The Winners of Drawing of the Year 2018

Shaping new Realities was the theme of the year’s competition – and students from around the world have participated: 307 proposals from more than 70 countries.

The aim of the competition was to continuously explore new tendencies in architecture through architectural drawing and to challenge the use of new techniques and mixed media.

The jury is impressed with the level of the many submitted drawings, which combine many different techniques and methods and show a high level of complexity and quality.

No single technique can be selected as an example of ’what is a drawing’ or ‘what is an illustration’ today? Instead, the diversity, the playful and skilful use of combining several methods seem to be what defines the architectural drawings of young architects today. What impressed the jury was the solid mastering of tools and techniques, and the ability to create a narrative that evokes feelings and touches us.

The theme, Shaping New Reality, seems to have led to general answers: either dystopia or a green future – both in a great variety of versions. Among these, the submissions address a broad range of current topics. The answers are engaged, intelligent, informed and go beyond the usual clichés.

What the jury find especially interesting is that the collection of drawings shows the future illustrations and ideas about architectural matters.

Friday 30 November 2018 the winners and special mentions were announced.

1st prize: Penang 2095

Tianjing Lim (Malaysia) from Dessau International School of Architecture (Germany) wins the first prize of EUR 5000 for a drawing which adresses the question of preservation in the urban building culture and heritage and the future architecture.

It looks like af growing tower, a factory, but when you move closer, urban life is revealed. It is a vertical village, based on a reading of the existing organisation and layout of the city structure and architecture. But instead of choosing sides, the old or the new, it builds on the contradiction, and the drawing proposes an organic approach. This approach uses building technology to create the continuously adaptive growth of the tower based on the exciting heritage. Life in the future starts with cultural heritage. However, it also poses the question whether it is correct to build upon tradition, by copying? Does that create the optimal solution for our future society and physical aspects?

The jury says: “ The composition of the drawing is very well done, and the perspective gives a dynamic feeling. … it is aesthetically beautiful with amazing details that make us engage with curiosity.

… a very strong drawing where composition, drawing style and content come together in an intelligent solution for a key question that has to be dealt with in cities all over the world. The drawing demonstrates an awareness/maturity in communicating, using all aspects and scales.”

2nd prize: All at Sea

Pascale Julien, Matt Breton-Honeyman and Amélie Savoie-Saumure (Canada) from McGill School of Architecture (Canada) is the winner of the second prize: EUR 2000.

It is not at drawing of a rollercoaster, Tivoli, a circus or an oil platform. A closer look at this “graphically strong and well composed drawing” reveals a border crossing between Israel and Jordan. Cheerful in colours and with the promise of a fun ride the reality is much more complex and dark. Using the old architectural typology of intertwining spiral stairs where the users never meet, the drawing illustrates in physical terms the bureaucracy and tediousness of crossing a border. It demonstrates the selective process of dividing humans into nationalities shaped by politically constructed territories and the instruments of controlling and surveying. Everything looks friendly and trivial, but is highly political and with the military constantly present.

“The jury congratulates the artist on a drawing that discusses and communicates an important and challenging topic. It is amazingly powerful in its beauty and flawless to the point of almost exaggerated perfection.”

3rd prize: A Day in Global Britain: A Christmas Gift to a Dear Friend in Memory of a Summer Day

Jason Ho (United Kingdom), The Bartlett School of Architecture (United Kingdom), receives the third prize of EUR 1000 for his drawing, which is composed of a series of small drawings. It is a patchwork of close-up stories of the daily life of a retired old man living on Floating Island: The Isle of Global Britain. Throughout the drawings we see the actions of daily life presented as an adventure from Alice in Wonderland. The actions seem trivial: waking up at night, eating breakfast, fishing, playing lawn bowls, a golf course, afternoon tea, dinner and a party including a hangover and sightseeing. And repeat. It seems like an endless story. However, the setting is far from trivial.

“The jury compliments this drawing as a cheerful yet bold and provocative suggestion … The close-up of the architectural inventions, the shifts between time speeds in the story almost create a storyboard for a movie. The drawing becomes four-dimensional. The line is almost naive, and humorous. It evokes feelings and makes us engage in the many-layered drawing.”

Special mentions

• Tyler Lemmon (United Kingdom), University For The Creative Arts (United Kingdom): Composed Chaos
• Guotong Liao (China), Guangdong University of Technology (China): ICHI-GO ICHI-E
• Hai-P’ng (Heffrence) Teow (Malaysia), Taylor’s University (Malaysia): Sub-Rosa Wonderland
• Pasquale Iaconantonio (Italy), Università Sapienza di Roma – Facoltà di Architettura (Italy): From Rome to Las Vegas
• Ifigeneia Liangi (Greece), The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (United Kingdom): A House of Stories
• Suramya Kedia (India), Aarhus School of Architecture (Denmark): Revealing Virtual Space
• Lasse Buus Jensen (Denmark), Aarhus School of Architecture (Denmark): Inbetween Mind and Space
• Enoch Liang (United Kingdom), University College London Bartlett School of Architecture (United Kingdom): Alpine Flatology

The jury

• Peter Cachola Schmal (D), architect and director of Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM)
• Thomas Bossel (DK), architect and associate partner at schmidt hammer lassen architects
• Torben Nielsen  (DK), architect and rector at Aarhus school of Architecture

Jury report, winners and special mentions

• Jury Report (PDF) 
• Winners and special mentions (PDF)

Drawing of the Year 2018 is sponsored by  schmidt / hammer / lassen architects, VOLA and the Danish Arts Foundation.

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