Through essay writing and a travel fellowship, the Berkeley Prize Endowment educates architects-in-training that the smallest act of building has global implications: that design can and does play a major role in the social, cultural, and psychological life of both the individual and society at large.

The Endowment was established in 1996 in the Department of Architecture, College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley as the result of a generous gift from Judith Lee Stronach. The Berkeley Prize embraces the idea that social ideals are fundamental to making buildings of worth by:

• Encouraging and fostering undergraduate architecture students to take a serious interest in how
  contemporary architecture may serve social needs.
• Encouraging and fostering cross-disciplinary faculty interest for participation in undergraduate
  design studios.
• Encouraging and fostering the examination of how undergraduate architectural design is taught.

Left to right: 1998~99 BPC Committee; Benjamin Clavan, Wendy Tsuji, Benjamin Clavan, Mike Martin, Karin Payson, Michael Pyatok, Richard Whitaker and Ray Lifchez

Each year, the Prize Committee selects a topic and poses a Question based on that topic. Students enrolled in any undergraduate architecture program 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 Semi-Finalists 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. The Prize is announced, papers submitted, and reader and jury-reviewed all online.

During the past six years, hundreds of students have submitted Proposals and Essays, representing dozens of schools of architecture from nearly 40 countries. In recognition of these efforts, the Prize was the recipient of the 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. (1)

The 2004 Competition established the Berkeley Prize Travel Fellowship. This new Prize 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 Finalists for the Essay Competition are invited to submit proposals demonstrating how they would use a several week, expense paid, trip to an architecturally-significant destination selected by the Prize Committee.

Site URL: http://www.berkeleyprize.org