Winners unveiled for the 2023 Sony World Photography Awards Architecture & Design Category

The Sony World Photography Awards has unveiled its 2023 winners, including the winner and runners-up in the Architecture & Design category.

The competition featured ten professional award categories, ranging from Documentary Projects to Environment to Sport. Each entrant submitted a body of work ranging from five to ten images, spanning stories of war and reconciliation to the empowerment of women through education and original approaches to photographic genres.

Below, we have republished the three winning submissions from the Architecture & Design category. 

1st Place: Cement Factory by Fan Li (China)

Series Description: Tieshan Cement Factory is located in Guilin City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China. The factory was built in 1996 and played an important role in Guilin’s economic development and urban construction. However, because it was originally located in the Li River Scenic Area of Guilin, the cement factory has now been relocated, leaving behind the old buildings, water towers, pools and railway tracks.

2nd Place: Vernacular Animal Seeds by Servaas Van Belle (Belgium)

Series Description: Livestock shelters in fields are so common in the Belgian landscape that nobody pays them much attention, but the countryside offers a range of architectural gems in many shapes, materials and colours. For five years I criss-crossed Belgium to find just the right kind of shed, carefully listing them so I was prepared to photograph them in ‘perfect’ lighting conditions, by which I mean dense fog. The fog was necessary to isolate and valorise the construction – without it, the shed is just an extra in the landscape. As fog is unpredictable, I never knew how long it would last, and the project took several years to complete. In a way, a photograph of a weather-beaten shed is an allegory for our lives: we all muddle on, we try our best, we carry the scars and we all die horizontally in the end. Humans harbour a deep longing for shelter, warmth and security and that is perhaps what makes these wondrous little structures so human.

3rd Place: In Memoriam: Muralla Roja by Ricardo Bofill by Andres Gallardo Albajar (Spain)

Series Description: Designed by Ricardo Bofill, the Muralla Roja apartment complex is one of the most iconic pieces of Spanish architecture. Over the years I have revisited this place to photograph it again and again. On my last visit, in December 2021, my goal was to create a totally different series by capturing the Muralla Roja during the day, at sunset, at night and at sunrise. I started shooting very early in the morning and continued well into the night. I then woke early to experience an unforgettable sunrise. Sadly, Bofill passed away just a few weeks after my visit, so I consider this series to be a personal tribute to him and his legacy.

You can compare this year’s honors to those of previous years by reviewing our ongoing coverage of the Sony World Photography Awards here. View all of 2023's category winners here.