Here are the 2020 Art of Building photography competition winners

A fascinating shot of light pouring through a stained-glass window at the 17th-Century Karim Khan Citadel in Shiraz, Iran has been selected as the public choice winner of the 2020 Art of Building photography competition. Hosted by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the annual contest seeks to inspire the public to look at buildings with a fresh perspective.

Public Choice Winner: Arg of Karim Khan
Photographer: Borna Mirahmadian
Camera used: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Photographer's comments: "Sun shines through colorful stained glass window of Karim Khan Arg, located in Shiraz, Iran. This masterpiece is all about the Art of Building."

Judges' Choice Winner: The Value of Time
Photographer: James Retief
Camera used: Canon 5DSR 

Photographer's comments: "With the ongoing renovations to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, this iconic monument has been shrouded in a layer of scaffolding. I found beauty in the filigree matrix of scaffolding poles, stairs, and netting, that temporarily obscures the monument abstracting it into a lo-fidelity approximation of the overly familiar form."

Highly Commended: Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
Photographer: Javier Arcenillas 

Photographer's comments: "A young woman sits down to wait in one of the flowerpots that decorate the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is one of the great world icons of architecture, one of the masterpieces that mix Art, Design, and Engineering to crown architecture. During the summer of Covid 19, the lack of tourism in the city transformed the way of understanding the building itself."

Here are the other stand-out competition finalists:

Creating the Future
Photographer: Shyjith Onden Cheriyath
Camera used: Canon 5D Mark IV 

Photographer's comments: "The Museum of Future is the latest edition of Dubai's architecture wonders. The Museum of the Future is a museum of innovation and design, currently, under construction, The Museum of the Future strives to be a place of tolerance where varied cultural, philosophical, social and spiritual outlooks are welcome."

Inle houses
Photographer: Aung Chan Thar

Photographer's comments: "Towards the end of 2019, I went on photo trips to Inle. It is inhabited by the Shan people, one of the Burmese ethnic groups. They are building floating houses in this Inle Lake. People in Inlay live on water and search for their livelihood there. They trade on the water. They do agriculture on the water and sell all the fruits, which they cultivated, at the floating market."

City in the Desert
Photographer: Joebel Garcisto
Camera used: Sony a7r3

Photographer's comments: "Housing project built at the bottom of the mountain and surrounded by a warm color of the desert is one of the ambitious projects in Abu Dhabi."

Colorful Doors
Photographer: Gerdie Hutomo Nurhadi
Camera used: Sony A7mk2

There is no bad weather for building
Photographer: Kirill Kolosov
Camera used: Nikon D90 

Photographer's comments: "Construction of the tallest skyscraper in Europe. Saint-Petersburg, Russia."

Passing Through
Photographer: Robert Debski
Camera used: Canon 50D

Photographer's comments: "Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal provides the photographer with many striking viewpoints. However, fortunate timing not only brought movement to this image but also a level of intrigue as one tries to reconcile the perspective."

Snake Under Moonlight
Photographer: Jinjing Lyu
Camera used: Nikon D750

Photographer's comments: "Taken on the last day of 2019. Hardin Theatre in Heilongjiang."

City on Fire, Reflected
Photographer: Daniel Jenney
Camera used: Canon EOS 6D

Photographer's comments: "Modern, minimalist architecture can really be a great canvas to let light play and change throughout the day, this structure located on New York's lower west side reflects the sunset behind the city and provides great hard and sharp contrast to the pastel sky."

The Land of Buddha
Photographer: Bob Chiu 

Photographer's comments: "Founded in 1880, the Sitar Five Ming Buddhist Institute has been focusing on teaching activities and striving to become a modern religious institution with standardization and rule of law."

The Church and the Skyscrapers
Photographer: Anna Kaunis
Camera used: Nikon 

Photographer's comments: "A cozy church, sandwiched between a family of skyscrapers in Moscow."

Maastricht 01
Photographer: Philippe van Gelooven
Camera used: Canon 5D 

Photographer's comments: "Architecture in the Euregio"

Jamkaran
Photographer: Hadi Dehghanpour
Camera used: Canon 5D Mark 4