The winner of the 2015 Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Award has been announced. Revealed at the World Architecture Festival's Gala Dinner – held on 6 November in Singapore – Fernando Guerra's image of EPFL Quartier Nord, Ecublens, Switzerland scooped the top prize of $3,000 (and inevitable press exposure).
Drawn from a shortlist of 20 photographs – itself split into the categories 'Sense of Place', 'Interior', 'Exterior' and the winner's category, 'Buildings of Use' – Guerra's image of the Richter Dahl Rocha & Associé-designed convention and student housing centre is both kinetic and understated – a worthy winner in a competition flush with impressive work.
Guerra and each of the runners up – Tom Roe, Su Shengliang (for two separate photographs) and Tan Lingfei – successfully displayed an unerring ability to transpose the complexity of the built environment (in various guises) into images that are readable, meticulously composed and occupying a liminal space between practical documentation and art, while still expressing the nuances and environment of each project.
The international panel of judges comprised architects Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga (Barcelona); Amy Croft, curator at The Werkstatt; Foster + Partners' head of communications, Katy Harris (London); architectural photographers Nick Hufton and Allan Crow (London); architect Ian Moore (Sydney); Clifford Pearson, deputy editor of Architectural Record (New York); and Christine Murray, editor of Architectural Review (London).
'The most important thing for us has been the concept and atmosphere of the images,' said Barozzi and Veiga of the judging process. 'How they have been perceived and expressed through the creativity and inspiration of the photographer.'
All of the shortlisted entries (including Guerra's winning image) will be on display in an exhibition at East London's The Werkstatt – 'Building Images' – from 5 February 2016.
Guerra – and three runners up – were drawn from a shortlist of 20, divided into the categories ’Sense of Place’, ’Interior’, ’Exterior’ and ’Buildings of Use’. Pictured: Su Shengliang’s image of Shanghai’s Long Museum West Bund, by Atelier Deshaus (from the ’Exteriors’ category)
Shengliang was also shortlisted for a second image of Shanghai’s Long Museum West Bund (this time an ’Interior’ category shot)
Tan Lingfei’s image of Hong Kong’s Quarry Bay Yick Cheong Building (from the ’Buildings in Use’ category)
The ’Sense of Place’ category was represented by Tom Roe’s bucolic photograph of the Kandalama Hotel in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, by architect Geoffrey Bawa
INFORMATION
For more information, visit Arcaid’s Awards website
’Building Images’ is on view from 5 Feburary 2016 – 25 March 2015. For more information, visit The Werkstatt’s website
ADDRESS
The Werkstatt
7–9 Woodbridge Street
Clerkenwell
London, EC1R 0LL
-
In Shanghai, Hermès conjures a ‘cosmopolitan explorer’ for its one-off show on the Huangpu RiverNadège Vanhée, artistic director of Hermès’ womenswear collections, presented ‘The Second Chapter’ of her A/W 2025 collection earlier this evening (13 June 2025) against the futuristic skyline of Shanghai
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Peugeot brings back a classic performance badge for the electric era: meet the E-208 GTiPeugeot has unveiled the new E-208 GTi, a performance EV designed to hark back to a golden age of compact sports cars
-
Inside Ricardo Bofill’s Walden 7, a cathedral of postmodern curiosityA new series by architectural photographer Sebastian Weiss takes us on a tour of Walden 7, Ricardo Bofill’s majestic Catelonian apartment building – a cathedral of utopian curiosity and community
-
Heaven on Earth: architect Toshiko Mori curates Candida Höfer’s sublime new photography showAt Sean Kelly, New York, architect Toshiko Mori is curating a new show by Candida Höfer, spanning a 30-year period of the German photographer’s spatially sublime work
-
10 Wallpaper* photography moments of 2022, from piña coladas to Pipilotti RistThe most memorable Wallpaper* photography moments of 2022, courtesy of our esteemed photo desk
-
‘Site Unseen’ explores viewing and documenting architecture through photographyThe Center of Contemporary Photography in Melbourne invites us to ‘Site Unseen', an exhibition about different ways of viewing and documenting architecture
-
Ricardo Bofill’s La Muralla Roja as captured by Sebastian WeissAs a tribute to architecture icon Ricardo Bofill (1939 – 2022) we revisit Hamburg-based photographer Sebastian Weiss’ captivating photo series on ‘La Muralla Roja’, first published in 2020
-
A photographic trip through America’s roadside façadesIn her ongoing series, The Mother Road, Hayley Eichenbaum documents the tainted romanticism of roadside architecture on Route 66 in the American Southwest
-
Architectural photographer Dennis Gilbert (1951-2021): an appreciationArchitectural photographer Dennis Gilbert has died aged 70. Founder of View Pictures, one of the foremost agencies for architectural imagery, and an honorary fellow of RIBA, he helped shape our perception of contemporary architecture
-
Photographer Dia Mrad captures aftermath of 2020 Beirut explosionArchitecture-trained photographer Dia Mrad’s first solo show, ‘The Road to Reframe', captures local architecture after the Beirut explosion of 2020, in terrible, dramatic, ‘surrealist' stillness
