ABOUT DRAWING OF THE YEAR 2017

It is with great pleasure that Aarhus School of Architecture, schmidt / hammer / lassen architects, VOLA and the Danish Arts Foundation announce the fifth joint venture competition Drawing of the Year 2017. This year’s theme is Everyday Utopia.

The winners will be announced Friday 1 December at an award ceremony at Aarhus School of Architecture.

Everyday Utopia

In 1516 Thomas More used the word Utopia for the first time to describe a perfect society, and the word has since been synonymous with something positive yet unrealistic. Through the architect’s ability to dream and draw innovative solutions to challenges that are general and significant to all of us, the competition wishes to address and inspire solutions to these everyday challenges.

We invite bold, inspiring, provocative, and innovative proposals for new ways of perceiving everyday utopia. On all scales and in all environments, from the smallest structure to complex facilities; from rural outskirts to suburban environments; from nature to expanding megacities.

We encourage you to visualise your dreams, to think freely and creatively without losing touch with reality. We ask you to envision a new utopia!

We accept drawings from students at architecture schools all over the world. The internationally acclaimed jury will award digitally produced drawings of everyday utopia that inspire, communicate, and engage with architecture in an artistic way.

You also have the opportunity to submit a film showing either how you made your drawing or what inspired you. However, the film is not part of the assessment.

After the competition, a curated selection of the submitted drawings will be exhibited. Furthermore, an E-book containing a curated selection of the drawings will be online during spring 2018.

Digital drawings

Drawing of the Year 2017 invites sketches and drawings created only by using digital technology. The competition aims to explore new tendencies in architectural drawing and challenge the use of new techniques and mixed media.

We want the contestants to explore how digital drawing can push the boundaries of our perception of drawing as a craft. And we would like to encourage contestants to examine how digital drawings can express artistic skills.

Prizes

• 1st prize: 5000 Euro
• 2nd prize: 2000 Euro
• 3rd prize: 1000 Euro

Deadline

It is important that we receive your drawing no later than 21 November 2017 at 12.00 noon (CET). Entries received after the deadline will not be considered for the competition.

More information

Jury
Go to the Drawing of the Year archive page