World Architecture Festival Announces Winners of the 2018 Drawing Prize

Katherine Allen

7 years ago

American Dream or American Nightmare / Yue Ma. Image Courtesy of World Architecture Festival

The World Architecture Festival, with co-curators Make Architects and the Sir John Soane’s Museum, announced today the winners of their annual Architecture Drawing Prize, established in 2017 to recognize the “continuing importance of hand drawing, whilst also embracing the creative use of digitally produced renderings.”

Top honors this year go to Li Han for his work entitled “The Samsara of Building No.42 on Dirty Street.” The drawing depicts a chronological visual narrative of the a residential development in Beijing, stretching from 2008 to 2017. Over the decade the block developed from typical apartments to an mixed commercial and residential development – only to be torn down by the Chinese government and restored to a dedicated residential program.

The drawing, while outstanding for its graphic quality, also challenges the typical capacity of drawing itself through its compression of time and narrative. Jury member Narinder Sagoo, senior partner at Foster + Partners, cited the drawing’s ability to tell…”hundreds of stories over nine years in which architecture, cities and people’s lives change. It’s important for all architects to consider the life of buildings over the course of time… It’s a modern day Archigram drawing but also a step into the future, which is why it’s an overall winner.”

Li’s drawing won both the overall prize and was the top choice in the Digital Drawing category, winners were also chosen in the categories of Hand Drawing and Hybrid Drawing (mixed digital and hand drawing.)

The winners and shortlist are currently on display at an exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. The winning drawings will also be on display in Amsterdam during the World Architecture Festival (28-30 November), where the artists will also be honored in a special reception.

We’ve rounded up the winners below, along with further information about the upcoming 2018 World Architecture Festival taking place in Amsterdam this November. Tickets for the festival are available online now, with a 20% discount available for ArchDaily readers who enter the code ARCHDAILY20 at checkout. Our site will also have news coverage and live-streams of festival events.