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It’s that time again. We’re now accepting submissions for the 2023 Vectorworks Design Scholarship!
If you’re an undergraduate or graduate student pursuing a degree related to architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, landscape design, or entertainment design, this scholarship competition is an opportunity for you to receive both recognition and a monetary award.
Note that submission dates and deadlines vary slightly based on the country and/or region where you live. Visit our scholarship site to see when you can apply for your region.
Regional winners are chosen from all qualified submissions. Based on your region, you can win up to $3,000 USD. All regional winners then have a chance to win $7,000 USD grand prize, the Richard Diehl Award. In total, you could win up to $10,000 USD.
“We’re committed to helping students achieve their design goals, and this design scholarship is one way we underscore this commitment,” said Jen Hart, Vectorworks’ academic marketing programs specialist. “Students can win a scholarship by submitting a design that they've worked on during their educational journey.”
Share your designs with Industry professionals and Profressors
Each year, we have esteemed designers, professors, and professionals serve as our Design Scholarship judges. These year's judges are:
Blair Barnette — chairperson, British Film Designers Guild
Eric Berg — principal, Pacific Coast Land Design, Inc.
Vanessa Brady — founder and CEO, The Society of British & International Interior Design
David Chadwick — editor and chief writer, CAD User and Construction Computing Magazine
Steven Chavez — landscape architect and founder, SCLA and NAMLA
Colin Davis — director, Studio Partington
Jonathan Emery — landscape architect, DSA Environment & Design Ltd.
David Farley — set and costume designer, David Farley Design
Victoria Farrow — associate professor & BA Architecture course director, Birmingham City University
Curt Henry — senior architectural designer, Dwyer Architectural
Stephen Jones — professor, Theatrical Design, California State University - Sacramento
Will Metcalf — designer, SWT Design
Anne Militello, head of the Master of Fine Arts Lighting and Design Program, California Institute of the Arts
Cristina Murphy — professor and co-founder of XCOOP
Caitlin Saunders — senior project designer, Starbucks
Ashley Scheidel — founder and creative director, Ashley Scheidel Design Studio
Edward Turner — senior director, Pegasus Group
Eric Winter — architect, Alchemy Architects
These industry professionals recognize the opportunity and power of the 2023 Vectorworks Design Scholarship. David Farley, for example, said, "This is such a great opportunity. You can submit a project that you’ve been working on for your degree so it’s not even any extra work. Why wouldn’t you!?"
Meanwhile, Steven Chavez recognized how even submitting to such competitions can prepare designers for the demands of the industry: "The benefit of competitions is that they provide a particular rigor that ups our game and expands our way of thinking about design projects."
Ashley Scheidel, another of our judges, shared more advice for aspiring designers, "As a design student, fully immerse yourself in the worlds of art and design. Dive into your studios, work at an art gallery, intern at design firms, and travel. Design is something to live and breathe. Not just put to paper or computer."
2022’s Grand Prize Winner
2022’s Richard Diehl Award winner was Michelle Wanitzek for her “Nomad Coworking” project.
View all the winning and runner-up submissions here.
The winning project, which Wanitzek submitted for her master's thesis at Fakultät Gestaltung Wismar, features a coworking space and coffeeshop in a listed monument — a site identified for its architectural or historical significance — and focuses on the increasing importance of alternative and flexible workspaces. The design tackled a challenging task — working with a historical monument's intricacies and structural limits while simultaneously preserving the protected façade and showcasing the transformation for experiential value.
“With a progressive idea of what monument protection means, Michelle designed an infrastructure in the middle of Wismar’s Old Town, which is suitable to revitalize the city and capable of giving the monument a contemporary purpose,” said the University of Wismar Dean of the Faculty of Design Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Oliver Hantke. “Her concept of multi-layered use picks up on current trends in the construction industry, including sustainability and efficiency strategy, utilizing historical buildings, revitalizing small-town structures, new forms of working environments, and providing communication structures to strengthen social cohesion.”
Click the button below, and follow the steps for a chance to win up to $10,000 USD:
And if you know of a student who could benefit from applying to our scholarship, be sure to share this blog with them!
