Essay Prize Question

WHAT IS THE SOCIAL ART OF ARCHITECTURE?

In answering this question, go out into your local community and find two buildings that you feel best typify the social art of architecture, one of which is no more than 10 years old. Tell us what it is about these buildings that can act as a model for future architects in creating equally successful designs.

Essay Prize Jurors

Benard Acellam
Neelakshi Joshi
Thomas-Bernard Kenniff
Preeti Talwai

Essay Prize Winners and Honorable Mentions

First Prize: Mr. Wandisile Kona

Department of Engineering and Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa for: “A Cathartic Architectural Language in a Democratic South Africa.”

Second Prize: Ms. Ghina Kanawati

Faculty of Architecture – Design and Built Environment at the Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon for: “Reconciling a Wounded City: The Storytellers of Beirut.”

Third Place: Ms. Meriam Soltan

Department of Architecture and Design in the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon for: “Architectural Preservation in Beirut: A Search for the Future in a Past that Refuses to be Forgotten.”

Fourth Place (shared): Mr. Theodor Reinhardt

Faculty of Architecture and Social Sciences at the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig, Germany for: “Redesigning Leipzig - How Urban Actions Solve Social Issues.”

Fourth Place (shared): Ms. Raksha VH

School of Architecture in the Ramaiah Institute of Technology in Bengaluru, India; and Ms. Swetha Manivannan, Bachelor of Architecture student at the Oxford School of Architecture, Bangaluru for their joint essay, “So-less to Solace: Solving issues across generations.” 

Travel Fellowship Winners and Destination  

Ms. Yossra Aldulaei, a Bachelor of Architecture student from the Department of Architecture at Yemini Jordanian University in Sana’a, Yemen to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a self-guided architectural tour; and to Phoenix, U.S.A. to attend an Arcosanti workshop and to study the principals of Arcology.

Mr. Jordan Coffey, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Architecture student from the Department of Architecture, College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, U.S.A. to travel to Cairo, Egypt to attend the International Conference on Civil and Architectural Engineering (ICCAE) conference; to Vipingo, Kenya to participate in a Better Place International program that follows-up on a 3D printed housing project developed by a U.C. Berkeley architecture faculty member; and to Adwa, Ethiopia to participate in an evaluation of proposals to select a local company for an investment which will be used to design and build homes and access to clean water in Adwa in a review project developed by an economics faculty member at IE University (Spain), and to help start a summer English program.

Ms. Jahnavi Kantamneni, a Bachelor of Architecture student from the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India to travel to Bath, England and to Amman, Jordan to participate in the “Healthy Housing for the Displaced” project initiated by the University of Bath, United Kingdom, specifically in the A Displaced-person-led Science of Shelter Design ‘work package.’ The program is a three-year Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council/British Research Council-funded project led by researchers at the University of Bath, England in collaboration with Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Jordan; the German Jordanian University, Jordan; and Mersin University, Turkey.

Ms. Ushna Raees, a Bachelor of Architecture student from the Indus School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, Pakistan to travel to the San Francisco Bay Area; and to Phoenix, U.S.A. to attend a five-week Arcosanti hands-on construction workshop and to study the principal of Arcology as part of her student-initiated project on the environmental preservation of Manghopir, Karachi.

Mr. Gunraagh Singh Talwar, a Bachelor of Architecture student from the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India to travel to Kassi Kunda village in eastern Gambia to participate in a four-week, hands-on earth architecture workshop, “Build with Gambia,” organized by the Nka Foundation for the purposes of building a unit of Kantora Arts Village, a residential vocational training center for unemployed rural youths.

Ms. Sneha Varghese, a Bachelor of Architecture student from the Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli (NIT Trichy), Tiruchirappalli, India to travel to Barcelona, Spain to attend the CITY 2018 Conference organized by the International Academic Forum; and to Maseru, Lesotho to participate in a hands-on, “In- Loco Workshop” for the construction of an orphanage through RISE International.

Related Links
2018 Prize Website
2018 Poster
2018 Press Release

Philip Tidwell (BP 2003) and Peripheral Projects Studio, The Säie pavilion, Helsinki, Finland (2015)

Ben Wokorach (BP 2013), Fruiti-Cycle First Prototype, Kampala, Uganda (2016)

Holly Simon (BP 2011), Justin Loucks, Phil Wilson, Kevin Lo, The Public Speaker, Calgary, Canada (2015). Photo Credit: Stenhouse Photography