Meet the Category Winners of the 2023 Architecture Drawing Prize

The Architecture Drawing Prize, now in its 7th edition, celebrates the art of drawing in three main categories: hand-drawn, digital, and hybrid. The Prize attracted nearly 250 drawings from around the world, a record for the competition, with the majority of entries being in the hand-drawn category. The winners of each category have been announced. The winning drawings, along with the shortlisted entries will be displayed at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore from 29 November until 1 December 2023, and at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London from 31 January to 3 March 2024. The Overall Winner will announced on 29 January 2024 as part of a webinar hosted by Sir John Soane’s Museum, ahead of the exhibition.

According to the jury, the technologies used by the entrants to find creative ways of depicting buildings generated probing discussions among the jury members, testing the nature and definition of architectural drawing. Sponsored by Iris Ceramica Group, the Architecture Drawing Prize is co-curated by Make Architects, Sir John Soane’s Museum and World Architecture Festival (WAF).

+ 7

Read on to discover the category winners, along with several shortlisted entries and the jury’s appreciation.

Hand-Drawn Category

Ben Johnson was selected as the 2023 winner of the hand-drawn category with a drawing titled ‘Grundtvig’. The ink drawing is inspired by the 1920s Grundtvig Church in Copenhagen made using six million bricks.

As a jury we are inspired by Ben Johnson’s work and the way he has created a compelling art form from hand-drawings of buildings. The execution of the Grundtvig Church drawing is so controlled and precise that it becomes a meaningful expression of how Ben experiences architecture. – Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make Architects who originally set up The Architecture Drawing Prize

The hand-drawn category shortlist also included:

• The Glasgow School of Art Fire (triptych) by Alan Dunlop
• Trees and rocks, the shapeshifter by Alexander Warncke
• St. Stephen Walbrook by Luka Pajovic

Digital Category

Eugene Tan was selected as the 2023 digital category winner for his drawing, ‘The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape on Pedra Branca’ which explores the vulnerability of our planet, more specifically in Singapore.

This beautiful, skillful, and complex drawing expands the usual range of representational possibilities offered by maps. Through this drawing, Pedra Branca, a tiny outlying island of the archipelago becomes a signifier for the limited land supply of Singapore, and its fragile ecology within the complex geo-political environment of the South China Sea. – Artists Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, who have been on The Architecture Drawing Prize as judges since its inception in 2017, describe the entry

The digital category shortlist also included:

• The Bucolic Palimpsest by Ziad Haddad
• Transcultural Journey on the Orient Express by Chi Wai Vincent
• Gall-E: Interpolating Arts, Space and Display in the Age of AI by Tom Chan

Hybrid Category

The 2023 hybrid category winner is ‘(Re)membering the See Monster’ by Eldry John Infante. It renders the transformation of a defunct oil platform and welcomes discussions that go beyond a structure’s physicality.

We were impressed by this skilful and detailed drawing which has been digitally manipulated to create a very dynamic and varied composition. One of the drawing’s particular strengths is the way in which it uses a variety of visual languages, all of which convey information about how buildings work. – Head of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum and Prize Judge, Louise Stewart

The hybrid category shortlist also included:

• Liverpool Capriccio 2200 C.E. by Tim Wheeler
• The Urban Anthro-Scape: Above by Alexander Jeong

The Architecture Drawing Prize judges for 2023 are:

• Nikki Bell and Ben Langlands, Artists
• Pablo Bronstein, Artist
• Paul Finch, Director of World Architecture Festival (Chair of Jury)
• Lily Jencks, Co-founder of Lily Jencks Studio, Jencks Squared
• Federica Minozzi, CEO of Iris Ceramica Group
• Narinder Sagoo, Senior Partner at Foster + Partners
• Ken Shuttleworth, Founder of Make Architects
• Louise Stewart, Head of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum