Drawing Phenomena is a reasearch-led creative practice exploring architectural elements in their evolving, organic states, with a particular focus on buildings shaped by decay, abandonment and material transformation. The studio examines the life cycles of materials and the ways in which weathering, damage and gradual deterioration reshape the identity and narrative of a structure. These changing conditions reveal new spatial relationships, voids and layers that become starting points for reinterpretation, drawing and potentially design. Rooted in architectural techniques of observation and representation, each work moves beyond documentation to propose an open subject for interpretation and discourse. Through drawings, prints and spatial research, Drawing Phenomena Studio seeks to broaden conversations around architecture, memory, materiality and the value of structures in transition.
Aleksandar Pilyov is a Bulgarian architect and the founder of Drawing Phenomena Studio, an evolving creative practice working across architectural drawing, visual research and material experimentation. He graduated from KU Leuven, Campus Sint-Lucas Brussels, and currently lives and works in Sofia.
His professional experience includes architectural projects in Belgium, primarily involving industrial facilities, laboratories and office environments. This work developed his understanding of technical coordination, material systems and the relationship between architectural concepts and construction.
In 2023, he received the Jef Van Ranst Prize for his master’s thesis, Discourse in Spatial Vacuums. The project explored architectural and artistic methods of representation beyond conventional visualisation, with a particular focus on voids, material traces and spatial transformation. This diploma shaped and evolved the studio to its present form and in other words it is the first straw of this project, it can be found in its own dedicated discourse section.
Through Drawing Phenomena Studio, his current work examines buildings in states of transition, decay and abandonment. Using drawing, photography and layered materials, he investigates how architecture is reshaped over time and how these changing conditions can open broader conversations around memory, materiality and the value of the existing built environment.
“Drawing is central to my practice, not only as a means of representation, but as a tool for observation, experimentation and architectural discourse. Through it, I seek to uncover the narratives held within materials, fragments and structures in architecture and evolve buildings into a new form of spatial experience.”
(2016-2019) Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Architecture - BA (Hons), University of Kent, Canterbury, England
(2021-2023) Master of Science, Master of Architecture - MSc MArch, Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven, Brussels, Belgium
(2020 sept. - dec.) NAUTA Architecture and Research, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Intern Architect - Architecture and Urban Design
(2021 jan. - march) Helsinki Zurich Office, Helsinki, Finland
Intern Architect - Architecture and Urban Design
(2024 march - 2025 feb.) SVR Architects, Antwerp, Belgium
Stagair Architect - Laboratory, Industrial and Office Design
(2026) 3rd European Assembly for a Just Building Transition, Prague, Czech Republic
Participant, Architects for Future European network meeting
(2026 july) Spontaneous Cities Symposium, Center for Social Vision, Sofia, Bulgaria
Speaker, Session I: Memory, Identity & Urban Narratives
Presentation of the Drawing Phenomena project
(2026 september) European Action Week – Building the Future We Need! Selected contribution, Sofia, Bulgaria
forthcoming, 5-13 September 2026
Organised by Architects for Future and the European Network for a Just Building Transition
(2020-2021) Ravenna - Station Mobility Hub Competition, participant, Team: NAUTA architecture & research, urban and architectural design
(2020-2021) Songdo Library International Competition, participation, Team: Helsinki Zurich Office Ltd
(2022) Designing Knowledge Ecologies, Landscape and Urbanism as Spatial Conditions for Economic Development in the Knowledge-Region by the Sea 2070, Team: TU Delft + KU Leuven
(2023) Re-Draw.05: Nakagin Capsule Tower, Honourable Mention, Team: Individual
(2023) Jef Van Ranst Prize, Master’s Winner (jury chairman: Dr. Helen Thomas) - Team: Individual (diploma project)
(2024) Archisource: Mixed Media Award, Special Mention, Team: Individual
(2025-2026) Social Media Features on Archuncovered, Idoarch, Toffuco, Drawing.Papers