Aarhus School of Architecture presents: Drawing of the Year 2019

Announcement of the international student competition

02.09.2019

Aarhus School of Architecture proudly announces the seventh joint venture competition: Drawing of the Year 2019. We invite architecture students from all over the world and call for drawings that demonstrate their ability to dream and create drawings that inspire for change.

Post Human Metamorphosis

This year’s bold theme is Post Human Metamorphosis – local or global change?

Artificial intelligence, surveillance, migration, climate change and the increasingly unequal distribution of the world’s resources are known causes of the challenges our world is facing: We are more connected but also more fragmented and divided than before.

The idea of the human is under pressure from many sides. Robots, cyborgs and artistic intelligence are not only taking over the tasks we do, but also provide new perspectives on how the digital and the general technological development influence practically speaking all spheres of our lives. While technology becomes a part of us, nature shows us that the projects of modernism have consequences. Progress is rolled back by the powers of nature. And climate change is altering the basic conditions of life, forcing us to look at people from a new angle. For what does it mean to be human when Man is no longer at the centre of things, but is placed on an equal footing with nature and technology? How can we create architecture in the age of The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Globalisation 4.0? And how can architects act in post-human society?

This year’s theme calls for courageous and visionary drawings that illustrate architecture of the cities of the future, their homes, commercial areas, public spaces and landscapes, and provide proposals (metamorphoses) for solving the challenges the world is facing: Should changes be made locally or globally? Should the world be saved through small changes, or are larger global interventions necessary?

This is why the architects of the future are needed. NOW!

What is the role of architecture?

The rapid changes and the huge challenges question our ethical positions and force us to rethink society. For the architect’s part, this means engagement, critical involvement, and shaping images and solutions that take into consideration spatial consequences and possibilities. It means rethinking our physical world, adapting to the new realities, and pushing the boundaries of architecture.

The drawing is one of the architect’s oldest and most important tools. The drawing process leads to new thinking and to the development of ideas for the one who draws. Furthermore, it is a medium that disseminates thoughts and ideas to colleagues, clients, and a broader audience. The drawing can communicate, seduce and convince. And initiate a dialogue.

The aim of the competition is to continuously explore new tendencies in architecture through architectural drawing and to challenge the use of new techniques and mixed media. We, therefore, invite bold, inspiring, and provocative proposals for Post Human Metamorphosis. 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. From Earth to Mars.

Prizes

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

The announcement of winners will take place 28 November 2019 at DOKK1, Hack Kampmanns Plads 2, 8000 Aarhus.

A curated selection of the submitted drawings will be exhibited and a curated selection of the drawings will be presented in a book in 2020.

See requirements and submission details

Only digital works are accepted. Max size of drawing: 88 x 88 cm. File format must be PDF with a recommended resolution of 300 ppi. Max file size: 100 Mb.