arquia / thesis

The aim of Arquia Foundation is to promote and encourage cultural activities in the field of Architecture. Among these activities is the arquia/thesis collection, aimed at publishing doctoral theses on Architecture that contribute to architectural knowledge, once they have been reviewed and adapted by their respective authors. The arquia/thesis collection thus aims to make valuable material available to the public interested in studying architecture, which would otherwise be difficult to access.

Arquia Foundation organises a biennial contest aimed at selecting unpublished doctoral theses with the intention of increasing the number of works part of this collection.

Those Spanish architects who have defended their doctoral thesis in any school or faculty of Architecture in the world, as well as those foreign architects whose doctoral thesis has been defended in any Spanish school of architecture, can participate in the contest.

In the first stage of the contest, contestants must submit the abstract of the thesis, and a dossier of at least twenty pages written in Spanish containing: the thesis index, a summary of the thesis, and a brief explanation of the reworking processes the author considers necessary to adapt the thesis to the editorial line of Arquia Foundation's arquia/thesis collection.

The jury will be composed of:
Xavier Monteys Roig (President): Architectural Projects Professor at Barcelona's Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura.
Luís Martínez Santa–María: Architectural Projects Professor at Madrid's Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura.
María Melgarejo Belenguer: Projects Professor at Valencia's Escuela de Arte y Diseño.
Carlos Gómez Agustí: Trustee and Arquia Foundation representative.

The director of the arquia/thesis collection, Carlos Martí Arís, Projects Professor at Barcelona's Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectos, will act as secretary, as a speaker but with no voting powers.

The deadline for submitting the requested documentation begins on 11 April 2013 and ends on 12 June 2013.

Each member of the jury will select a maximum of five works from the dossiers submitted to move to the final stage of the contest.

In the first week of September 2013, the contestants will be asked to submit a copy of their thesis.

During the first week of December, the jury will meet to make a decision on the contest. This decision will be made public in the second half of December 2013.

The jury may give out two awards and four mentions in total. The awards consist of an edited version of the theses by Arquia Foundation.

This edition will follow the rework to be carried out by the author of the thesis to comply with the editorial criteria of Arquia Foundation.

The theses awarded with a 'mention' will have priority over other works in Arquia Foundation's editorial plans.

The contest may be declared void. The final decision, which is final, will be communicated to the participants by e-mail.

Thesis Contest's sign-up and registration process for new users of the Platform:

• If you are not a registered user of the Foundation's Platform yet, you must register to participate in the Thesis contest by clicking on the link '>Registration for the IX biennial contest'. or by clicking on the  >'Register' button at the bottom left of the menu.
• An e-mail is sent out as soon as the request for registration is received, which is manually validated by the Foundation. Then, a second e-mail confirming your participation in the contest.
• From that moment on, you will have access to your private area by logging in to the platform and entering the username (e-mail) and password that you previously provided during registration.
• From the private area, you must automatically submit the thesis you chose for the contest.

Thesis Contest's sign-up and registration process for users of the Platform who did not participate in the 2011 Thesis Contest:

• If you are already registered on the platform, but have not participated in the 2011 Thesis Contest, you must log in to the platform by entering your username (e-mail) and password.
• You must then register for the 2013 Thesis contest by clicking on the link 'Register in the arquia/thesis contest'.
• An e-mail is sent out as soon as the request for registration is received, which is manually validated by the Foundation. Then, a second e-mail confirming your participation in the contest.
• From that moment on, you will have access to your private area by logging in to the platform and entering the username (e-mail) and password that you previously provided during registration.
• From the private area, you must automatically submit the thesis you chose for the contest.

Registration process for users who have already participated in the 2011 Thesis contest

• Access your private area by entering the username (e-mail) and password previously provided during registration and click on 'Participate in the 2013 contest'

The ninth edition of the Foundation's biennial contest for Doctoral Theses on Architecture was made possible thanks to funding from the Arquia Architects Credit Union' Education and Promotion Fund.

Arquia Foundation
April 2013