The Architect and the Healthful Environment

Essay Prize Question

HOW DO YOU DESIGN A HEALTHFUL ENVIRONMENT?

In your city, find a building or a public place that helps create a healthful environment.  Describe the features of the healthful environment that you admire and why.  Tell us what you believe the architect did specifically to make the healthful environment work as it does.

Then find a building or a public place that offers an unhealthful environment.  Describe the features of the unhealthful environment that you do not admire and why.  As an architect, describe specifically what you would have done differently, including working with what governmental and civic resources to improve the situation.

Tell us what you have learned by this comparative analysis.

Dedication
This year’s BERKELEY PRIZE is dedicated to the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) whose activities, including their 2013 annual conference, Healthy + Healing Places, expand our knowledge about the health policy implications of architecture and design.

Essay Prize Jurors

Arza Churchman
Susan Goltsman
Daniel Karlin
Adriano Pupilli

Essay Prize Winners and Honorable Mentions

First Prize: Tazrin Islam, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh: "Livability vs. Lovability." 

Second Prize: Nipun Prabakar and Sukruti Gupta, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India: "Spaces to Grow:  A Comparative Study of Two Orphanages." 

Third Prize (tie): Michael Philpott, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada: "Healthful Halifax: Designing Healthful Spaces, Learning by Example." 

Third Prize (tie): Aparna Ramesh, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India: "The Architecture of a Healthful Learning Environment" 

Travel Fellowship Winners and Destination

Clarence Lee Jun Yi from the Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand for travel to Kyoto, Japan to participate in a series of guided tours and visits to the traditional gardens of Kyoto.

Sheila Malingu from the Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda for travel to Eugene, Oregon to observe the Sustainable City Year Program at the University of Oregon;  and then to Portland to participate in the 51st International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) Conference (2014).

Delma Palma from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, USA for travel to Palermo, Italy to participate in the 2014 Palermo Urban Design Summer Studio.

Revathi Veriah from the Anna University, Chennai, India for travel to Sabah, Malaysia and Bali, Indonesia to participate in the Arkitrek 2014 Camp (Sabah) and to volunteer at the Green School (Bali).

Related Links
2014 Prize Website
2014 Poster
2014 Press Release

New York City’s new High Line, a 1.5 mile long, elevated linear public park designed by James Corner Field Operations (Urban Design and Landscape Architecture) with diller scofidio + renfro (Architects). Photo, Benjamin Clavan.