Imaginary worlds made “virtually” real in Graphisoft Prize Competition

Seventh annual international design competition features special millennium section

Budapest – February 24, 2000 – Graphisoft®, developer of Archicad and the revolutionary Virtual Building concept of 3D architectural design, is calling for entries to its annual Graphisoft Prize international design competition.

Since 1993, the Graphisoft Prize has liberated architectural students and professionals from the realm of the real and the possible, and invited them to delve into the unbridled imaginations of some of our collective culture’s greatest minds. Each year, a list of themes is drawn from literature, film, poetry, mythology, music and fine art to fascinate and inspire competitors from all parts of the globe.

The themes for the 2000 GRAPHISOFT PRIZE include:

• Atlantis, the Sunken Island
• The City from Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi novel The Illustrated Man
• The Cotton Club from Francis Ford Coppola’s film of the same name
• Hilde’s Dream Castle from Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder
• The Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s novel 1984
• The Roadside Inn from Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote
• Sarastro’s Castle and Temple from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute
• The Sanatorium from Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain
• Shangrila from the song by Billy Idol
• The School from Pink Floyd’s album The Wall
• Ursula’s New House from Gabriel García Márquez’ novel One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Walled City from William Gibson’s novel IdoruThis year’s competition also includes a special millennium section, offering entrants the chance to design a modern-day version of a pharaoh’s pyramid or L’Arc de Triomphe, or submit their student work for consideration as the “Student Project of the Millennium.”

  The 1999 Graphisoft Prize competition drew a record number of registrations. Among the winning entrants were architecture instructor Peter Bach from the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary, who visualized the futuristic “cyberpunk” Cheap Hotel from William Gibson’s novel “Neuromancer.” The student team of Erin Colgrave and Alex Phegan from the University of Tasmania, Australia, portrayed the eerie underground landscape of Midnight Oil’s Blue Sky Mine.

  Through Graphisoft Prize, Graphisoft continues to explore and promote the concept of the Virtual Building in architectural design and practice. Graphisoft’s Virtual Building embodies the integration of building data, powerful visualization and communication tools, access to building information at all times, and the ability to use intelligent building products (objects) provided directly by manufacturers.

  The 2000 Graphisoft Prize competition is free and open to students and professionals of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planing, or an allied discipline from any country. Competitors must register at www.gsprize.com. Individuals or teams of up to three students or professionals may enter. A jury of renowned experts in the architectural field will meet in December to judge the qualifying entries and award prizes.

  Submission requirements include a complete Archicad archive file, at least five rendered scenes using virtual reality (VR), a keyplan showing VR nodes, plans, elevations, sections suitable to convey design intent, and additional computer animation and still renderings. The competition makes extensive use of the Internet and the best entries will be presented on the Graphisoft Prize website. Archicad pioneered the use of virtual reality for architecture in 1995 and has continued to develop and enhance its VR capabilities.

  Complete details of the program will be available on the Graphisoft Prize website, www.gsprize.com, as of March 1, 2000. Entries will be due at one of Graphisoft’s offices (Budapest, San Francisco, Munich, Tokyo, London, Madrid, Sao Paulo and Santiago de Chile) on October 31, 2000. An ftp site will also be set up where competitors can upload their entries.

  Prizes to be awarded in this year’s competition are:

• One First Prize of $5000 cash and $2,500 coupon for Archicad or any Graphisoft product, promotion in Graphisoft’s advertising in a major international architectural magazine, and inclusion on the Graphisoft Prize CD of winning entries, with 50,000 copies distributed worldwide;
• One Second Prize of $2,000 cash and $1,000 coupon for Archicad or any Graphisoft product, and inclusion on the Graphisoft Prize CD; and
• One Third Prize of $1000 cash and $500 coupon for Archicad or any Graphisoft product, and inclusion on the Graphisoft Prize CD of winning entries.Entries that receive an Honorable Mention will also be included on the Graphisoft Prize CD. A special prize of a traveling fellowship for two, $1,000 cash and Archicad software will be awarded for the “Student Project of the Millennium.”

  Graphisoft anticipates publishing winning entries on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web.

  Graphisoft is a leading provider of computer-aided design (CAD) software
  solutions for the architectural profession and the building industry.
  Founded in 1982, Graphisoft is ranked today among the largest AEC CAD
  software developers in the world, with 12 offices all over the world in
  addition to its headquarters. Graphisoft’s flagship product, Archicad, is
  used by more than 75,000 architects worldwide and distributed in 25
  languages and 80 countries. Shares of Graphisoft are traded on the Frankfurt
  Stock Exchange Neuer Markt under the symbol GPH. More information about
  Graphisoft is available at www.graphisoft.com.