LONDON.- This month sees the opening of The Architecture Drawing Prize exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum in London. It features drawings by the finalists and category winners of the 2022 Architecture Drawing Prize. The Prize categories are hand-drawn, digitally rendered and a hybrid of these two media.

Bruce Boucher, Director of Sir John Soane's Museum comments: ’This annual exhibition has become a showcase for the best in contemporary draughtsmanship across media, which remains central to architectural practice today, and with architectural drawing such an important part of our collection, Sir John Soane’s Museum is proud to be the venue for exhibiting the Architecture Drawing Prize’.

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 sixth year. The 2022 edition has seen the support of the Italian company Iris Ceramica Group, one of world leaders in the production of high-end ceramic surfaces.

The Prize 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.

Ken Shuttleworth, Founder of Make Architects who initiated the Prize says: “Drawing is a special tie, a strong common ground between architects and artists. Our studio’s role in promoting drawing is an important way for us to explain and celebrate the design process while continuing to explore the elements that make architecture special.”

As part of the Prize programme, finalists and winners are exhibited at Sir John Soane's Museum. This year, the exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum includes a virtual retrospective of the Prize by Make Architects that will be projected in the Museum’s Foyle Space. Both the exhibited drawings in the Museum’s galleries and the virtual retrospective celebrate how communicating ideas or design concepts effectively are at the heart of what makes a strong architectural drawing, be it purely conceptual or relating to a project intended to be built.

The 2022 Prize Exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum

Drawing was pivotal to Sir John Soane’s architecture, both in his practice and his teaching. The Museum’s extensive collection is testament to Soane’s use of drawing to explore, challenge and teach. The Architecture Drawing Prize continues this tradition, showcasing new work that celebrates draughtsmanship, skill, and innovation.

The Architecture Drawing Prize will this year be accompanied by a display of drawings and implements that belonged to Soane and his pupils. Highlighting the restoration of The Drawing Office, the earliest surviving example of a working architectural office, the display will link the vitality and importance of drawing in Soane’s day to the ambition and craft that continues to underpin architectural drawing practice today.

There will also be a reading table in the gallery with books selected by the Museum’s curators. Visitors will be encouraged to take time to sit and read about architecture, drawing and history – making the exhibition a site for ideas and learning, reiterating Soane’s description of his house-museum as an ‘academy of architecture’.

The exhibited drawings

The 2022 category winners’ drawings will be a key element of the exhibition. The three winning works are exceptionally good at demonstrating the range of approaches from the representational and sublime in the hand-drawn category, to the highly abstract and conceptual in the digital category, to an approach to drawing that wittily and deftly plays with the very idea of more traditional architectural renderings in the hybrid category. Overall, the drawings by the 2022 entrants to the Prize that have been selected for the exhibition demonstrate an increased interest in social and environmental topics, as well as a belief in using architectural drawing to freely explore ideas and speculate imaginatively.

Erin McKellar, Assistant Curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum says: “The Architecture Drawing Prize offers a unique opportunity to connect contemporary practice to Soane’s work. This is particularly important this year, as we prepare to reopen Soane’s Drawing Office to visitors and welcome contemporary artists in residence, who also use drawing as part of their work.”

To view the 2022 category winning and shortlisted drawings exhibited at Sir John Soane’s Museum please visit: https://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/live/en/page/drawing-prize