Recent graduates: How can you get your work seen by architecture firms and elevate your resumé as you begin the hunt for a job in practice? One way could be to enter the 2025 Architizer Vision Awards, a global ideas competition with a simple design brief and big prizes.
Open for entries now with an Early Entry Deadline of Friday, May 9th, the Vision Awards poses a simple question: Can you tell a powerful story about architecture using purely visual mediums? Your drawings, renderings, photographs and models could earn you worldwide recognition get your project seen by thousands of top architecture firms in the process. Here’s how to get involved:
Architectural drawing by Emi Nakajima; via Instagram
The Challenge
Your task is simple. Use your preferred medium to tell a visual story about architecture — existing or imagined — and the experience of those that 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.
If this sounds like hard work, look on the bright side: it’s likely you’ve already created an amazing drawing for your final review. If that’s the case, your submission is ready and waiting to go!
You must write a short paragraph to accompanying your image — no longer than 150 words for Vision and Concept categories, or 300 words for Visionary categories — that describes your image or concept and what it communicates about the present or future of architecture. This could include but is not restricted to descriptions of the formal, atmospheric and poetic qualities of the buildings and spaces shown in your image. There are no specific requirements here — be creative!
If you’ve got an existing project or image you’re proud of, this is your chance to show it off on a global stage — or produce a brand new creation especially for the challenge! Either way, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Now, we can hear you asking: How can I maximize my chance of winning or securing a place among the finalists? Read on …
Architectural drawing by Jeff Murray; via Instagram
Competition fees and guidelines
There is a submission fee which helps us keep our engines running and hosting programs like this one, but we want to make the program as accessible to students as possible. For this reason, fees are lower for all students and recent graduates.
Head this way for complete competition guidelines and eligibility.
The Judging Criteria
The judging process for the Vision Awards is designed to reflect the multi-faceted qualities of architectural concepts, ideas and imagery. Our outstanding cast of jurors will be asked to select winning entries based on their communicative and aesthetic qualities, as well as their potential to “go viral” on social media. Entries that stand out in one or more of the following categories stand a great chance of being a Winner.
The Vision Awards Jury and Architizer’s Editorial Team will evaluate the Vision Categories based on the following criteria:
Communication
The most important quality of an architectural image or video is its ability to communicate the design intent and narrative behind a piece of architecture. A good image or video will form a visual story about architecture and its surrounding context, revealing something about the lives of those who inhabit it. The image or video can communicate many different things and focus on one or more of the following aspects: People, light, shadows, mood, atmosphere, weather, spatial layout, details, materials, connections between architectural elements, relationship to context, the transition between spaces, and more.
Aesthetics
A beautiful architectural image or video is undeniably appealing, but in the realm of architectural representation, aesthetics are about more than just beauty. They convey the essence of the architecture they depict, the atmosphere or emotional power of a space, and a strong sense of place. At their best, images and videos can reveal something about architecture that speaks to the wider cultural, societal, economic or political context of its location. Aesthetics may also concern the portrayal of an untidy, chaotic or even “ugly” brand of architecture that form the reality of certain environments.
Impact
When communication and aesthetics are perfectly combined, they can produce an impactful image or video that is eagerly shared among a global, design-oriented community. While impact is not an exact science, experts in architectural representation understand the bold qualities that make an image memorable and shareable. The ingredients of an impactful architectural image or video include but are not limited to: Bold geometry, unusual angles, rich color combinations, sharp contrasts, rhythmic patterns, movement and strong legibility.
Architectural Sketch by Giuliana Flavia Cangelosi; via Instagram
Those are the key factors to consider — but this awards program is deliberately left open to interpretation. It’s up to you to decide how one tells a story about architecture, and what you want that story to be.
If you have specific questions about the program, check out the Vision Awards FAQs, and if you have a further inquiry that is not answered there, you can reach out to us at visionawards@architizer.com.
