Archiprix 2018

The Archiprix Foundation is a collaboration between higher educational institutions in the Netherlands in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture in Delft, Eindhoven, Wageningen, Amsterdam, Arnhem, Groningen, Maastricht, Rotterdam en Tilburg.

The Archiprix Foundation has organized the national Archiprix Netherlands since 1979. The Foundation also inaugurated Archiprix International in 2001.  This has turned out to be an extremely successful combination. With her activities Archiprix introduces the most talented designers to a broad audience. Their excellent graduation projects present a wide variety of relevant solutions for contemporary design tasks.

The basic setup of Archiprix is straightforward: Archiprix invites all Master’s Degree programmes in the field of architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture to select their best graduation project and to submit it the Archiprix organization. This setup enables Archiprix to give a picture of the state of the art of design education. In contrast to most other competitions, Archiprix does not impose or demand any theme-oriented work. It simply presents the plans that the educational programmes have selected and thus gives an unparalleled insight into the themes in which the programmes are engaged. Archiprix subsequently presents this top-class graduation work to a wide public by means of exhibitions, books, films and internet. Archiprix also organizes the assessment of the selected graduation plans by an independent jury. Finally, Archiprix stimulates the cooperation between the up-and-coming designers by bringing them into contact with one another via workshops.
Although this formula may be simple, Archiprix does have a stimulating effect on many fronts. First of all, it functions as a launching pad for novice but talented designers. After all, all participants have been selected by their educational institution as the best graduates and that is widely acknowledged as proof of their design talent. As a consequence, they receive well-earned support at their entrance into professional practice. Moreover, the excellent graduation work receives the exposure it deserves: a broad spread of inspiring solutions to current, future and imaginary assignments are placed under the spotlights. Designers, policy-makers, curators can draw from a rich source of ideas. In addition, Archiprix allows the programmes the opportunity to present themselves with their best graduation work on a national and global platform. Students are interested in our activities because, on the one hand, the plans we present are all concrete examples of the quality level that one has to achieve in order to belong to the top category. In addition, it gives students who are looking for an educational programme where they can do a Master’s Degree after completing their Bachelor’s Degree insight into the field of programmes available. On the other hand, it also has a stimulating effect on the quality of education provided. It is not only a contest between graduates, it is also a challenge between schools. They select their best graduation plans and give justification to students and teachers, which benefits the discussion about the quality of the design programme. Graduates do their utmost to be selected for participation in Archiprix, which contributes to the quality of their graduation work in positive terms.

www.archiprix.nl

www.archiprix.nl