From Pharaohs’ pyramids to space age cityscapes, Graphisoft Prize entrants imagined, designed, built and explored uncharted architectural spaces in Archicad
San Francisco, December 12, 2000 — Graphisoft’s seventh annual international virtual building design competition — The Graphisoft Prize — was juried in San Francisco, December 7-9, by esteemed members of the international architectural press.
Using Archicad as a design tool and virtual reality as a visualization tool, entrants were challenged to create virtual architecture, drawing from a list of cultural themes. The winners of the 2000 Graphisoft Prize, open to both students and professionals, were announced at a reception at the close of the three-day event.
First prize was awarded to Sam Rajamanickam from Design Collective Inc. of the United States for his entry Cotton Club by Francis Ford Coppola;
Second Prize went to the team of Marcel Schuler, Patrick Schmid, Guido Zimmermann of Fachhochschule Aargau, Switzerland, for The Ministry of Truth of George Orwell’s novel 1984;
Third prize, also for The Ministry of Truth, went to Gábor Osváth, Attila Vocsa, Bojka Pehlivanova of GYAR Ltd, Hungary;
Honorable mentions were awarded to:
the Swiss teamof Daniel Leuthold, Cordula von Holzen, Christof Blickenstorfer of FH-Aargau for The Walled City from William Gibson’s novel Idoru; and to
the Australian team of Mark Purtell, Ross Langdon and Lim Hong Swee from the University of Tasmania, Australia for The City from Ray Bradbury’s novel, The Illustrated Man.
The special prize for Student Project of The Millennium was awarded to Miklós Riedel from the Technical University of Budapest for the reconstruction of a baroque Gun Powder Magazine.
Through the Graphisoft Prize competition, Graphisoft promotes its Virtual Building™ concept in architectural design and practice. Entrants submitted complete design documentation, including Archicad plan files, color renderings, QuickTime VR scenes and animations to convey their design intent to the jury.
Jury members included Jerry Laiserin, FAIA, contributing editor of Architectural Record (US, jury president), Zahid Sardar, architecture and design editor of San Francisco Chronicle (US); Jean-Pierre Cousin, technical editor of Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (France); Catherine Slessor, managing editor of The Architectural Review (UK); Christian Schittich, editor-in-chief of Detail (Germany). A custom hardbound copy of honorary juror Aaron Betsky’s latest book, Architecture Must Burn, was presented to each juror. Betsky is curator of architecture, design and digital projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a contributing editor for Architecture, I.D., and Metropolitan Home magazines.
This was the first year in which students and professionals vied for the same prizes, as jurors in previous years observed that there was no difference in professionalism, creativity and overall quality between the two categories of submissions.
Prizes awarded:
One First Prize: $5000 cash + $2,500 coupon for Archicad or any Graphisoft product; promotion in Graphisoft’s advertising in a major international architectural magazine; inclusion on the Graphisoft Prize CD of winning entries, with 50,000 copies distributed worldwide
One Second Prize: $2,000 cash + $1,000 coupon for Archicad or any Graphisoft product; inclusion on the Graphisoft Prize CD of winning entries, with 50,000 copies distributed worldwide
One Third Prize: $1000 cash + $500 coupon for Archicad or any Graphisoft product; inclusion on the Graphisoft Prize CD of winning entries, with 50,000 copies distributed worldwide
Honorable Mentions: Inclusion on the Graphisoft Prize CD of winning entries, with 50,000 copies distributed worldwide.
Prize awarded for The Student Project of the Millennium:
Traveling fellowship for two + $1,000 cash + Archicad software (university version)
Images of the winning entries will be available on Graphisoft Prize website, www.gsprize.com, by mid-December. Graphisoft also plans to publish and distribute a CD-ROM catalog of winning entries in March 2001.