The Berkeley Essay Competition for Architects

The Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Design Excellence Essay Competition

Each year, the PRIZE Committee selects a topic critical to the discussion of the social art of architecture and poses a Question based on that topic. Full-time undergraduate students enrolled in any architecture degree program or majoring in architecture throughout the world (or teams of two students, one of whom may be from a collateral discipline) are invited to submit a 500-word Essay proposal responding to the Question. This year the topic is: The Architect and the Accessible City.


The Committee poses a Question on this website related to the topic. Students enrolled in any accredited undergraduate architecture program or diploma in architecture program throughout the world are invited to submit a 500-word essay proposal in English responding to the Question (see eligibility requirements).  Undergraduate architecture students may team up with undergraduates from allied arts and social sciences programs.  

From the pool of essay proposals received, approximately 25 are selected by the PRIZE Committee as particularly promising. The 25 selected individual students, or 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 one of two BERKELEY PRIZE Fellowships: the Travel Fellowship, or the Architectural Design Fellowship. Details for each will be announced in the Spring, 2013. Past Fellowship Competition requirements, winning submissions, and follow-up reports by the winners are available to read here on the website.

Important dates:

• November 1, 2012: (Stage One) 500-word essay proposal due.

• Mid-December, 2012: Essay Semifinalists announced.

• February 1, 2013: (Stage Two) Essay Semifinalists' 2,500-word essays due.

• February 8, 2013: Launch of Fellowship Competitions for Essay Semifinalists

Visit the Berkeley Essay Competition website.