The Architecture Foundation has issued an open call for entries to a new architectural writing prize. Entrants are invited to submit texts to one or more of three themed categories: Architecture and Representation, Writing as an Architectural Medium, and Design and the Climate and Biodiversity Emergencies.
The categories have respectively been sponsored by Drawing Matter, the Jencks Foundation and the Marchus Trust. We particularly welcome entries from previously unpublished authors. All prize-winning entries will feature in an Architecture Foundation publication to be released in 2023.
Submissions for all categories should be in pdf format and emailed to mail@architecturefoundation.org.uk by midday on 3rd October 2022. The name of the relevant category should be incorporated in the subject bar. Submissions should include no more than one accompanying image.
The winning entries will be announced in December 2022.
Category 1: Architecture and Representation
Supported by Drawing Matter
The competition invites participants to carefully look at drawings and to consider what they reveal about the process of design, and the buildings or objects they represent. We ask for a previously unpublished text of maximum 500 words on a drawing or series of drawings that you have studied, which interest you as a historian or as a practicing architectural designer. We understand drawing to include any medium - including models, collage, or photography - where the object itself has a role at any stage in the process of design. In choosing a subject, competitors may like (but are not obliged) to register for access to the Drawing Matter Collection catalogue. Previous competitions on Drawing Matter have attracted a large number of thoughtful texts by participants based all over the world, one example here.
First prize is £750, second prize £500 and there are two runner-up prizes of £250 each. All winning entries will be published on the Drawing Matter website in the months following the announcement. We will also select up to ten ‘highly commended’ winners to whom we will offer an honorarium of £50 on publication on the Drawing Matter website. An Architecture Foundation publication will present the winning submissions from all three categories in 2023.
Judges: Ayla Lepine, architectural historian and associate rector St James Piccadilly; Ahmed Belkhodja, director Fala atelier
Category 2: Writing as an Architectural Medium
Supported by the Jencks Foundation
In a review of Robert Venturi’s ‘Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture’ Charles Jencks observed that it takes a practicing architect to reflect on the history and shape the future of architecture. For Jencks – a critic and architect himself – his Cosmic House became the testing ground for his theoretical experiments on Post-Modern architecture, while as a critic (who architected) Jencks used the written word to clarify and interrogate his own designs.
What is the role of Writing in Architecture and what can it do for Architectural Culture? Can Writing become the medium for Architecture? The Jencks Foundation invites you to explore these questions through a previously unpublished piece (any length between 22 - 888 words), either in dialogue with a transformational text on/of architecture, or through experimentation with the medium in response to a built example of architecture.
First prize is £750, second prize £500 and there are two runner-up prizes of £250 each. We will also select up to ten ‘highly commended’ winners to whom we will offer an honorarium of £50. An Architecture Foundation publication will present the winning submissions from all three categories in 2023.
Judges: Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times architecture critic; Shumi Bose, senior lecturer, Central St Martins; Jeremy Millar, artist and head of writing MA programme at the Royal College of Art.
Category 3: Design and the Climate and Biodiversity Emergencies
Supported by the Marchus Trust
This category invites participants to reflect on the process of design in the context of the present climate and biodiversity emergencies. We welcome entries that deal with architectural topics but also those that address questions of landscape, the circular economy or public policy. Texts should be previously unpublished and of a maximum length of 500 words.
First prize is £750, second prize £500 and there are two runner-up prizes of £250 each. We will also select up to ten ‘highly commended’ winners to whom we will offer an honorarium of £50. An Architecture Foundation publication will present the winning submissions from all three categories in 2023.
Judges: Smith Mordak, director of Sustainability and Physics at Buro Happold; Martha Dillon, editor of It’s Freezing in LA.
