The annual ArchVoices Essay Competition encourages, promotes, and rewards critical thinking and writing--two traditionally under-emphasized areas of architectural education and training. Interns, non-registered architects, current graduate students in architecture, undergraduate students in their final year of architecture school, and other architecture school graduates are eligible to participate.
For Stage One, students and young professionals were challenged to submit a 500-word essay proposal by March 31, 2006, reflecting on the competition topic. The competition committee is now in the process of identifying a select number of semifinalists who will be invited to develop a 2,000-word essay, further exploring the ideas from their original proposal.
Timeline
| |
| March 3 | Stage One 500-word Essay Proposals Accepted Online |
| March 31 | Stage One Closed at Midnight ET/9pm PST |
| (Deadline time is equivalent to 05:00 GMT) |
| April 17 | Semifinalists Announced |
| May 19 | Stage Two Closes at Midnight ET/9pm PST |
| (Deadline time is equivalent to 05:00 GMT) |
| June 30 | Honorees Announced |
History
The structure and theme of the inaugural ArchVoices Essay Competition were developed entirely by a diverse group of interns who participated in the 2002 National Summit on Architectural Internship.
The 2003 competition elicited 157 submissions, addressing the broad topic of architectural internship.
The 2004 competition elicited 180 submissions, focused on architect registration.
The 2005 competition elicited 179 submissions, focused on engaging the general public through architecture.
Precedent
The creation of the ArchVoices Essay Competition was inspired by the ongoing work of the Berkeley Prize Competition, which encourages, recognizes, and rewards writing by undergraduate architecture students worldwide.
Website Design
The 2006 ArchVoices Essay Competition website was designed by Scot Refsland, PhD, of RedClay Solutions. Dr. Refsland has designed numerous sites for ArchVoices, including ArchVoices.org V1.0-3.0; InternshipSummit.org; ValidationConference.org; the 2003, 2004, & 2005 competition websites; the ARE+IDP Advocacy Website; as well as the ADPSR and Design Corps websites, sponsored by ArchVoices.
"The ability to speak and write with clarity is essential if architects are to assume leadership in the social, political, and economic arenas where key decisions about the built environment are being made."
--Ernest Boyer & Lee Mitgang, Building Community, p.80
