Winner - Environmental Award

Nick Stath, Australia

Author: ‘Retreat’ from an illustrated story ‘Nomads of Climate Change’. 

‘The story presents a world where homes have been washed away. A world where people have returned to being nomadic in order to escape the frequent flooding. As the floods become more frequent, the common home is swept away. People are left with no choice but to build above the ground.The story follows a young couple that travels north in order to search for a new home, all the while facing the unrelenting challenges of survival to escape the rising water levels, they head to higher ground to seek shelter as violent storms become more and more frequent.’

Judges’ thoughts

Arthur Mamou-Mani: “The composition is stunning, it really attracts your eye to the warmth and the two silhouettes you see in the small window. The contrast between this and the industrial megastructure at the back creates tension and grabs your attention. You can see the warmth of humanity amongst the coldness of the industrial scale surrounding them, an incredible drawing.

The second drawing also by Nick Stath (see below), portrays this strange architectural world creating a real tension between the architecture and landscape, reflecting the impact we have as humans on the world.

We chose these two images which we ultimately felt were the same entry as they tell a story of our impact on the world, the Anthropocene era.”

Mamou-Mani Architects couldn’t decide which of Nick Stath’s drawings to choose as the winner so wanted to recognise both.

Author: ‘Sunrise 6.03am’ from the illustrated story ‘Monuments of the past’

‘The story was inspired by climate change and how we currently take the beauty of our planet for granted. My desire was to represent this issue through a series of drawings that makes us wonder what life could be like in a future where mother nature and her resources have diminished before our eyes. A world where parents have to tell their children stories of what forests, mountains and grass fields where once like. My vision for this future environment was a series of over-scaled structures that hoist man made landscapes into the sky. These structures represent the monuments of our past.’

Highly Commended

Darcy Engle, USA

Author: ‘A primary contaminant of the Yamuna River in Delhi is fecal matter. This pollution comes to the river due to a lack of bathroom infrastructure. In analyzing locations with a need for bathroom infrastructure, a series of bathroom prototypes, of varied scales and types, were designed for typical urban scenarios. The featured bathroom prototype is the MEDIUM / TOWER bathhouse, situated in a dense urban neighborhood of Delhi. The verticality and flexibility allows this intervention to bring multiple amenities to a small footprint. The integration and access to resources, contributes to the success of the prototypes within communities.’

Judges’ thoughts

Arthur Mamou-Mani: “This drawing really provides a credible solution for problems in Delhi and literally focuses on faecal matter, which I think is a very brave move and was something we wanted to commend. We like that the proposal is realistic and well inhabited, an important quality for drawings.”

Commended by Archisource

Fraser Morrison, UK

Author: ‘The Rubbish Tower is a prototype totemic super-tall recycling tower sitting at the nucleus of London Bridge that acts as a vertical collection site as well as a hybrid factory remaking and repairing materials. Inhabited by machines, the autonomous tower orchestrates a sea of drone bin-carriers as they collect of millions of tonnes of waste from the city. The Rubbish Tower is a beacon within the city existing to purge our waste. It alters our relationship with the stuff we produce and represents a new form of optimistic infrastructure for an environmentally conscious society. Drawn by hand, the use of pen & ink seeks to represent a highly digital architecture through analogue means, thus further cementing the importance of hand drawing for the future.’

Judges’ thoughts

“The Archisource Team were blown away by the scale and detail of this drawing and felt it strongly conveyed the scale of the very real issue we are currently facing. The inventive drawing communicates not only the function of the building but also the narrative and context it sits within. We felt that the quality and intricacy achieved should be commended.”