Congratulations Sonya! : Winner of the Tenth Annual Berkeley Prize Essay Competition

Sonya Redman, member of Architects for Peace, has received the First Place for the 2008 BERKELEY PRIZE Essay Competition.

Congratulations Sonya, this is an inspiration to us all!


The following was published in the Berkeley Award website.

Winning Essays:

(May 27, 2008) The University of California, Berkeley - Winners of the Tenth Annual Berkeley Prize Essay Competition are announced today by Professor Raymond Lifchez, Chair of the Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence.

photo source: The Berkeley Prize website

Sonya Redman, University of New South Wales, Australia; "Shaping identity and ‘place’ in Australian Indigenous housing."

"The history of Australian Indigenous housing is a history that has real relevance in Australian government policy. In the two hundred years since colonisation, colonial, state and Commonwealth governments have taken a series of initiatives to impose social behaviour and cultural expression on Australian Indigenous people which bore no relation to their own social organisation or aspiration. Not until 1967 were Indigenous people..." Read Essay

I am in my final year of architecture and law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The juncture of architecture and law is an exciting one. It is a space that has the capacity to facilitate social justice, empowerment and self-determinism through the interaction of the built environment and social policy. I have a strong interest in social justice and have engaged this idea through community work, research papers and volunteer projects in Sydney, Sri Lanka and India. My final year project is centred on how architecture can serve and respond to the needs of women, especially from minority groups, by exploring and designing spatial, legal and social relationships that may impact upon them in housing and urban planning.I have learnt that there is an overwhelming need for housing and public space design to be always mindful of sustainably incorporating community needs, and in particular, to ease the adversity faced by some members of our community. After university I hope to work towards creating more equitable communities in Australia and abroad."

Under the title of Architecture is a social art, this year's undergraduate award was dedicated to the Aga Khan Award for Architecture,

"...the world’s most prestigious architectural awards program, the international Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Established to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of societies in which Muslims have a significant presence, the awards program has helped reveal an architecture of humanism that transcends religion, race, or nationality."

Find more about The Berkeley Prize: here