The World Architecture Festival has announced winners for the Architecture Drawing Prize, the prize is co-curated by Make Architects, Sir John Soane’s Museum. Currently in its 7th year, The Architecture Drawing Prize celebrates the art of drawing in three categories: hand-drawn, digital and hybrid. 

The prize has attracted a record number of entries with nearly 250 drawings from around the world. As in previous years, the majority of these are in the hand-drawn category. 

The winning drawings will be displayed at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore from 29 November – 1 December 2023. In addition, winning drawings and shortlisted drawings will be exhibited at the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London from 31 January to 3 March 2024.

The Overall Winner of The Architecture Drawing Prize will be announced ahead of the exhibition as part of a webinar hosted by Sir John Soane’s Museum on 29 January 2024 at 5pm GMT. Details will be available via the Soane website.

The jury praised winning drawings for the sophistication of new technologies used by entrants and new ways of depicting buildings and spaces led to probing discussions amongst the jury about the nature and definition of architectural drawing. There was also welcome debate about what constitutes conceptual drawing as opposed to illustration or the recording of buildings, according to WAF. 

Sponsored by Iris Ceramica Group, Federica Minozzi, CEO of Iris Ceramica Group and Prize Judge said that "we are really honoured to sponsor the Award. The Architecture Drawing Prize is a brilliant opportunity to demonstrate the genius of people and the desire to experiment. Hence the importance of it: it assumes a prominent role in reflecting architectural creativity."

World Architecture Community is official media partner of World Architecture Festival and INSIDE 2023 and we will be bringing you the latest news about the festivals' speaker line-up and sessions. 

WAC readers can receive an exclusive 20% discount over delegate passes for WAF and INSIDE by entering this promo code online: WAC2320. Start your registrations on WAF's website.

Read on more about winning drawings and shortlisted entries:

Hand-drawn Category Winner Grundtvig_III_by Ben Johnson. Image courtesy of Architecture Drawing Prize

Hand-Drawn Category

Ben Johnson's hand-drawn drawing, Grundtvig, was selected as the 2023 winner in the hand-drawn category. The ink drawing is inspired by the 1920s Grundtvig Church in Copenhagen made using six million bricks.

"As a jury we are inspired by Ben Johnson’s work and the way he has created a compelling art form from hand-drawings of buildings. The execution of the Grundtvig Church drawing is so controlled and precise that it becomes a meaningful expression of how Ben experiences architecture," said Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make Architects who originally set up The Architecture Drawing Prize.

The hand-drawn category shortlist also included: The Glasgow School of Art Fire (triptych) by Alan Dunlop, Trees and rocks, the shapeshifter by Alexander Warncke, and St. Stephen Walbrook by Luka Pajovic. 

The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape on Pedra Branca. Image courtesy of Architecture Drawing Prize

Digital Category

Eugene Tan was selected as the 2023 digital category winner. His drawing, titled The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape on Pedra Branca, explores the vulnerability of our planet, more specifically in Singapore.

Artists Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, who have been on The Architecture Drawing Prize as judges since its inception in 2017, described the entry: "This beautiful, skilful, and complex drawing expands the usual range of representational possibilities offered by maps. Through this drawing, Pedra Branca, a tiny outlying island of the archipelago becomes a signifier for the limited land supply of Singapore, and its fragile ecology within the complex geo-political environment of the South China Sea."

The digital category shortlist also included: The Bucolic Palimpsest by Ziad Haddad, Transcultural Journey on the Orient Express by Chi Wai Vincent, and Gall-E: Interpolating Arts, Space and Display in the Age of AI by Tom Chan.

Hybrid Category Winner Remembering the See Monster by Eldry John Infante. Image courtesy of Architecture Drawing Prize

Hybrid Category

The 2023 hybrid category winner is "(Re)membering the See Monster" by Eldry John Infante. It renders the transformation of a defunct oil platform and welcomes discussions that go beyond a structure’s physicality.

Head of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum and Prize Judge, Louise Stewart, said: "We were impressed by this skilful and detailed drawing which has been digitally manipulated to create a very dynamic and varied composition. One of the drawing’s particular strengths is the way in which it uses a variety of visual languages, all of which convey information about how buildings work."

The hybrid category shortlist also included: Liverpool Capriccio 2200 C.E. by Tim Wheeler and The Urban Anthro-Scape: Above by Alexander Jeong.

The Architecture Drawing Prize judges for 2023 are:

• Nikki Bell and Ben Langlands, Artists
• Pablo Bronstein, Artist
• Paul Finch, Director of World Architecture Festival (Chair of Jury)
• Lily Jencks, Co-founder of Lily Jencks Studio, Jencks Squared
• Federica Minozzi, CEO of Iris Ceramica Group
• Narinder Sagoo, Senior Partner at Foster + Partners
• Ken Shuttleworth, Founder of Make Architects
• Louise Stewart, Head of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) announced its speaker line-up for its upcoming 2023 World Architecture Festival which will take place from 29 November to 1 December, 2023 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. 

The festival will welcome a stellar line-up of 75 speakers and presenters across two stages over the three-day event, including Safdie Architects Senior Partner/Director Charu Kokate, Atelier Ten Founder and Executive Chairman Patrick Bellew, Mario Cucinella Architects founder Mario Cucinella. Read more about WAF's 2023 speaker-line up here. 

Top image in the article: Left: ‘(Re)membering the See Monster’ by Eldry John Infante; Centre: The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape on Pedra Branca’ by Eugene Tan; Right: ‘Grundtvig’ by Ben Johnson.

> via Architecture Drawing Prize 

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