The Overall Winner of the 2021 Architecture Drawing Prize was announced on 25 January at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London as Dafni Filippa with “Fluid Strada – Flood-responsive landscape performance”:  a hybrid drawing combining different rendering techniques.

Sir John Soane’s Museum: “Filippa’s project takes the climate emergency as its starting point, imagining a future London in which the Thames Barrier has been overwhelmed and flash floods are a regular occurrence. She proposes a solution which involves injecting hydro-membranes deep underground, protecting the infrastructure from flood waters. The image began with a photograph of a physical model which was then digitally manipulated”

Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make Architects and a judge, commented on Dafni Filippa’s drawing: “As a jury, we were all impressed by Fluid Strada and the way it blurs the lines between physical objects and drawing with great skill and imagination, making it a truly exceptional example of a hybrid rendering."

Sir John Soane’s Museum is hosting a dedicated exhibition of The Architecture Drawing Prize until 19 February 2021. The exhibition features Dafni Filippa’s “Fluid Strata”, as well as drawings by last year’s finalists and category winners. Also included are works from the 2020 Prize that could not be exhibited earlier due to the pandemic.

In response to COVID restrictions, the curatorial team from Sir John Soane’s Museum, together with Make Architects, created a virtual 5-year retrospective of the Prize. You can access it here:  https://vca.gallery/

Exhibition at the Museum:
Until 19 February 2022
Sir John Soane’s Museum
13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3BP
Entry is free - details of opening hours/ planning visit:

About The Prize   

Created as a collaboration between Sir John Soane's Museum, Make Architects, and the World Architecture Festival, The Architecture Drawing Prize is now in its fifth year. It attracts entries from around the world and displays the best and most innovative architectural drawings of today. The extent to which the drawing makes a proposition about the possibilities of architecture is an important criterion in the judging process, as are technical skill and originality of approach.

The Exhibitions

As part of The Prize programme, finalists and winners are exhibited at Sir John Soane's Museum. This year, there are two exhibitions:  Sir John Soane's Museum is hosting the 2020-2021 Prize exhibition, and has also curated a virtual exhibition with Make Architects, a 5-Year Retrospective of the Architecture Drawing Prize. Both exhibitions celebrate how communicating ideas or design concepts are effectively at the heart of what makes a strong architectural drawing, be it purely conceptual or relating to a project intended to be built.

The 2020-21 Prize Exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum
The exhibition explores the latest developments in the art of the architectural drawing, with a strong focus on how traditional rendering techniques are combined with the latest digital tools. Entries from the past two year’s demonstrate how drawing has been an important medium in reconnecting with one’s surroundings during the pandemic, and in viewing those surroundings from a fresh perspective.

A heightened sense of place has emerged front and centre in applicant submissions, which is thought-provoking considering that many architects have been physically distanced from their projects, and the design process has been increasingly screen-based during lockdowns and work-from-home periods.

The exhibition at the Museum is a snapshot of the online retrospective, exploring many of the similar themes, but also demonstrating how architects and students, in particular, are excelling in the use of digital tools in an artful, mature way. 2021 was the first time that all category winners were comprised of students, thus exhibiting the artistry possessed by the latest generations of architecture graduates.

The 5-Year Virtual Retrospective of The Architecture Drawing Prize
The Retrospective showcases drawings by the winners and finalists of The Architecture Drawing Prize since its inception in 2017. It exemplifies how virtual space is able to facilitate the mounting of large exhibitions that can work as a strong complement to smaller, more focused physical exhibitions.

Greg Willis from Make Architects, who led the design of the virtual gallery and collaborated closely with Curator, Louise Stewart, on Sir John Soane’s Museum retrospective exhibition design, says:

“The Vault of Contemporary Art uses our placemaking skills to create a digital platform that plays with materiality, light, sound, and sense of place in an innovative and distinctive way, giving great care to how objects are displayed. The idea has been to improve our experience of digital space, making it more memorable and distinct.

Curator of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, Louise Stewart, has organised the Retrospective around ten themes ranging from "Light, Space, Shade, to "This Crowded City" to "Dystopian Visions" and says:

"In this group of drawings, artists grapple with future threats. In doing so, they take account of issues such as climate change, overpopulation, and energy provision. Their unsettling imagery demonstrates architecture’s impact on people and planet, and its potential to underpin, exacerbate, and solve the problems faced by society."

The 2021 Architecture  Drawing   Prize  is  sponsored  by Gleeds 

It is chaired by Paul Finch, Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival, co-curators of The Architecture Drawing Prize along with Make Architects and Sir John Soane’s Museum.

For more information about The Architecture Drawing Prize, visit: https://thedrawingprize.worldarchitecturefestival.com/

For the latest updates, follow @architecturedrawingprize on Instagram