The World Architecture Festival has announced the Overall Winner for the 2022 Architecture Drawing Prize with Prize co-curators Make Architects and Sir John Soane’s Museum.

The winner is a hybrid drawing entitled “Fitzroy Food Institute” by Samuel Wen and Michael Ren, combining different rendering techniques.

The winners describe their joint entry as a project about a dumpling institute that deviates from a traditional orientalist attitude towards Chinese culture, while also examining ideas of globalisation and automation.

Samuel Wen, a Bachelor of Design and Master of Architecture graduate from the University of Melbourne as well as a student architect at Cox Architecture says: "We feel honoured and beyond grateful that our work has received such recognition. Being able to convey such ideas and a captivating narrative through drawing had been the aim from the beginning. This project meant a lot to us because the broader intention of the drawing was to use architecture to challenge traditional oriental stereotypes about our Chinese heritage."

Image © Gareth Gardner

On their collaborative approach, Michael Ren, a designer/educator and currently a Master of Architecture student at UC Berkeley CED adds: "Collaboration under a remote academic setting proved to be a challenge. However, we were able to work through this project by identifying individual strengths and weaknesses. For example, Samuel has always been passionate about hand-drawn illustrations whereas I have an aptitude for digital renderings. Incorporating both methods of representation acknowledge a post-digital era in architectural visualisation."

The Architecture Drawing Prize is an annual event receiving entries in three categories: hand-drawn, hybrid and digital. Each year there are three category winners from which the judges select the overall winner. “Fitzroy Food Institute” was selected as the Hybrid Category winner as an example of a highly skilled, rich composite drawing using different media and consisting of a plan, two sections, two elevations, four views, six diagrams, one detail and two call-outs. These are imaginatively arranged in a top-down view of a typically Chinese roundtable dining experience.

Image © Gareth Gardner

Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make Architects and Prize judge, commented on the jury’s decision to choose Samuel Wen’s and Michael Ren’s entry as the overall winner of The Architecture Drawing Prize: "Fitzroy Food Institute stands out for its well-considered and subtle use of colour. It’s a very accessible drawing looking over a shared meal at a table; yet it is full of architectural interest featuring not only a plan, but sections and elevations as well as detail. A conceptually original and genuinely delightful entry.”

The Architecture Drawing Prize Exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum has opened to the public on 8 February and will be on view until 7 May 2023 at Sir John Soane’s Museum. 

Image © Gareth Gardner

Sir John Soane’s Museum is hosting a dedicated exhibition of The Architecture Drawing Prize. The exhibition features the winning and commended drawings from the 2022 entries, celebrating the communication of ideas or design concepts through drawings that can be either purely conceptual or relate to a project intended to be built.

This year, The Architecture Drawing Prize exhibition demonstrates an increased interest in social and environmental topics as well as a belief in using architectural drawing to freely explore ideas and speculate imaginatively. The range of approaches to drawing includes everything from the representational and sublime to the highly abstract to plays on traditional draughtsmanship.

Image © Gareth Gardner

The curatorial team from Sir John Soane’s Museum together with Make Architects have also created a virtual retrospective of The Architecture Drawing Prize that will be screened at the Museum’s Foyle Space.

The 2022 edition of the Prize and the exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum has been realised with the support of the Italian brand Iris Ceramica Group: one of the world leaders in the production of high-end ceramic surfaces.

World Architecture Community was the official media partner of World Architecture Festival 2022.

Top image: Overall and Hybrid Winner, "Fitzroy Food Institute" by Samuel Wen and Michael Ren, University of Melbourne. Image © Samuel Wen and Michael Ren, University of Melbourne.

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