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AIP 40 Competition

Architecture in Perspective

Submit your best architectural illustrations for a chance to be recognized among the world’s finest. The 40th annual competition is now accepting entries.

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Submission Deadline: May 5th, 2026 11:59pm EST

Craft re-Focused. Art of Intent

About the Competition

ASAI invites its members—professional and student illustrators from around the globe—to take part in its annual Architecture in Perspective (AIP) Competition—an annual juried competition that recognizes the world’s best architectural illustrations. Submitted artworks may be created in any 2D medium and may include drawings, paintings, sketches, renderings, and digital imagery.

The Competition’s top award—the Hugh Ferriss Memorial Prize—is considered to be one of the highest professional honors in architectural illustration.

Selected artists will be announced on the website and awards will be presented during the Conference. All award-winning entries and honorable mentions will be published online and in a commemorative AIP Catalog.

Each year, to challenge our members to explore the evolution of the profession and the art form, we designate a Special Theme. The theme this year is:

“Craft re-Focused. Art of Intent”

“Craft” may be defined as “an activity involving skill in making things by hand.” In Architectural Illustration, this includes drawing, painting and digital imagery—the full toolkit of the architectural illustrator. All of these artforms require a guiding hand, literally. But AI confuses things when it takes a hand, metaphorically. AI art is still art, by most definitions, but is it craft?

The distinction may lie in the word “Intent.” Like any craft, architectural art serves a purpose: It conveys an architectural idea. We think this involves a human, whether digital technology is involved or not.

The theme of this year’s AIP competition is CRAFT re-FOCUSED: ART OF INTENT. We invite AIP contributors to enter work in the Thematic Category that explores this idea. Entries may be traditional, digital or AI-assisted*.

*All submissions, whether in the thematic category or another category must declare the use of AI in image creation, and how it has been used.

Submission Fees

Professionals

Individual ($190/yr) and Corporate ($330/yr) memberships include one entry into the competition. Additional entries up to a maximum of 10 entries are available at a discounted rate.

  • First additional entry: US $65.
  • Entry Blocks: US $155 for 4 additional entries or $305 for 9 additional entries.

Students

Students ($0/yr with Student ID) are free up to a maximum of five entries. Students MUST be currently enrolled in a full-time program and able to provide a current Student ID card at the time of entry.

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Submission Guidelines

Entry Process & Checklist
Terms and Conditions Professional Competition
Terms and Conditions Student Competition
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Eligibility

AIP 40 is open to current 2026 professional and student members of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators.

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Competition Sections

Entry Categories & Awards

AIP consists of two Competitions, held on separate days, with separate Juries: The AIP Professional Competition and the AIP Student Competition.

Professional

Rendering

The Rendering Section focuses on subject matter that is unbuilt, such as proposed buildings and environments, self-commissioned works, or imaginary scenarios.

Awards
  • Hugh Ferriss Memorial Prize (Best in Show)
  • Best Formal Rendering
  • Best Informal Rendering
  • Juror Award
  • Members' Choice Award
  • Award of Excellence
Professional

Observational

Observational illustrations may fall under the Formal Category (finished images such as formal renderings and presentation illustrations) or the Informal Category (sketches and gestural images).

Awards
  • Best Observational Illustration (Best in Show)
  • Juror Award
  • Award of Excellence

Student

The AIP Student Competition is open to student ASAI members who are registered in a full-time academic program. Submitted work may include Formal and Informal renderings, and illustrations of built, unbuilt and imaginary architectural works.

Awards
  • Henry Sorenson Student Award (Best in Show)
  • Juror Award
  • Award of Distinction

Thematic

Within the Rendering Section, the special Thematic Category is redefined every year. This year’s theme is “Craft re-Focused. Art of Intent”.

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Awards & Prizes

Competition Prizes

The Professional Competition jury selects the finest architectural illustrations from a wide range of media, rendering styles and architectural subject matter for the exhibition and inclusion in the catalog. Awards are presented at the annual Conference.

Hugh Ferriss Memorial Prize

For the rendering unanimously selected by the jury as the Best in Show.

Best Formal Rendering

For the most outstanding Formal illustration.

  • Free one-year ASAI membership
  • Commemorative award certificate
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog

Best Informal Rendering

For the most outstanding Informal illustration or sketch.

  • Free one-year ASAI membership
  • Commemorative award certificate
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog

Best Observational Illustration

For the most outstanding Observational illustration.

  • Free one-year ASAI membership
  • Commemorative award certificate
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog

Thematic Award

Submissions are judged according to artistic skill, architectural relevance, originality, impact, and responsiveness to the theme, regardless of artistic medium: traditional, digital, AI, or other.

  • Commemorative award certificate
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog

Juror Awards

For the illustration that each juror selects as their personal favorite, three awards are presented in The Rendering Section and three in the Observational Section.

  • Commemorative award certificate
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog

Awards of Excellence

Outstanding entries selected for exhibition and inclusion in the catalog will receive an Award of Excellence certificate.

Members’ Choice Award

For the most outstanding architectural illustration as voted by ASAI members, online.

  • Free one-year ASAI membership
  • Commemorative award certificate
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog

The Student Competition jury selects the finest architectural illustrations from a wide range of media, rendering styles and architectural subject matter for the exhibition and inclusion in the catalog. Awards are presented at the annual Conference.

Henry Sorenson Student Award

For the most outstanding student illustration.

Student Juror Awards

For the illustration that each juror selects as their personal favorite. Three awards are presented

  • Juror’s Certificate of Merit
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog

Student Awards of Distinction

For illustrations selected for inclusion in the exhibition and catalog.

