A City Translated into Geometry: The Story Behind London Architectural Map

At the Future Art & Design Award UK 2026 Spring Season, Fei Ya Chang received the Gold Prize in the Architectural Map category for London Architectural Map, a visually intricate work that transforms the city’s architectural identity into a refined geometric composition.

Inspired by a personal journey through London, the project reinterprets iconic urban structures through vector-based abstraction, balancing architectural precision with contemporary graphic language. Through careful simplification and compositional refinement, the work presents London not simply as a city, but as an interconnected visual rhythm of form, structure, and memory.

Interview

Q. What initially inspired this project? Was there a particular idea, moment, or question that sparked its creation?

Chang:

During a previous trip to London, United Kingdom, I was deeply captivated by the architectural exteriors. Based on the places I visited at the time, I documented them in my own interpretive way.

Q. What was the most exciting or most challenging aspect of bringing this work to life?

Chang:

The most challenging aspect was transforming photographs of buildings into vector-based geometric forms.

Converting three-dimensional structures into two-dimensional representations was already difficult, and the buildings themselves contain numerous intricate details. Achieving a balance where the geometric compositions remained complete yet not visually cluttered required extensive time in design and refinement.

Q. How was your experience taking part in the Future Art & Design Award UK?

Chang:

This competition marked a significant step forward for me. With no restrictions on theme or medium, I made a bold decision to create digitally and present the work through geometric abstraction. Prior to this, I had never produced artwork in this manner.

I am sincerely grateful for your recognition and for the opportunity to present my work.

Editor’s Note

In London Architectural Map, Fei Ya Chang approaches architecture not merely as physical structure, but as visual language.

Through geometric reduction and digital precision, the project transforms familiar cityscapes into an elegant system of rhythm, proportion, and abstraction. The work demonstrates how architectural illustration can move beyond documentation to become a contemporary artistic interpretation of urban memory and spatial experience.