The One Drawing Challenge: Send Us a Drawing, Tell Us a Story, Win $2,500

Can you create a single drawing that tells a powerful story about architecture?

Thanks to social media, more people than ever now consume architecture every day through their feeds. However, their attention is fleeting — with millions of architectural ideas flowing across the web, each designer has just a brief moment to make an impact.

This means one image or drawing needs to possess the power to tell a whole story on its own, in seconds. For any designer, producing a viral drawing might just kickstart their career. But what exactly makes an architectural drawing special?

Enter the 4th Annual The One Drawing Challenge.

Open for registration today, Architizer’s global architectural ideas competition poses a simple question:

Can you create a single drawing that tells a powerful story about architecture?

Left: Symbiotic Architecture by Karina Ashrapova, image via aasarchitecture; right: Abstract by Travis Rice; image via 1st Dibs

The task is as follows: Create one drawing that communicates a new architectural proposal or existing piece of architecture, and the experience of those that would inhabit it. It can be located anywhere in the world and be at any scale. It can take the form of a plan, section, elevation, perspective or sketch. As long as it portrays part or all of a building or group of buildings, it is eligible.

This exciting competition — Architizer’s first ever drawing challenge — is set to be huge, with a series of influential jurors confirmed to run the rule over your drawings. They include:

Chris Precht, Cofounder of Precht (formerly penda) and renowned Instagram influencer
Mónica Ponce de León, Founding Principal of MPdl Studio and Dean of Princeton University School of Architecture
Jing Liu, architect, educator and co-founder of the award-winning design firm SO – IL in New York City
Bob Borson, architect and Founder of the hugely popular Life of An Architect blog and podcast
Pascale Sablan, Senior Associate at S9ARCHITECTURE and Founder and Executive Director of Beyond the Built Environment
Amanda Ferber, Founder of Architecture Hunter (home to 1.8M Instagram followers!)

Left: A Manual Towards a New London by Fiona Tan, image via Tumblr; right: Drawing by André Rocha, image via Tumblr

And there’s more …

Lora Teagarden, architect at RATIO and Founder of L2 Design
Marc Tsurumaki, Founding Principal of LTL Architects and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University
Ciel Hunter, former Head of Content at Vice Media
Georg Windeck, architect, educator and author of Construction Matters

Left: Terramanium by Jean de Wet, image via Jean de Wet; right: Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Benjamin Ferns, 2015, image via Tumblr

There will be two prizes of $2,500 given to the winners, as well as the chance to be published across Architizer, making your work visible to a design community of more than 4 million people!

Without further ado, register for competition updates today, and begin sifting through your best drawings to prepare your entry. The One Drawing Challenge ends on August 9th!

Enter the One Drawing Challenge

Top image: Memento Mori – A Peckham Hospice Carehome by Jerome Ng, Bartlett School of Architecture

Author: Paul Keskeys

Paul Keskeys is Editor in Chief at Architizer. An architect-trained editor, writer and content creator, Paul graduated from UCL and the University of Edinburgh, gaining an MArch in Architectural Design with distinction. Paul has spoken about the art of architecture and storytelling at many national industry events, including AIANY, NeoCon, KBIS, the Future NOW Symposium, the Young Architect Conference and NYCxDesign. As well as hundreds of editorial publications on Architizer, Paul has also had features published in Architectural Digest, PIN—UP Magazine, Archinect, Aesthetica Magazine and PUBLIC Journal.