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Winning Essays: (May 27, 2008) The University of California, Berkeley - Winners of the Tenth Annual Berkeley Prize Essay Competition are announced today by Professor Raymond Lifchez, Chair of the Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence.
First Place for the 2008 BERKELEY PRIZE Essay Competition is awarded to:
Sonya Redman, University of New South Wales, Australia; "Shaping identity and ‘place’ in Australian Indigenous housing."
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"I am in my final year of architecture and law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The juncture of architecture and law is an exciting one. It is a space that has the capacity to facilitate social justice, empowerment and self-determinism through the interaction of the built environment and social policy. I have a strong interest in social justice and have engaged this idea through community work, research papers and volunteer projects in Sydney, Sri Lanka and India. My final year project is centred on how architecture can serve and respond to the needs of women, especially from minority groups, by exploring and designing spatial, legal and social relationships that may impact upon them in housing and urban planning.
I have learnt that there is an overwhelming need for housing and public space design to be always mindful of sustainably incorporating community needs, and in particular, to ease the adversity faced by some members of our community. After university I hope to work towards creating more equitable communities in Australia and
abroad."
Two Second Place prizes for the 2008 BERKELEY PRIZE Essay Competition are awarded to:
Nazneen Saifuddin, American University of Sharjah, Kuwait; "The Abolition of Congested Urbanism - A Task or a Moral Obligation?"
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"Born and brought up in Kuwait but a proud Indian by roots, my passion for architecture started even before I knew what it was. Currently pursuing my undergraduate in Architecture (major) and double minors in Design Management and Urban Design at the American University of Sharjah, I am extremely enticed by Dubai and Mumbai and the multi-faceted dimensions of both these mega-cities. The urge to provide shelter should be the foremost obligation of any architect and keeping this as something to endure to, I wish to make a difference someday. I aspire to generate the much –needed awareness as well as further explore the labor-slum situation in Dubai and the slum situation in my own country.
This summer before the onset of my final year, I shall be interning at a reputed architectural firm in Kuwait, hoping to enhance my architectural and management skills that will enable me to establish a strong foothold in my future endeavor as an architect and project manager."
Petrina Yeap, National University of Singapore, Singapore; "Good Vintage - Sustainable Architecture for an Aging Society"
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"I am a final-year architecture undergraduate at the National University of Singapore and will graduate in July this year. This summer vacation will see me embarking on my dissertation that will eventually culminate in a thesis for my postgraduate Masters studies. In school, my architectural studies have taken the path of a specialisation in design technology and sustainability, which essentially entails climate-responsive design and also architectural detailing at the micro scale that critically addresses particular user needs, poetics, construction techniques and green issues. Beyond school, my interests lie in design journalism where this competition and a maiden article recently published in the “Singapore Architect” – the principal local architectural journal – has been a blessedly encouraging start. Through this vehicle of design journalism I hope to pursue my twin passions in design and writing, as well as to raise awareness of the importance of the role of architecture in my society and its value, a place where the architect is still very much a misunderstood and mysterious vocation."
The 2008 BERKELEY PRIZE Essay Competition attracted architecture students from 18 countries, including Uruguay, the Philippines, Switzerland, Nigeria, China and others. This year's Essay Competition was an invitation to think about the use of architectural competitions to foster the study and implementation of the social art of architecture:
Make a proposal for a Social Art of Architecture Design Competition for undergraduate students in your school and potentially, other undergraduate academic disciplines. As a general goal, this Design Competition will ask students to address the most important social issue in your country that should be addressed by architects. Tell us what you believe this social issue is and why. Then, tell us how exactly your design competition will help address this issue.
Jurors for the 2008 Essay Competition Were:
Hasan-Uddin Khan
Daves Rossell
Lynne Elizabeth
Marielle Richon
Full biographies of this year's Jury can be found at the 2008 BERKELEY PRIZE Jury Page.
MORE INFORMATION
For further information, visit our Frequently Asked Questions, or email info@berkeleyprize.org.
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