The World Architecture Festival has announced the winners of the Architecture Drawing Prize 2020. Entries were chosen in the Digital, Hand-drawn and Hybrid categories. The contest included 165 entries from 30 countries, and the 2020 competition also introduced the ‘Lockdown Prize’ focusing on the global pandemic, awarded to a drawing related to the architectural changes brought by the coronavirus.
WAF is the world’s largest annual, international, live architectural event. It includes the biggest international architectural awards program in the world. Curated by WAF, Sir John Soane’s Museum and Make Architects, this prize embraces the creative use of digital tools and digitally produced renderings, while recognizing the enduring importance of hand drawing.
Overall Winner, Hybrid / Apartment #5
The overall winner of the fourth annual Architecture Drawing Prize is Apartment #5, a Labyrinth and Repository of Spatial Memories by Clement Laurencio, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. The drawing was also winner of the Hybrid Category. The dwelling, set in London, re-creates atmospheres of places remembered from a recent voyage to India. Separate pencil hand-drawings are digitally composed, corrupting and curating places into a labyrinth of spatial memories.
Commenting on the overall winner, artists Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, judges of the prize said: “This drawing creates a labyrinth of drawings, each with its own story. Familiarity and mystery are conveyed with a sensitive, confident technique of great skill and precision. There is nothing loud or colorful, only a realm of acutely observed detail with a powerful muted presence. You can really imagine being here.”
Hand-Drawn / Dear Hashima
The winner of the Hand-drawn Category is Dear Hashima by architect/artist Marc Brousse. The drawing, one of a series, is intended to re-question the position of man within the city, based on the ideas of the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. Ink/charcoal, invisible ink, using Traitillism as a method, whereby the line symbolizes life, space, thought and memory.
Commenting on the drawing, judge Louise Stewart, Curator of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, said: “All the judges were very impressed by the incredibly individual drawing technique used here, which is technically impressive and visually highly effective.”
Digital / Re-Reading Metropolis
The winner of the Digital Category is Re-Reading Metropolis by Chenglin Able, University of California, Berkeley. The project adopts a 'frame within frame' quality to create tension between isolation and unity, between quiet residential and bright urban lives, and between infill and pavilion knitted to the frame of the surrounding context. The project is actively engaging new interpretations of iconic historical buildings and redefining the typology of a water temple.
Commenting on the drawing, judge Lily Jencks and Co-founder of LilyJencksStudio/ JencksSquared said: “Layering drawing types- maps, plans, infrastructural systems and data entry, Re-Reading Metropolis suggests a fresh way to map an urban territory, both playful and precise.”
Lockdown Prize / Airplane Tower
This year also saw the introduction of a special prize focused on the global lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ‘Lockdown Prize’ was awarded to Airplane Tower by Victor Hugo Azevedo and Cheryl Lu Xu, Robert A. M. Stern Architects. Ken Shuttleworth, Founder of Make Architects and one of the prize judges commented: “We were captivated by the Airplane Tower drawing’s immediacy, wit and use of multiple perspectives while addressing serious questions around the pandemic, interlinking the environment and reuse agenda with the housing crisis and the many challenges faced by the travel industry.”
The winners will be exhibited at WAF 2021 in Lisbon on the drawing prize stand and the commended drawings viewed via an interactive video screen. Each of the category winners will present their work on the Festival Hall stage. The overall winner will be presented with their trophy on the final day of the festival.
News via World Architecture Festival
