The World Architecture Festival (WAF), with co-curators Make Architects and the Sir John Soane’s Museum, has announced the winners of the 2018 Architecture Drawing Prize. The prize, which is awarded at the annual World Architecture Festival, held this year in Amsterdam, "embraces the creative use of digital tools and digitally produced renderings, while recognising the enduring importance of hand drawing."

This year, Li Han, one of the founding partners of Drawing Architecture Studio in Beijing, has won the second annual Architecture Drawing Prize with his work entitled "The Samsara of Building No. 42 on Dirty Street".

Han's project comprises a chronological visual narrative of the development of a residential building in Beijing, China between 2008 and 2017. It shows how the building was transformed from regular apartments into an apparently spontaneous urban group with commercial venues in the former apartments; how these buildings were then demolished by the government in order to clean up ‘first-floor-homes-turned-into-businesses’; and how the building was subsequently restored to purely residential use. It uses drawing to examine the relationship between civil society and the state in urban development.

"This drawing challenges preconceptions of digital presentation.  It tells hundreds of stories over nine years in which architecture, cities and people's lives change. It's important for all architects to consider the life of buildings over the course of time," said Narinder Sagoo, senior partner at Foster + Partners and one of the judges of the 2018 Architecture Drawing Prize. 

"The drawing captures the energy of a project. You can feel the speed of the city and hear the noise. It's a modern day Archigram drawing but also a step into the future, which is why it's an overall winner," Sagoo added.

WAF received a total of 17 entrants which were shortlisted in the three categories: hand-drawing, hybrid, and digital still image. The shortlisted submissions came from a total of 10 countries. The overall winner was chosen from the winners of the individual categories. Li Han, the overall winner, also won the digital category. 

The other two category winners are Lukas Göbl of Austrian practice göbl architektur ZT GmbH in the hybrid category for "City of Beautiful Bodies" and Carlijn Kingma of Studio Carlijn Kingma in the hand-drawn category for "The Babylonian Tower of Modernity".

Farshid Moussavi, founder of Farshid Moussavi Architecture and a judge of the 2018 Architecture Drawing Prize, said, "the power of intuition is here. It's an example of hand drawing not as a final product but as a successful design and thinking tool.  It's about drawing as process not outcome."

The winners and shortlist will be on display at a dedicated exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum in London from 17 October – 18 November. At WAF, in November, the winners will be exhibited on the drawing prize stand and the shortlist viewed via an interactive video screen.  

Each of the category winners will present their work on the Festival Hall stage on Wednesday 28 November and will be awarded their certificates at a special reception on Thursday 29 November. The overall winner will be presented with their trophy at the Gala Dinner on Friday 30 November. 

The Architecture Drawing Prize judges for 2018 are: Owen Hopkins, senior curator of exhibitions and education at Sir John Soane’s Museum; Nicola Kalinsky, director of The Barber Institute of Fine Arts; artists Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell of Langlands & Bell; Jeremy Melvin, curator of the World Architecture Festival; Farshid Moussavi, founder of Farshid Moussavi Architecture; Narinder Sagoo, senior partner at Foster + Partners; and, Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make Architects.

WAF will be held at RAI Amsterdam between November 28-30, 2018, with a compelling speaker line up including Rem Koolhaas, Jeanne Gang, Francine Houben, Li Xiadong, Anni Sinnemäki, Professor Sir Peter Cook, Marieke van Doorninck and Sir David Adjaye.

See the winning projects for the 2018 Architecture Drawing Prize:

Overall Winner + Category Winner: The Samsara of Building No.42 on Dirty Street by Li Han/Drawing Architecture Studio

Hybrid Category

Winner: City of beautiful bodies by Lukas Göbl/göbl architektur ZT GmbH

Lukas Göbl’s drawing is part of an ongoing drawing project dedicated to the idea of utopia and its role in today’s society. Following Paul Klee’s motto, ‘Not a day without a line’, it treats utopia as a process as much as a destination. 

Highly Commended: 6 Moments: Meaning through Repetition by Vincent Perron/ University of British Columbia

Highly commended: American Dream or American Nightmare - 2050 by Yue Ma/Cornell University

Digital Category

Winner: The Samsara of Building No.42 on Dirty Street by Li Han/Drawing Architecture Studio

High Commended: The tower and the landscape by Juan Alberto Arjona Belmonte/ Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM)

Highly Commended: Perceivable Future by Daisy Ames/Studio Ames

Hand Drawn Category

Winner: The Babylonian Tower of Modernity by Carlijn Kingma/Delft University of Technology

Carlijn Kingma’s drawing recasts the story of the Tower of Babel in the light of the modern religion of capitalism. It addresses the idea that social media and the new tools of digital communication are leading to an ever more polarized society and public sphere, at odds with the technological dream of progress.

Highly Commended: Embassy Nation by Sarmad Suhail/ MICA Architects / Bartlett School of Architecture

World Architecture Community is an official Media Partner for the event and will be bringing you the hottest topics, key discussions and keynote sessions from the three-day event.

World Architecture Community, in collaboration with WAF, offers to its Professional Members 10% discounted tickets over regular festival prices during registration! All you have to do is to upgrade your World Architecture Community membership to Professional here or visit your WAC Settings page and send us ([email protected]) an email to get your promo code for your WAF registration!

All images courtesy of WAF

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