University of Pennsylvania Student Takes Top Honors as Richard Diehl Award Recipient

Columbia, Md. (September 9, 2014)—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. 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 also 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 in “Schutzhütte Hochwildehaus”
• 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, whose project, “Air Rescue: Converting Pollution into Clean Air,” 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 in “Human Tower”
• Paul Dembeck, Beuth Hochschule Berlin, Germany, for “Tour Setup,” a stage design that discreetly combines light and video to maintain focus on the artist
• Marcel Hauert, Berner Fachhochschule, Switzerland, who presents a macrocosmic vision for an urban public space in “Reihenhaus in Biel”
• Andrea Linney, University of Toronto, Canada, whose expansion of existing path systems transforms a large, cross-site, open-space in “Dufferin Redux”
• Shao Xing Yu, Southeast University, China, who uses an open space to find a balance between tourists and residents in “Chinese Rural Intervillage”
• Michael Signorile, Stevens Institute Of Technology, USA, who uses glass in winter garden hydroponics for his project, “Pixelized Atmospheres: Prague Grand Hotel”
• Tina Simon, TU Dresden, Germany, whose larger-than-life renderings of ornately designed gardens in an urban, Baroque neighborhood appear in “Innere Neustadt Dresden”
• Daniel Sweeting, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, whose design “River Thames Tourist Activity” 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 in “Building Aquaponics as an Urban Health Injection”
• Lisa Vromman, KASK School of Arts Gent, Belgium, who explored a façade that communicates with the environment and encourages residents to comingle in “Co-housing for Single Earners”
• Wu Xin Jing, Shanghai Theatre Academy, China, who abandons traditional concert effects for dramatic lighting in “A Memory of Two Mondays”

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.

About Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc.

Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. is the developer of Vectorworks software, a line of industry-specific CAD and BIM solutions that allow designers to easily capture, develop and communicate their ideas with accuracy and efficiency. With more than half a million users around the world, Vectorworks software is a global leader in 3D design technologies for the AEC, landscape, and entertainment industries. Nemetschek Vectorworks was founded in 1985 and has been a part of The Nemetschek Group since its acquisition in 2000. For more information, visit www.vectorworks.net.