What We are About

The BERKELEY PRIZE encourages undergraduate architecture students to expand their academic education by going into their communities and investigating how the built environment best serves and best reflects the social needs of those who live there.

Cash awards, hands-on research experiences in foreign locales, and opportunities to mount complementary local competitions are given to students who present the best written essays describing what role the architect plays in developing this social art of architecture.

How it Works

Each year, the PRIZE Committee selects a topic and poses a Question based on that topic. Full-time students enrolled in any undergraduate architecture degree program or majoring in architecture throughout the world are invited to submit a 500-word Essay Proposal responding to the Question. From this pool of essays, approximately 25 are selected by the PRIZE Committee as particularly promising.

These Semifiinalists are then asked to submit a 2500-word essay expanding on their Proposals. A group of Readers, composed of Committee members and invited colleagues, selects five to eight of the best essays and send these Finalists on to a Jury of international academics and architects to select the winners. All phases of the PRIZE are completed online.

Recognition

During the past thirteen years, over 1250 students have submitted Proposals and Essays, representing dozens of schools of architecture from 56 countries. In recognition of these efforts, the PRIZE was the recipient of a 2009 American Institute of Architects Collaborative Achievement Honor Award, and a 2002 American Institute of Architects' Education Honor Award.

The BERKELEY PRIZE has also garnered international acclaim, not the least reason for which is its complete embracing of digital technology. In partial recognition of this outreach, the 2003 BERKELEY PRIZE Competition was named a Special Event of "World Heritage in the Digital Age," a Virtual Congress helping to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.

New Competitions

The 2008 Competition established the BERKELEY PRIZE Architectural Design Fellowship. This award offers students the opportunity to organize their own local design competition for other undergraduate architecture students based on further development of the yearly topic. All Semifinalists for the Essay Competition are invited to submit proposals for this or another Fellowship award. The BERKELEY PRIZE provides the student who submits the best proposal an honorarium, and allocates additional money to fund prizes for the winners of the regional competition.

The 2004 Competition established the BERKELEY PRIZE Travel Fellowship. This award recognizes the vital role that exposure to other cultures and environments plays in helping to demonstrate the reality and importance of the social art of architecture. All Semifinalists for the Essay Competition who have not applied for other PRIZE Fellowships are eligible to submit proposals demonstrating how they would use the opportunity to travel to an architecturally-significant destination, preferably to participate in a hands-on service-oriented situation related to the yearly topic. The winning student(s) are provided with airfare, living expenses, and program participation.

Kiryat Tivon Water Tower, Kiryat Tivon, Israel, Yosef Ben-Naim, Architect © Robert Ungar

Cuncolim Market, 2011, Cuncolim, Goa, India DEAN D'CRUZ, Architect © Himanshu Burte

Seattle Central Library, 2004, Seattle, WA, USA, REM KOOLHAAS OMA, Architect © Brian Gassman