The Architecture Drawing Prize 2023 scooped by a transformed oil platform

The Architecture Drawing Prize 2023 has announced its overall winner – Eldry John Infante, also the winner of the hybrid category of the competition, who impressed the jury with his transformation of an out-of-use oil platform, which encourages conversation that ‘goes beyond the structure's physicality’. Using ink on paper and Adobe Photoshop, the Filipino architect, designer and artist transformed the North Sea oil-rig into a building that inspires regeneration and sustainability.

The Architecture Drawing Prize 2023: the overall winner

Infante’s (Re)membering the See Monster wowed the judges with its dynamic composition. ‘We were impressed by this skilful and detailed drawing, which has been digitally manipulated to create a very dynamic and varied composition,’ said head of exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum and prize judge, Louise Stewart. ‘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.’

The Architecture Drawing Prize 2023: the category winners

Sponsored by Iris Ceramica Group and currently in its seventh year, the competition celebrates three categories – hand-drawn, digital, and hybrid – with one prize for each category, as well as one overall winner.

This year received over 250 entries, most being hand-drawn. Grundtvig by Ben Johnson is announced as that category's 2023 winner. His work is inspired by Copenhagen’s 1920s Grundtvig Church made using six million bricks. The execution of the Grundtvig Church drawing was so controlled and precise that it 'becomes a meaningful expression of how Ben experiences architecture', the jury wrote. 

Eugene Tan is awarded the digital category prize. Exploring the vulnerability of our planet, Tan's drawing The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape on Pedra Branca focuses specifically on Singapore. 

‘This beautiful, skilful and complex drawing expands the usual range of representational possibilities offered by maps,' said The Architecture Drawing Prize judges Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell (aka Langlands & Bell), describing Tan's entry. '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.’

This year's winners follow in the footsteps of last year’s recipients Samuel Wen and Michael Ren, who won the overall and hybrid categories of The Architecture Drawing Prize 2022 for their artwork Fitzroy Food Institute.

Sir John Soane’s Museum in London will showcase The Architecture Drawing Prize 2023 winning and shortlisted drawings in an exhibition running from 31 January to 3 March 2024.

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