Geoffry Powell Award for Architecture 2025, Competition news, Buildings designs

Geoffry Powell Award for Architecture

21 March 2025

Batsford launches inaugural Geoffry Powell Award for Architecture as part of its leading student art prize.

Geoffy Powell:

Geoffry Powell Award for Architecture 2025 News

ABOUT THE PRIZE

Presented by leading art and architecture publisher Batsford, The Batsford Prize has been running since 2013 and over the past decade has become an established art award for UK-based undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Throughout the years, previous winners across the prizes’ four categories of Applied Art and Textiles, Fine Art, Illustration and Children’s Illustration have gone on to publish books with various trade publishers including Batsford, have pursued careers in illustration working with clients such as Google, Disney and The Telegraph, and have had their work exhibited in nationally recognised institutions such as the V&A Museum.

In 2025, Batsford is delighted to expand its list of categories to include The Geoffry Powell Award for Architecture, which will encourage students to submit their own handmade architectural drawings in response to this year’s theme, ‘Fun and Play’. The new Architecture prize holds personal significance to judge and Batsford custodian Polly Powell, whose father Geoffry Powell, to whom the prize is dedicated, was a renowned architect during the 20th century and one of the founding partners of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, architects of The Barbican.

ABOUT THE JUDGES

Mike Tonkin qualified as an architect in 1989 and his interest in nature led to his qualification as a landscape architect in 2014. He completed his PhD in the Engineering Department at the University of Bath and is currently a visiting professor at the Manchester School of Architecture and Sheffield University. Tonkin Liu

Neil Dunnicliffe is a literary agent. He was a publisher of children’s books for over 20 years, collaborating with many leading artists and writers at the BBC, Penguin Random House and HarperCollins. In 2022, Neil set up Spring Literary, an agency representing children’s authors and illustrators. springliterary.com

Vaughan Grylls is a photographer, author and artist. His photography has been shown in the Photographers’ Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Arnolfini, Bristol. From 1996 to 2005 he was Chief Executive of the Kent Institute of Art and Design. In 2005 he founded the University for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham and Rochester. vaughangrylls.com

Eoghan O’Brien is Batsford’s Art Director. He has nearly 20 years of experience in graphic design, the publishing industry and commissioning illustrators and photographers.

Polly Powell is owner of Batsford Books, the organisers of the Batsford prizes. She is the daughter of Geoffry Powell of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, architects of the Barbican.

The tools of Geoffy Powell:

Batsford

Batsford is a leading art and architecture publisher and is one of the oldest independent trade publishers in the UK established in 1843. For nearly two hundred years we have excelled in publishing beautiful, well-designed books that encourage and celebrate art, culture and creativity.

To find out more information about the prize, please head to www.batsfordbooks.com/batsfordprize . I’ve attached a variety of our promotional banners for the 2025 prize above. This year’s deadline for entries is 24 March 2025.

Geoffry Powell Award for Architecture image / information received 200325