Sponsored by Wicona

The registration for the RIAI Student Award for Sustainable Design 2021 is now closed.  

1. Introduction

The RIAI presents the RIAI Student Award for Sustainable Design 2021 sponsored by WICONA by Hydro.  WICONA by Hydro support the RIAI’s aims for the RIAI Student Award for Sustainable Design 2021 and with their support a prize fund is available for this award.

This award is free to enter.

2. Aim of the RIAI Student Award for Sustainable Design 2021

The aim of the award is to recognise the awareness and integration of sustainable design principles by students as an inherent part of their design approach to a project or projects regardless of scale or complexity.

3. The Brief

Eligible students are invited to submit a single A1 board illustrating how their chosen project demonstrates the characteristics described in the RIAI Sustainability Statement available to download below. The A1 Board may include a combination of hand-drawn sketches, concept ideas, technical investigations, final design solutions, 3-D representations, and photographs of models, arranged in such a way as to fully represent the sustainable aspects of the project in question. The submission must be accompanied by the sustainability statement completed by the student and a narrative description of the project (max 1 no. single sided A4 sheet - font size no smaller than 10). It is advisable that the student seeks advice from their tutor/s in selecting a suitable project for submission which best illustrates the requirements of the attached sustainability statement and in completion of the checklist.

4. Eligibility

The award is open to students who are currently enrolled in the following programmes of architecture or architectural technology:

5. Assessment Criteria

• All entries will be evaluated in an anonymous manner by the jury.
• The composition of the jury is included in section 10. The competition convenor shall also participate in the jury evaluations.

6. Award Timeline

7. Registration

Students intending to submit an entry are required to first register their interest by completing the RIAI Student Award For Sustainable Design 2021 Registration Form (at the end of this page) and returning it by email in pdf format for the attention of Carol Curran, RIAI Education Officer (education@riai.ie), no later than Friday 4 June 2021. On receipt of this form the RIAI will issue each participant with an individual Submission ID Number

8. Submission Requirements

• Each student is invited to submit in pdf format an A1 drawing illustrating the selected project accompanied by a completed RIAI Sustainability Statement and a 100 word narrative about their project.
• The A1 submission must be identified by the participants individual Submission ID Number in the top right-hand corner.
• The completed RIAI Sustainability Statement and the 100 word narrative should both be identified by the participants individual Submission ID Number and attached to the submission.
• Submissions should be emailed to Carol Curran, Education Officer by Friday 18 June 2021.

9. Composition of the Jury

• Convenor; a member of the RIAI Sustainability Taskforce.
• Up to 4 other Jury Members to be proposed by the RIAI Board of Architectural Education and the RIAI Sustainability Taskforce. The jury may include an external nomination.

The final Jury will be approved by RIAI Council and announced before the Final Registration date on Friday 4 June 2021.

10. The Prize

A prize fund is available for this award. Division or not of the prize fund will reflect the standard and diversity of entries.

11. Presentation / Exhibition

It is intended that the winning, commended and other entries selected for exhibition will be exhibited at the 2021 RIAI Student Award Ceremony and Exhibition to take place at the RIAI Conference 2021. The exhibition of selected entries will clearly display the student’s name and their school of architecture or architectural technology. The copyright of all award entries for the purpose of publicity and exhibition rests with the RIAI. The copyright for all other purposes rests with the entrants. Students whose entries are short-listed for a prize/exhibition may be requested to submit a hard copy A1 board of the image of their entry.

12. Terms and Conditions

• No submissions shall be accepted after the submission deadline of Friday 18 June 2021.
• Only students currently enrolled in a programme in architecture or architectural technology in the schools listed in section 4 above are eligible to participate in this award.
• Group submissions will not be accepted and will be disqualified.
• Only one submission shall be permitted from each student and variant options will not be accepted.
• Entries must be anonymous and identified only by the participants individual Submission ID Number. All materials submitted shall be free from any markings that may identify, the student, their school or their programme of architecture or architectural technology so that projects can be judged anonymously.
• The RIAI acknowledges the collaborative nature of architecture and architectural technology but the student submitting the entry must be responsible for the work submitted. 
• Entries will not be returned to competitors.
• The RIAI Council reserves the right to permit or refuse the presentation of the Award.
• The RIAI Council may direct the Jury on any matter relating to the Award.
• It is the function of the RIAI to ensure that only eligible projects are considered.
• The Jury may recommend that no award be made or that the prize fund be divided to reflect the standard and diversity of entries.
• The decisions of the judges are final and conclusive. No discussion or correspondence will be entered into.