International Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Design Excellence Essay Contest $ Travel Fellowship 2020

Published: 16 Sep 2019 1,443 views

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. It was built with the aim of promoting the investigation of architecture as a social art.

In fulfillment of its purpose, annually,  the PRIZE Committee selects a topic important to the understanding of the interaction of people and the built world to become the focus of the Essay Competition.

This year, applications are being invited for the International Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Design Excellence 2020 Essay Contest. This is a three-stage essay contest that is open to all current full-time registered students in an undergraduate Architecture Degree program and to undergraduates majoring in Architecture or Diploma as well, who are students in accredited schools of Architecture worldwide.

So How  Does The Essay Contest Work?
Typically, students enrolled in any accredited undergraduate architecture program or diploma in architecture program from all over the world are required to submit a 500-word essay proposal in English responding to the Essay Question. 

For this year's essay competition, the  architecture students must team up with undergraduates from allied arts and social sciences programs and submit proposals in teams of two.

The Selection Process:
From the hundreds of essay entries submitted, approximately 25-28 are selected by the PRIZE Committee as being promising. The selected student teams for the first essay topic,  qualify as Semifinalists.
These Semifinalists are invited to submit a 2,500-word essay, again in English, expanding on their proposals.

This time around, a group of readers, consisting of committee members and invited colleagues, selects five-to-eight of the best essays of the semi-finalists.
After the selection, the committee send these essays to a jury of international academics and architects to select the winners.

At the conclusion of the Essay Competition submittals, all the Semi-finalists are also invited to submit entries for a BERKELEY PRIZE Travel Fellowship. Details for the Fellowship will be announced in the Spring of 2020.

There is a total prize of 35,000USD. The teams selected for the award would take home a minimum 9,000USD first prize.

Eligibility:
To be eligible for the award, all  proposals must be submitted by a two-member team and essays must be submitted in English.

Interested eligible teams are advised to apply.
 

Berkeley Prize Undergraduate Scholarship

Application Deadline	November 1, 2019
Type	Undergraduate
Sponsor	Berkeley Prize
Gender	Men and Women

Benefits of Berkeley Prize Undergraduate Scholarship

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

Requirements for Berkeley Prize Undergraduate Scholarship

1. All proposals must be submitted by a two-member team.
2. Essays must be submitted in English.
3. Both 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 both of you were an undergraduate student on September 15, 2019, but one or both of you graduate before the awards are scheduled to be given.

One member of the team must be a current full-time registered student in an undergraduate architecture degree program or an undergraduate majoring in architecture in an accredited school of architecture worldwide. Diploma in Architecture students who have not yet completed their Diploma are also eligible. The other member of the team must be a current full-time registered student in a non-architecture undergraduate degree program and majoring in that program in an accredited school worldwide.  This could include urban studies, the social sciences, engineering, etc. Both students names must appear on their proposal and essay and if awarded a prize, the prize is to be equally shared.

Photograph Requirement

1. You are asked to include digital photographs of your two selected buildings with your essay.
2. The photographs should be at a minimum 500 pixels wide, and in .jpg format.
3. No more than two photographs will be accepted. The photographs must have been taken by one member of the team.
4. Photographs sourced on the internet will disqualify your entire submittal.

You are encouraged to include people in your photographs to indicate the building in use. The Readers are instructed NOT to add or detract points from their evaluation because of the quality of the photograph itself. To the contrary, one of the primary purposes of the essay format is to test your skill in describing a place or building in words, rather then pictures or drawings.  Use the photographs to continually review how good a job you have done in describing your selected building(s) in words. The Readers will do the same.

Selection Process

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:

1. Does the Proposal address the Question?
2. How creative, or creatively developed, is the Proposal?
3. Would the Proposal be clear to a broad audience?
4. How does the Proposal rank in terms of writing style?
5. How socially significant is the Proposal?
6. What is the potential for developing this Proposal into a strong essay?

From the pool of essay proposals received, approximately 25-28 are selected by the PRIZE Committee as particularly promising. The selected 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 a BERKELEY PRIZE Travel Fellowship. Details for the Fellowship will be announced in the Spring 2020. Past Travel Fellowship Competition requirements, winning submissions, and follow-up reports by the winners are available to read here on the website.

Each criterion is given a score of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest). The top approximately 25 scoring Proposals become Semifinalists.

Application Deadline

November 1, 2019

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to Berkeley Prize on www.berkeleyprize.org to apply