The RSA Student Design Awards STUDENT ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION

The RSA Student Design Awards

BRIEF

The RSA Student Design Awards is a global curriculum and annual competition for higher education students and recent graduates run by the RSA. Each year the Awards challenge emerging designers to tackle a range of design briefs focused on pressing social, environmental and economic issues.

We work closely with industry partners to develop the briefs, we help colleges and universities embed them in their curricula, and we support participants through workshops and mentoring. Winners are rewarded with cash prizes, paid industry placements, complementary RSA Fellowships and a range of other benefits to kick-start their careers. The competition has helped identify solutions and talent that have had a huge impact in the world.

The competition is open to currently enrolled students and new graduates from anywhere in the world.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students from any higher education institution, college or university are eligible to enter.
New graduates can enter within a year of graduating – anyone who has graduated in or after March 2018 is eligible.
Entries are accepted from both individuals and teams. Teams can comprise of students from different courses and universities, and there is no set number of people that can be part of a team – but generally team entries comprise two or three people.
We accept entries that have been developed as college/university coursework, and we also accept projects that have been developed independently (outside of coursework) as long as the entrant meets eligibility criterion 1 or 2 above.
Entries must respond to one of the 2018/19 RSA briefs and must be the original work of the entrants.
Entrants may only enter one brief, but may submit more than one response per brief. Each response is considered to be a separate entry and will require completion of a separate submission form and payment of the relevant fee.
Candidates who are contracted to work for a company after graduation may not be eligible for some Industry Placement Awards

SCHEDULE

Aug 2018 – Briefs launch + register your interest online

Mon 14 Jan 2019 – Competition opens for submissions via www.thersa.org/sda

Wed 13 Feb 2019, 4 pm GMT – Deadline for ‘early bird’ submissions at reduced entry fee of £25

Wed 13 Mar 2019, 4 pm GMT – Final deadline for online registration + submissions (£35 entry fee)

20 Mar 2019 – Judging begins (2 stages: anonymous shortlisting + interviews with finalists)

May 2019 – Winners announced

Jun 2019 – Awards ceremony

AWARDS

One of the purposes of the RSA Student Design Awards is to offer practical and financial support to young designers starting out on their careers.

What awards do you get?

The award for the winning submission/s varies from brief to brief, depending on what sponsorship is available. Some briefs carry cash awards, while others carry a mixture of cash awards and paid industry placement awards. These are distributed at the jury’s discretion.

All winners are invited to the Awards Ceremony at the RSA – which includes a keynote talk by a high profile figure, the presentation of the awards and a drinks reception with networking.

All winners also receive a year’s complementary RSA Fellowship, which means they can access the RSA’s networks and resources.

FEES

There is an entry fee for submitting work to the RSA Student Design Awards. This fee is charged per entry, so it does not cost more to enter as a team. Entry fees should be paid online through our submissions form, via PayPal, credit or debit card.

Early Bird Rate – for entrants submitting their work before or on 13 February 2019, the entry fee is charged at the reduced early bird rate of £25 per entry.
Standard Rate – after 13 February 2019 and until the final submission deadline on 13 March 2019, the entry fee is £35.
Voucher Codes – universities have the option pay for students’ entries. In order to do this, tutors should visit the ‘Tutors’ page on our website and complete the web form to request a voucher code. It is the responsibility of the tutor to distribute the voucher code to students, which they should then enter at the payment point when completing the online submission form.

The RSA is under no obligation to refund payments except under the circumstance of technical error where refunds will be made at the RSA’s discretion.

JURY

Judges view all the entries submitted for a brief and agree a shortlist to interview.

Entries with a majority of votes are laid out for discussion by the whole jury until the shortlist is agreed.
The shortlist is usually 6-8 entries, but can be as many as 10 or as few as 5.
The RSA team contacts all competition entrants to let them know whether or not they have been shortlisted.

The RSA Student Design Awards STUDENT ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION