Lion Green Road, a council housing scheme in south London by Mary Duggan Architects with RUFF Architects, won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2026. What it is, why the jury chose it, all six shortlisted buildings and the lessons for students and designers.
Category Archives: Architecture
An architectural sketch is a quick, freehand drawing used to think through, test or explain a building. It can be three lines on a napkin or a careful pencil perspective, but either way it shows an idea faster than any model or render. This guide walks through 15 architectural sketch styles, from concept gestures and […]
From hero-render boards and split layouts to map-led, text-led and technical sheets, here are 15 architecture presentation board layouts from real competition entries, with tips on how to plan your own.
From photoreal daylight and dusk renders to watercolours, hand sketches and collages, here are 15 architectural rendering styles with real examples and tips on how to make each one.
Materials are what make a render feel real. You can model a building perfectly and still end up with something that looks like plastic if the textures are stretched, repeating or the wrong size. This guide explains where to find good architectural textures and, more importantly, how to use textures in architectural renders and collages: […]
A good cutout can make a render feel lived in. A badly placed one is the quickest way to make it look fake. This guide covers both parts of the job: where to find free architecture cutouts worth using, and how to place them so they sit in your scene at the right scale, in […]
An architectural diagram is a simplified drawing that explains one idea about a building: where the sun comes from, how people move, how the spaces stack up or how the thing gets built. Plans, sections and elevations describe what a building is. Diagrams explain why it is that way, which is usually the question a […]
Art Deco architecture is the glamorous, geometric style of the 1920s and 1930s, the look of stepped skyscraper crowns, sunburst motifs, chrome, coloured terracotta and bold lettering across a cinema front. It took its name from a 1925 exhibition in Paris and within a decade had spread to New York, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sydney and a […]
An axonometric drawing shows a building from above and at an angle, with every parallel line kept parallel and every dimension measurable. It sits between the plan and the perspective: you get the roof, two walls and the floor plan in one image, without any vanishing points. That is why juries often spend longest on […]
An architectural elevation drawing is the building seen straight on, one face at a time, with no perspective. It shows heights, openings, materials, roof lines and how the building meets the ground, and it is usually the drawing a jury or a client looks at first, because it is the closest thing to what they […]