  • Certificate of Distinction
  • Featured in exhibition and catalog
Meet the Jurors

Professional Competition Jurors

Lisa Della Dora

Lisa Della Dora

Lisa Della Dora has spent over a decade navigating the Architectural Visualization industry.

Her career path has seen her evolve from a junior 3D modeler to holding leadership positions such as Art Director and Project Manager, giving her a unique, 360-degree perspective on the production pipeline.

Currently she continues her hands-on production work as a Senior 3D Artist for Bloomimages. She channels her extensive experience into education and community building as the Art Director and Placement Manager for the MADI Master at IUAV University of Venice and as the founder of Render IT, a community and blog dedicated to highlighting and bringing together Italian artists.

Driven by a passion for the “human side” of the industry, Lisa also works as a consultant to help artists refine their careers and portfolios.

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Lisa Della Dora

Render It
Jakub Figel

Jakub Figel

Jakub Figel is an architect and co-founding partner of ELEMENT, a Polish architectural visualization studio creating photorealistic imagery for the real estate market and architecture firms worldwide.

For Jakub, ELEMENT is a way of telling stories and shaping the character of places through images. He believes that combining cutting-edge technology, creativity, and a keen eye for aesthetics can produce visualizations that are both beautiful and purposeful.

Under his leadership, ELEMENT has won the Architizer Vision Award four times — including Best Architectural Visualization Studio of the Year and Best Photorealistic Visualization of the Year — as well as a European Property Award.

Over more than a decade, the studio has collaborated with a wide range of leading architecture practices and developers, including UNStudio, Henning Larsen Architects, Vastint, Jan de Nul, and Jumeirah.

ELEMENT and Jakub are also the driving force behind the World Visualization Festival, an international gathering of the visualization and CGI community held annually in Warsaw.

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Jakub Figel

ELEMENT
Sam Anderson

Sam Anderson

Sam Anderson is the founder of Studio Ladder and a 3D artist based in Austin, Texas. She collaborates with Epic Games and ArchVision, delivering technical marketing, training, and educational content for Unreal Engine and Twinmotion. Sam also partners directly with architecture firms to support visualization workflows and production needs. Previously, she worked at Epic Games, SHoP Architects, and Workshop/APD, where she developed a sharp eye for high-quality visuals and a talent for translating complex technical ideas into clear, personable communication. Talk to her long enough, and she will have you saying “y’all” as if you were also born and raised in Texas.

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Sam Anderson

Studio Ladder

Student Competition Jurors

Taro Narahara

Taro Narahara

Taro Narahara is a tenured Associate Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and a licensed architect in New York and Japan. He has extensive experience working within complex academic, professional, and nonprofit organizations, including service on university-level committees, management of externally funded research projects (NSF PI, 2022; Co-PI, 2016), and contributions to long-term institutional planning.

His professional background includes practice at SOM and Gluckman Tang Architects, with key projects such as the Mori Art Museum (2003), as well as international exhibitions and awards in architectural visualization and digital media, including recognition from ASAI, Architizer, Harvard University (Peter Rice Prize), the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (HC Award), and the National Institute of Informatics (IDR Award).

He holds advanced degrees in computational design from Harvard University (Doctor of Design) and MIT (M.S.). Narahara currently serves as Interactive Art Co-Chair for ACM Multimedia 2026 and as a Unified Jury member for ACM SIGGRAPH, reflecting his ongoing commitment to responsible professional service, transparent decision-making, and organizational stewardship.

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Taro Narahara

NJIT
Simon Kalajdjiev

Simon Kalajdjiev

Simon Kalajdjiev is an artist from Macedonia who has been working as an architectural illustrator at Nikken Sekkei in Tokyo for over 10 years.

He got fascinated with depictions of fantastical architecture in comic books at an early age, which inspired his passion for drawing. He started getting commissions while still in high school, doing illustration, storyboards and comic strips. He earned a bachelor degree in painting and teaching art at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in his hometown Skopje, Macedonia, and later took media and futures studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea.

Simon’s architectural illustrations often depict lively scenes with focus on people, activity and community, and through telling stories promote solutions on current environmental and societal issues. He uses a wide range of techniques and visual styles, from watercolors and ink drawings, to pixel art and glitch art. He also frequently gives workshops at Nikken Sekkei teaching the advantages to having a daily sketching and hand drawing practice, especially in a time of wide adoption of Generative AI.

Even outside his architectural illustration work Simon constantly experiments with creative methods and innovative collaboration. He is active on the Tokyo art scene and zine scene and one of the founding members of the Odds of Tokyo Art Collective.

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Simon Kalajdjiev

Nikken Sekkei
Giuseppe Mazzone

Giuseppe Mazzone

Giuseppe Mazzone is an Italian architect whose work focuses on the analysis and reconstruction of classical architecture through the integration of traditional drawing methods and digital technologies. He earned his Master’s degree in Architecture in Bari, Italy, with a thesis on the revitalization of the Kedron Valley in Jerusalem. After obtaining his European architectural license, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his doctoral research focused on the reconstruction of Sainte-Anne-la-Royale, a Baroque church designed in 1662 by the Italian architect Guarino Guarini. His work combines hand drawings, digital modeling, 3D printing, and immersive virtual reality reconstruction. In 2017, he joined the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, where he teaches architectural graphics, including drawing, drafting, and digital media.

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Giuseppe Mazzone

University of Notre Dame
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