Fairy Tales 2017

The architectural fairy tales of the year deal with monumental landscapes and sci-fi megastructures, architectures as sentient species and refuges in the skies.

The winners of the architectural Fairy Tales 2017 have been selected by a jury of more than twenty leading architects, designers and storytellers, including Marion Weiss, Michel Rojkind, Jing Liu, Dan Wood and John Maeda, among many other distinguished judges, at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C.. The event is promoted by the online platform Blank Space, AIAS, and the museum.

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Mykhailo Ponomarenko, Last Day, Fairy Tales 2017 – first prize

Mykhailo Ponomarenko, Last Day, Fairy Tales 2017 – first prize

Mykhailo Ponomarenko, Last Day, Fairy Tales 2017 – first prize

Mykhailo Ponomarenko, Last Day, Fairy Tales 2017 – first prize

This year’s jury selected three prize winners, an AIAS winner, and 10 honorable mentions. The annual Fairy Tales challenge has started back in 2013, and has featured hundreds of stories, put together in books published by Blank Space. The winning fairy tale of the 2017 edition is Last Day, with classical painting techniques that create monumental landscapes and strange scifi megastructures inserted into them, designed by the Ukrainian trained architect Mykhailo Ponomarenko.

Terrence Hector, City Walkers, Fairy Tales 2017 – second prize — **Top:** Mykhailo Ponomarenko, *Last Day*, Fairy Tales 2017 – first prize. **Left:** Terrence Hector, *City Walkers*, Fairy Tales 2017 – second prize

Second prize went to City Walker or The Possibility of a Forgotten Domestication and Biological Industry by Chicago based architect Terrence Hector. The story tells of a sentient species of architecture that moves slower than humans can perceive. Two French architects won the third prize for Up Above an imaginative story of refugees in the sky that build shanties on thin stilts, high in the clouds, to escape oppression, regulations, and inequality on the surface of the earth below, designed by Ariane Merle d’Aubigné & Jean Maleyrat.

Ariane Merle D’aubigné and Jean Maleyrat, Up Above, Fairy Tales 2017 – third prize — Ariane Merle D’aubigné and Jean Maleyrat, *Up Above*, Fairy Tales 2017 – third prize

The AIA went to Maria Syed and Adriana Davis, while the honorable mentions where awarded to Minh Tran, Alan Ma, and Yi Ning Lui: Xinran Ma; Jun Li, Joris Komen, Yuxing Chen and Yina Dong; Carly Dean and Richard Nelson-Chow; Aidan Doyle and Sarah Wan (Wandoy Studio); Dakis Panayiotou; Julien Nolin; Michael Quach; Janice Kim and Carol Shih; Chong Yan Chuah, Nathan Su and Bethany Edgoose.

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Maria Syed and Adriana Davis, Playing House, Fairy Tales 2017 – AIA prize

Terrence Hector, City Walkers, Fairy Tales 2017 – second prize

Terrence Hector, City Walkers, Fairy Tales 2017 – second prize

Ariane Merle D’aubigné and Jean Maleyrat, Up Above, Fairy Tales 2017 – third prize

Ariane Merle D’aubigné and Jean Maleyrat, Up Above, Fairy Tales 2017 – third prize

Fairy Tales 2017
Promoted by: Blank Space, AIAS, National Building Museum

Stone: Origins and Future in Architecture

On June 12 and 13, 2025, IUAV University of Venice will host "Stone is…," an international forum entirely dedicated to natural stone. Organized by PNA, this event aims to thoroughly explore the material's enduring value and sustainability, featuring insights from internationally renowned speakers.