Announcement: Drawing Of The Year 2021

Drawing of The Year is an international drawing competition encouraging architecture students all over the world to develope architecture through drawing. The competition that runs for the 9th time is supported by SHL Architects, VOLA and Aarhus School of Architecture and the deadline for submission is 15 November 2021.

01.09.2021

For the last eight years Aarhus School of Architecture has proudly highlighted drawing as an architectural discipline through the international drawing competition for architecture students, Drawing Of The Year.

The competition was initiated in 2013 in a collaboration with SHL Architects, Vola, and The Danish Arts Foundation. Every year the number of participants has increased, and so has the quality and the level of the drawings. Internationally acknowledged architects from all over the world have taken part of the jurys and contributed to the high standard and professionalism in the organization of the competition.

From initial year´s themes such as Engaging Through Architecture (2013), Transformation (2014), Habitation (2015) and Sustainability (2016) to later year´s more theoretically and societally engaged themes like Everyday Utopia (2017), Shaping New Realities (2018), Post-Human Metamorphosis (2019) and Hand Me A Drawing (I) (2020) the competition has always addressed relevant architectural issues.

Drawing is the principal medium of architecture

The aim of the competition is to celebrate the architect’s oldest and most important tool, and to continuously explore new tendencies in architecture through architectural drawing. The drawing process leads to new thinking and to 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, convince, and initiate a dialogue. That´s why drawing is so important and why we continue to encourage students all over the world to participate in the annual competition, Drawing Of The Year. As former jury member Jenny Osuldsen from Snøhetta says: The one who holds the pen, has the power.

We value that the competition is run and completed professionally, that the theme is relevant, that the entries are judged professionally, and recognized with decent prices. Further the competition is followed up by an exhibition, and for three years in a row we have documented the 100 best annual drawings in a publication.

Collage – Hand Me a Drawing (II)

This year´s theme is Collage, Hand Me a Drawing (II). After some years focusing on new drawing technologies, digital drawing and mixed media, this year´s competition treasures handmade entries and specifically collage techniques, celebrating the art and skill of a less traditional method, pushing boundaries for representation.

Sketches and drawings are the bones of any architectural design, the DNA of architecture, expressing and combining the interaction between the architect’s mind, eyes and hands. Drawing has always been a practice that differentiated architecture and construction from other disciplines, and great architects have made it an artistic discipline, as well. Every architect has his/her own style, that cannot be taught or copied, only developed and raffined through practice. In the spirit of many great architects of the past, from Palladio and John Soane, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, Lebbeus Woods, Zaha Hadid, to contemporary architects like Ishigami, Kazuyo Sejima, Jeanne Gang, Tatiana Bilbao, and Eva Prats it’s has evolved into a platform of reflection and exploration of how artistic drawing continues to advance the art of architecture today.

This year we twist the drawing and turn towards collage, which is a mix of media, including drawing, paper, photo, or fabric.

Collage: Tatiana Bilbao

What to submit

The collage can be conceptual, part of a bigger composition, play with scales or put things on the line, representing dream or reality.
All kind of materials, papers, fabric, photo, paint, ink, led, etc. could be used.
Entries will be judged on originality and artistic expression, architectural composition, technical skill, and ability to communicate an idea. The collage must be followed by a short text and a title.

Prizes

First prize: 5,000 euros
Second prize: 2,000 euros
Third prize: 1,000 euros

Facts

The collage must be scanned in high quality, 300 DPI, and uploaded as PDF, maximum 100 MB.
Announcement of Competition: SEP 1st 2021
Submission: NOV 15th at noon (CET) 2021
Announcement of winners: NOV 26th 2021
Exhibition: NOV 26th – DEC 18th 2021

Requirements

Participants must be enrolled at a school of architecture or graduated from an architectural study in 2021. You may also participate if you are enrolled as a PhD fellow at a school of architecture.

Jury

Clement Laurencio (F), recent graduate from the Bartlett School of Architecture, Winner DOTY 2020
Thomas Bossel (DK), architect, partner and founder of Pax Architects
Kasper Heiberg Frandsen (DK), architect, partner at SHL Architects
Mikkel Frost, Architect (DK), founder and partner at Cebra
Torben Nielsen (DK), rector at the Aarhus School of Architecture

More about the jury