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Students from Finland and New Zealand share 1997 DuPont Benedictus Student Prize

A record 1,600 students from 130 schools in 20 countries entered the 1997 DuPont Student Benedictus Awards

The first price this year was shared by Ari Bungers of Tampere University of Technology, Finland and James Mackenzie of Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.

This year's Student Benedictus had challenged students to design an embassy for their country in either Washington, D.C. or a specific site of their choosing, addressing issues of public safety in the face of natural and man-made disasters such as terrorism.

Ari Bungers' "Embassy of Finland to Canberra, Australia" consists of surfaces which are carried out in different ways and are made of different materials. The basic material of the façade is laminated glass which can be dimmed electronically, like a huge adjustable screen. It forms a kind of curtain between the outside and inside space, protecting privacy while creating a mystical transparency and luminosity. This transforming façade forms a kind of 'path' through the building leading through four different areas housing offices, internal courtyards and an apartment.

The 1997 Benedictus Judges said, "Spatially, this project could be quite rich … The courtyard scheme is very classical. It has a nice relationship to the landscape."

"This is America"

"This is America – The island in a storm – an American embassy" by James MacKenzie of Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand

The project from James Mackenzie of Victoria University of Wellington, Schools of Architecture and Design, New Zealand consists of a design for a US Embassy in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

In Mackenzie's words, "This is America – The island in a storm – an American embassy. The embassy is conceived as an island in the harbor, a piece of land flung far from its country of origin." It is sited between two wharves of waterfront. A pathway connects the Parliament buildings (seat of government) to the floating platform beneath the embassy.

The embassy contains a box of American soil, symbolically enshrined in a protective vessel crafted of laminated glass, bound with brass and suspended in a void at the center of the building, to be viewed from the gallery space below and the office and function spaces above.

The judges said: "This is very light and delicate; it has a sense of humor about it. It has a very formal approach. Although it is very exposed, much of the site is surrounded by water, which acts as a security measure."

The student challenges are selected to encourage students to explore the various uses and applications of laminated glass as a building material and the judging criteria include the successful creative use of laminated glass in the design solution.