Death by Architecture

By Joel Wallace

In a job market that remains a bit down, one way many architects and students are staying fresh and getting their names out there is in the world of competitions. Competitions raise great opportunity for creative freedom , as well as involvement in projects and problem solving we may not be lucky enough to become commissioned for.

For those not familiar with it, the creators of www.deathbyarchitecture.com have dedicated themselves to organizing such competions in both timeline and category. Competition levels include student only, international, professional, and regional to name a few. Below is a brief explanation of the creation and history of how it came about and how it remains a powerful tool in the search for new challenges and opportunity…

Death By Architecture (DBA) began in 1995 as the personal web page of Mario Cipresso, an undergraduate architecture student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. By 1997 Death By Architecture had become the preeminent site for architecture competition information on the internet. Joining with several other like-minded sites in Europe, DBA was a founding partner of the International Competition Network in 1998.

Enjoying a solid presence on the net since those early days, Death By Architecture needed to grow beyond just one individual to truly realize its potential, to serve its loyal users and to pursue a more meaningful goal. After securing an all too critical grant from the LEF Foundation in northern California, the Los Angeles based interactive media design firm of Garden Digital was approached to begin this first of two phases.

The forthcoming second phase intends to produce an unparalleled catalog of competition information and entries as well as expand Death By Architecture's content and feature set.

Considering sponsoring a design competition? Death By Architecture has over 12 years of experience with the participation, management and promotion of design competitions. We bring valuable and unique insight and resources to the competition process, ensuring your event is a success. For more information on how Death By Architecture can manage your organization's design competition, please contact Mario Cipresso mario@deathbyarchitecture.com.

Please note: Although we do make every effort to ensure our competition information is reasonably accurate and complete, it is the responsibility of the competitor to verify all conditions and requirements.