President's Office

CEPT Essay Prize 2018

Focus on South and South East Asia
CEPT University, Ahmedabad 

We are looking at unprecedented growth and opportunities in the field of architecture and urban planning, where issues of rapid development, scalable solutions, politics and style, material debates and sustainability as well as collaborative and collective thinking are shaping new environments at more regional scales. Architecture and the shaping of built environments are also at the center of multiple debates and the figure of the professional architect as a social player has receded into the background. Is there scope for the professional architect and urban designer to take the lead to harness these changing times and paradigm shifts, and address these harsh realities?

To begin a dialogue with future collaborators, CEPT University has instituted in 2018 the CEPT Essay Prize, with a view to building new knowledge for continuous advancement in the field of the built environment. The CEPT Essay Prize embodies our belief in collaborations and connections that are informed through research and innovation pertaining to South Asia and South East Asia. At a time of rapid development, it provides a meaningful pause, an occasion to ask, to empathize and to think through paradigm shifts.

The CEPT Essay Prize 2018 invites submissions from students and recent graduates (since 2015) from schools of architecture and allied disciplines. At the initial stage, we invite proposals for essays which clearly follow the thematic lead.

Essay Theme: CEPT Essay Prize 2018
The House of Mirrors: Architecture cultures in a maze of Asian histories

Asia, and especially south Asia and south-east Asia have been a cauldron of much historical developments, intense engagements with other continents such as Europe, Africa, and Austrailia, and even the Americas. Histories across land as well as over the seas have indeed shaped these cultures along with their own philosophical quests and political ideas. From Orientalism to Gulf Wars and ethnic conflicts, as well as unprecedented populations with extraordinary cultural mixes and rising economic powers in some cases – the continent and some of its regions are sites of intense action. This intensity also demands intervention and reflection; how is turbulence, unprecedented growth, or changing financial relations shaping societies and human exchanges? And is our existing knowledge, as well as professional capacities enough to intervene, help, and manage these situations? How would we craft reflection and introspection, as well as projections into a future that is ever-changing within turbulent and promising environments? In what ways does architecture matter in these places? What can architecture do? What is the role and the responsibility of the architect in these situations and locations?

CEPT Essay Prize 2018: Writing guidelines

We recommend writing like ‘conversations’: use simple and direct linguistic skills, to think through mental image and direct the written page towards opening up the world to the reader. We encourage fluid and imaginative writing style, with a view to reach audiences’ beyond the architectural community. We also encourage writing that will enable people the world over to connect to the issues in South Asia and South East Asia.

CEPT Essay Prize 2018: Details of the Competition

The essay completion will be held in two stages.

  • First we invite participants to submit an essay abstract of about 500 words.
  • A panel of four experts will review them and shortlist 45 entrants.
  • The selected participants after being duly informed, will be required to submit a long form essay of 3000 words, which will be reviewed by a panel of three eminent jurors.

Timelines

  • Announcement of the Essay Prize: April 15th, 2018
  • First abstracts: June 15th, 2018
  • Announcements of final selection of Abstracts: July 15th, 2018
  • Submission of final Essays: August 18th, 2018 (Extended)
  • Announcement of winners of the Essay Prize: September 30th, 2018

  • All submissions: essayprize@cept.ac.in

CEPT Essay Prize Money:

  • First Prize: INR 100,000
  • Second Prize: INR 50,000
  • Two Honorary mentions

CEPT Essay Prize committee

  • Seema Khanwalkar (Convener, Semiotician)
  • A.Srivathsan (Architect , Critic)
  • Kaiwan Mehta (Architect, Critic, Editor)

Shortlisting - Review Committee

  • Pratyush Shankar (Architect, Academic)
  • Caterina Duncan (Litterateur, Academic)
  • Kanika Singh (Historian)
  • Urvi Desai (Architect, Academic)

Jury Members

  • Gautam Bhatia (Architect, Writer, Delhi)
  • Tridip Suhrud (Historian, Ahmedabad)
  • Adnan Morshed (Architect, Academic, Dhaka)
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