The World Architecture Festival has announced the Architecture Drawing Prize Category winners for 2021. The Architecture Drawing Prize is celebrating its fifth year and continues to attract outstanding entries from around the world. 

This year has been exceptional in the number and strength of student submissions the Prize has attracted across its three categories for entry: hand-drawn, hybrid and digital. In fact, the winning drawings for all three categories are by students.

The Winner of the Hand-Drawn category is ‘Reconfiguring Addis Ababa's Narratives’ by Antonio Paoletti.

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Reconfiguring Addis Ababa's Narratives’ by Antonio Paoletti, courtesy of WAF.

It depicts a graphic novel exploring a proposal for the redevelopment of Addis Ababa’s dilapidated historical districts, where the livelihoods of resident communities are threatened by the city’s rapid urbanisation. 

The Sir John Soane’s Museum’s Exhibitions Curator and Architecture Drawing Prize judge, Louise Stewart, describes the work, "This impressive drawing uses an unusual format to place narrative and the impact of buildings on peoples’ lives at the heart of architectural drawing.  This approach highlights the vibrancy of architectural drawing today, and the way it facilitates creativity and experimentation."

This year there are two joint Winners in the Hybrid category that highlight originality and flair in combining different drawing techniques.  The judges were equally impressed by "Fluid Strata" by Filippa Dafni and "(Un)homeliness" by Boji Hu.

Fluid Strata by Filippa Dafni. Image courtesy of WAF

"Fluid Strata" is a drawing responding to the climate emergency in Central London by proposing the activation of the “Deep Ground” as a responsive flood-defence landscape.

"As a jury we were all impressed by Fluid Strata and the way it blurs the lines between physical objects and drawing with great skill and imagination, making it a truly exceptional example of a hybrid rendering," said Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make Architects and judge.

Boji Hu’s ‘(Un)homeliness’ includes a hand-drawn short film together with a set of images. The two-part work explores the boundaries of private and public spheres by fulfilling the potential of the vacant urban interior to shield homeless people, refugee, and asylum seekers. 

"(Un)homeliness" by Boji Hu. Image courtesy of WAF

Fellow judge and architect Lily Jencks, Co-founder of Lily Jencks Studio/ Jencks Squared, says of the joint hybrid category winner "(Un)homeliness’ is a powerful story told with a moody suggestive pencil gesture. It was exciting to see the stills animated with sound to convey a strong atmospheric urban scene, accompanied by beautiful renders to give a sense of a full potential of hybrid architectural drawings."

The Digital category Winner is ‘Site(s) of Flux’ by Zachary Higson.

"Site(s) of Flux" is a location-based project investigating the nature of place. It begins to question how a traditional architectural project should be carried out in terms of the relationships between studio (bedroom) and site.

Narinder Sagoo, Senior Partner at Foster + Partners and one of the Prize judges, explained why it was selected as the Winner in the digital category, "Our digital prize winner ‘Sites(s) of Flux’ creates a Soane-like montage of models, photos and paintings within a two-dimensional picture plane. A drawing within a drawing, and more. One could explore this piece time and time again, discovering another level of genius each time."

"Site(s) of Flux" was also selected for The Lockdown Prize, established during the pandemic, and is awarded to one of the finalists in the hand-drawn, hybrid and digital categories.

"This drawing was generated in the potentially claustrophobic context of home isolation during the pandemic. The depth of constructive engagement with the immediately available, and the work that resulted, make ‘Site(s) of Flux’ a worthy winner of this year’s Lockdown Prize," said World Architecture Festival Director, Paul Finch, who chaired the judging panel notes.

'Site(s) of Flux’ by Zachary Higson. Image courtesy of WAF

The winning and finalists’ drawings will be exhibited at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London (19/01/22-19/02/22), where the overall winner will be announced on January 25th.

The winning and finalists’ drawings also form part of The Architecture Drawing Prize: 5 Year Retrospective, curated by Sir John Soane’s Museum and hosted in a virtual gallery designed by Make Architects. You can visit the exhibition here.

The Architecture Drawing Prize judges for 2021 are:

• Robin Brodie Cooper, Equity Partner, Gleeds
• Lily Jencks, Co-founder of LilyJencksStudio and JencksSquared
• Narinder Sagoo, Senior Partner at Foster + Partners
• Ken Shuttleworth, Founder of Make Architects
• Louise Stewart, Curator of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum
• Pablo Bronstein, Artist

The jury was chaired by Paul Finch, Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival. The Architecture Drawing Prize is co-curated by Make Architects, Sir John Soane’s Museum, and World Architecture Festival.

> via WAF