Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., a provider of intuitive, powerful and practical 2D/3D and Building Information Modeling (BIM) software solutions, announces the first recipients of the Vectorworks Design Scholarship. Fifteen students from eight countries will receive $3,000 USD to support their studies in any design major at the accredited college or university of their choice, and their schools will each get Vectorworks software licenses and training. In addition, University of Pennsylvania landscape architecture student Diego Bermudez was selected as having the top overall entry, so in addition to earning a Vectorworks Design Scholarship, Bermudez received the Richard Diehl Award and an additional $7,000 USD. The Vectorworks Design Scholarship program salutes students across disciplines such as architecture, landscape design, lighting design and interior design who are determined to solve today’s most challenging design problems. In its first year, nearly one thousand students from 56 countries submitted entries, which were evaluated by a talented and global panel of architects, landscape architects, professors, lighting designers and media professionals. These are the students judges recognized as the 2014 Vectorworks Design Scholarship recipients:

• Markus Bobik, TU München, Germany, who uses the environment to create a protective shell around the soft core of an Alpine chalet
• Enoch (Wes) Calkin, University of Cincinnati, USA, for re-telling Broadway’s “Carrie” as a more intimate and intelligent tragedy
• Chen Yin Feng, Chongqing University, China, who transformed abandoned industrial infrastructure into an educational center and public space
• Judyta Cichocka, Wrocław University of Technology, Poland, for coming to grips with the latest ideology of architectural iconism
• Paul Dembeck, Beuth Hochschule Berlin, Germany, for a stage design that discreetly combines light and video to maintain focus on the artist
• Marcel Hauert, Berner Fachhochschule, Switzerland, for a macrocosmic vision for an urban public space
• Andrea Linney, University of Toronto, Canada, whose expansion of existing path systems transforms a large, cross-site, open-space
• Shao Xing Yu, Southeast University, China, who uses an open space to find a balance between tourists and residents
• Michael Signorile, Stevens Institute Of Technology, USA, who uses glass in winter garden hydroponics for his project
• Tina Simon, TU Dresden, Germany, for larger-than-life renderings of ornately designed gardens in an urban, Baroque neighborhood
• Daniel Sweeting, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, who critiques the tourist experience in London
• Alexander Davey Thomson, K.U. Leuven, Saint-Lucas Campus, Belgium for his architectural visions of an ecology-based urban future
• Lisa Vromman, KASK School of Arts Gent, Belgium, who explored a façade that communicates with the environment and encourages residents to comingle
• Wu Xin Jing, Shanghai Theatre Academy, China, who abandons traditional concert effects for dramatic lighting

Richard Diehl Award Winner Bermudez took top honors among the Vectorworks Design Scholarship recipients and received the Richard Diehl Award because of his superb use of digital tools to demonstrate how reclaiming an area devastated by poor use fosters human interaction. His project, “Circasia: Engaging the Creeks,” redefines the relationship between the villages and creeks in Circasia, a rapidly growing coffee community in Colombia, by helping residents reconnect Circasia’s urban core to its agrarian landscape.
His landscape architecture interventions change lives, increase health, reinforce cultural assets and raise quality of life. “I have always been interested in providing new and better opportunities for people, working almost exclusively in social urbanism,” Bermudez says. “The scale doesn’t really matter; it can be a small vegetable garden providing food for a family or a whole new regional plan protecting people, water sources, forests, agricultural land and cultural assets.” “Diego’s design assumes responsibility for the site and addresses a real-world problem that occurs in many areas of the world where misused land is discarded until someone takes on the challenge of fixing it,” said Richard Diehl, chairman of the board of directors at Nemetschek Vectorworks and namesake of the Richard Diehl Design Award.
“I’m honored to be part of this program as we pay tribute to fantastic designs and scholarship winners’ potential to propel design, solve problems and renew culture. Students represent the next generation of creative potential, and Nemetschek Vectorworks is thrilled to help these students realize their career goals and make the world a better place.”
To see the winning projects and view the list of judges, visit www.vectorworks.net/scholarship. The 2015 Vectorworks Design Scholarship will begin accepting entries beginning on March 1, 2015. Students can sign up for email reminders at www.vectorworks.net/scholarship and are encouraged to follow @Vectorworks and #FundMyVision.