and timber to make house panel
View from Mutungo of the Ourskirts of Kampala
Participation - children sketching their dream house
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