Filipino architect and illustrator Eldry John Infante was named winner of the award last week for his mixed-media drawing (Re)membering the See Monster.
The prize is co-curated by Make Architects, Sir John Soane’s Museum and World Architecture Festival (WAF), and sponsored by Iris Ceramica Group.
According to the award citation, Infante’s piece ‘represents the transformation of a defunct oil platform’, and uses drawing as a means ‘to incite discussions that go beyond a structure’s physicality while poetically exploring the theme of reuse’.
Infante created the artwork by combining digital techniques with ink on paper. It was named winner of the hybrid category during the festival last November.
Source:Eldry John Infante
Hybrid and Overall winner: Remembering the See Monster by Eldry John Infante
Judges said they chose the piece as overall winner for its ‘cinematic narrative’ and ‘its imaginative collage-like play with different representational conventions in a way that deftly contributes to its storytelling’.
Sir John Soane’s Museum’s head of exhibitions and prize judge Louise Stewart added that the jury had been impressed by the ‘skilful and detailed’ piece which ‘uses a variety of visual languages, all of which convey information about how buildings work’.
Infante said winning the prize was an ‘incredible honour’, adding: ‘It’s surreal to think that the world would see a drawing I did at my desk at home.’
In November, the WAF announced the winners of its three Architectural Drawing Prize categories – one digital, one hand-drawn, and one hybrid.
The winner of the best digital drawing 2023 was Eugene Tan for The Archatographic Map of the Incomplete Landscape on Pedra Branca, which explores the vulnerabilities of the plant, with a particular focus on Singapore, while Ben Johnson won the best hand-drawn image category with his ink drawing Grundtvig, inspired by a 1920s church in Copenhagen.
The winning drawings were displayed at the festival in Singapore in November, and are now on show at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London until 3 March.
Federica Minozzi, chief executive of Iris Ceramica Group and prize judge, described the Architecture Drawing Prize as ‘a brilliant opportunity to demonstrate the genius of people and the desire to experiment’ which ‘assumes a prominent role in reflecting architectural creativity’.
Architecture Drawing Prize judges 2023
Nikki Bell and Ben Langlands, artists
Pablo Bronstein, artist
Paul Finch, director, World Architecture Festival (chair of jury)
Lily Jencks, co-founder, Lily Jencks Studio, Jencks Squared
Federica Minozzi, chief executive, Iris Ceramica Group
Narinder Sagoo, senior partner, Foster + Partners
Ken Shuttleworth, founder, Make Architects
Louise Stewart, head of exhibitions, Sir John Soane’s Museum