Sketchbook Prize 2025

Each year, at the Faculty of Architecture’s summer exhibition, the Institute of Construction and Design Principles awards its Sketchbook Prize. Eligible submissions include sketchbooks from first‑year students produced in the courses “Konstruieren” (Construction) and “Gestalten und Entwerfen” (Form and Design), as well as during the excursion to Stuttgart.

In selecting the award recipients, the focus lies on how the sketchbook was used during the first study year to develop design ideas, document design processes, and make them visible. The sketchbooks—which students are required to keep—are intended to foster a routine of sketching. What matters is not the beauty of individual drawings, but the development of a personal drawing style capable of conveying as much information as possible. Regular sketching trains and refines the ability to analyze and recognize spatial relationships. At the same time, the sketches act as a mode of communication between students and instructors—a personal graphic language that must be learned and practiced. This year’s winners—Sebastian Steiner and Vasilija Stukalova (1st prize), Annika Bauer, David Hliva, and Anja Skenderija (2nd prize), and Lejla Alihodžić and Edina Mujkanović (3rd prize)—received book vouchers. The nominees included Alexis Maria Balasion, Valentina Dorninger, Leonie Eingang, Julia Himmelbauer, Laura Knabe, Anna Koval, Max Maller, Iva Marija Matošević, Alena Müller, Simon Schrank, and Aurelia Volkmann.

Barbara Gruber