A Dozen Prize-Worthy Drawings

John Hill
10. November 2020
Detail of "Here Everywhere: Orchard" by Hans Villamayor (All images courtesy of WAF)

Normally the winners of the annual Architecture Drawing Prize would be announced in November, leading up to the three days of WAF. But given COVID-19 and the delay of the in-person WAF from December 2020 to June 2021 (WAFVirtual will take place starting November 30), we're just now learning about the shortlisted drawings. 

As in previous years, the drawings are found in three categories: Digital, Hand-Drawn, and Hybrid. One winner in each category will be determined by the judges*, as will a special Lockdown Prize winner (re: "drawings relating to the theme of lockdown due to the current global pandemic") and an overall winner culled from those categories. The winners will be exhibited at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London early next year.

WAF's Paul Finch said of the shortlist: "Entries were up this year (39 extra), despite (or possibly because of) Covid-19 and lockdowns. The quality of entries was if anything higher than recent years and an encouraging sign of the ongoing interest in architectural drawing in various media. Judging was very encouraging, and we look forward to the exhibition of the shortlist at the Soane Museum in the New Year – and the announcement of the Lockdown Prize winner, category winners and the overall winner."

The shortlisted drawings are below, by category, with the judges listed at bottom. Visit the Architectural Drawing Prize website to see larger versions of the shortlisted drawings.

Digital Category

"The Theatre of Fictions" by Shahar Cohen and Jerram Rosen under Amaia Sanchez-Velasco for Hyperecologies III, University of Technology, Sydney
"Here Everywhere: Orchard" by Hans Villamayor
"Re-Reading Metropolis" by Chenglin Able, University of California, Berkeley
"Fetching a Bucket of Steam" by Jack Ingham, Newcastle University
"Entombment of Fear / Nuclear free Japan (Perspective)" bySwee Yong, Formwerkz Architects

Hand-Drawn Category

"Polymorphous Spatical Monosodium Glutamate: by Matthew Poon, UCL Bartlett X-25
"Construction as Heritage: A Case for Discrete Industry" by Joshua Bristow, London Metropolitan University (Unit 8, MArch)
"Dear Hashima" by brousse marc, marc brousse

Hybrid Category

"Mechanical Theatre of Smash Palace" by Jono Yoo, The University of Auckland
"Airplane Tower" by Victor Hugo Azevedo and Cheryl Lu Xu, Robert A. M. Stern Architects
"Choate Colony Hall" by Jeff Stikeman, Robert A.M. Stern Architects
"Apartment #5, a Labyrinth and Repository of Spatial Memories" by Clement Laurencio, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
*The 2020 Judges

  • Pablo Bronstein, Artist
  • Paul Finch, Program Director, World Architecture Festival
  • Lily Jencks, Cofounder, LilyJencksStudio, JencksSquared
  • Ben Langlands & Nikki Bell, Artists, Langlands & Bell
  • Narinder Sagoo, Senior Partner, Foster + Partners
  • Ken Shuttleworth, Founder, Make Architects
  • Gary Simmons, Main Board Director, William Hare Group
  • Louise Stewart, Curator, Sir John Soane's Museum

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