At the Sony World Photography Awards 2025, architecture shines

The Sony World Photography Awards 2025 winners have just been announced, crowning Canadian photographer Ulana Switucha as their overall winner in the Architecture & Design category – honoured alongside two more finalists.

Using her lens, Switucha captured The Tokyo Toilet Project - the Japanese capital's scheme that spans its Shibuya ward and started as an initiative launched by the city and the Japan Foundation. Over the years, the project saw the revamp of around 17 public facilities by key design and architecture creatives, such as the Tokyo Toilet Project by Marc Newson.

'The distinctive buildings are as much works of art as they are a public convenience. These images are part of a larger body of work documenting the architectural aesthetics of these structures in their urban environment,' Switucha writes in a statement.

Sony World Photography Awards 2025: 2nd and 3rd place finalists

More design-focused accolades include the work of Brazilian Andre Tezza, whose project Twilight in San Ignacio scooped the category's second place. The series discusses the vernacular architecture of Belize, and in particular how the residential architecture there interacts with the local, tropical climate.

‘At the end of the day, the streets become silent and the buildings, with their simple and functional style, dominate the scene,' Tezza explains.

Meanwhile, the UK's Owen Davies produced LIGHT/MASS, which won third place finalist for a project reflecting on the built environment in the United States. Davies' imagery carves out captivating geometries and powerful visual urban compositions that blend bold brutalist architecture and modernist architecture moments across the country.

The organisers note of Davies' work: 'He became fascinated with the strange-looking buildings he would stumble upon, looming suddenly when turning a corner. They felt like distinctly otherworldly structures, alien to the surrounding architecture and unobserved by passersby. Davies began seeking them out, deliberately looking for buildings designed by architects and planners who envisaged a bright utopian future for those living in America’s large cities.'

Architecture & Design category's shortlisted entries

An exhibition celebrating the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 runs 17 April - 5 May 2025 at Somerset House in London, UK

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