Erica Moore and Sara Navrday	Matthew Clarke
Talha Khwaja	Budoor Bukhari

First Prize Team ($3500 USD):
Sara Navrady and Erica Moore, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada  read essay

"Sara Navrady is completing her final year of undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Canada.  After graduation she plans on furthering her practical experience in architecture and urban planning while investigating possibilities for her graduate studies.  She is interested in exploring the relationships between urban conditions and social integration, and strategies for adapting to urban densification.  She hopes to expand her experiences in social architecture, which include Habitat for Humanity and competition work, and volunteer abroad in the near future.  She aspires to find a balance between contemporary and social architecture in her professional career."

"Erica Moore is currently in her final year of the architecture program at the University of Waterloo in Cambridge, Canada. Because this is a co-op program she was recently able to spend over ten months volunteering for an architecture/engineering NGO in Kampala, Uganda. She has been strongly influenced by her time spent in East Africa, working on the designs for schools in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and a trauma healing centre in Burundi. The local people have deeply affected Erica, especially in Kampala, with their incredible stories of hopes and struggles and the way they live their lives. She spent much of her free time with a small group of Kampala street kids and loved traveling to visit the village communities of friends from the city, many of which have been tragically affected by the war in Northern Uganda. East Africa has found a place in her heart, her thesis interests, and hopefully the near future!"

Second Prize ($2,000 USD):
Matthew Clarke, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA  read essay

"This May I graduate from the University of Kentucky as a Gaines Fellow in the Humanities and a student of Architecture in the College of Design.  My senior thesis was an intensive report on the history and memory of one of America's first public housing projects.  Through research, design and community activism, I hope to continue to study architecture as a tool to create more equitable societies.  After studying architecture and urbanism in Rotterdam this summer, I will be working for Mecanoo Architecten in Delft, Holland.  Focused specifically on housing, I hope to learn from the firm's ability to tie research and civic engagement with architectural design.  After graduate school, I expect to return to Lexington, KY and facilitate the growth of a diverse, exciting, and successful downtown."

Third Prize ($1200 USD):
Talha Khwaja, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, U.S.A   read essay

"I am from Karachi, Pakistan. I recently graduated from Oklahoma State University School of Architecture and will be joining a firm in Chicago soon. I am extremely interested in the unique set of issues that cities like Karachi in the developing world are struggling to deal with in the face of an unprecedented clash of cultural idealogies. I'm also interested in the development of built space as an expression of the human spirit, and its value as an artifact."

Fourth Prize ($800 USD):
Budoor Bukhari, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates  read essay

"I am a Sudanese proudly pursuing my architectural education at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in the United Arab Emirates. Prior to joining AUS, I had the privilege of studying architecture for three years at the University of Juba in Sudan. Although I was obliged to discontinue my studies there, the exposure to the difficulties associated with being a student of architecture in my native Sudan was far from unrewarding. It provided me with the chance of experiencing first hand the challenges developing countries have to confront within their built environments, and was instrumental in shaping my academic interests and pursuits. It allowed me to consciously pose the often asked but seldom answered question: what should the role of the Architect be in the Developing World? I passionately carried this and other questions to AUS, where I was inspired to conduct extra-curricular research towards my final thesis project. As part of the endeavor, I managed to make a trip with an NGO group this January to visit the marginalized communities living in and around the Dinder National Park in South Eastern Sudan. Removed from the comforts of everyday life, I encountered the problems the communities are facing, and began to formulate ideas of potential design solutions. The project is envisioned as an initial effort towards developing architecture that is socially responsible."

The 2007 Berkeley Prize Essay Competition attracted entries from students representing 14 countries, on 6 continents.  The Question concerned the Social Art of Architecture:

What do you believe is the most needed project in your town that, when built, would better the social situation for a population in need?  Please fully and clearly describe the project and why you feel it is so important.

Each author was required to select one of 15 teams with whom to collaborate on their proposed project.  These teams represent some of the world's leading architects, designers, and planners dedicated to the making of social architecture.  A list of the highlighted teams can be found here.

Jurors for the 2007 competition were: 

Rodney Harber
Nguyen Chi Tam
Elizabeth Ogbu
Ron Van Oers

Full biographies of this year's Jury can be found at the 2007 Berkely Prize Jury Page.

This year's Berkeley Prize is dedicated to those teams and individuals around the world who have committed themselves to the application of the ideals of social architecture to built projects. 

The 15 highlighted teams are among 55 teams showcased in a groundbreaking new book called Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises (Metropolis Press, 2006). 

Edited by the co-founders of Architecture for Humanity (one of the 15), Design Like You Give a Damn beautifully illustrates dozens of projects and organizations that are changing lives, by design.  The Berkeley Prize 2007 is dedicated to the ideals of Design Like You Give a Damn as well as the teams and their projects featured within it. 

Our hope is that this year’s Competition, as well as this important book, will inspire new design initiatives in service of society.