ABOUT
Drawing for Food
Drawing for Food leverages the power of architectural drawing and spatial illustration to advocate for the needs of our most vulnerable community members. The auction uses a model tested by the UK-based organization, “Architecture for Change,” that solicits drawings from designers and architects for auction in support of social causes. 100% of the proceeds from this auction will go to an organization in Toronto to help maintain the supply of food and goods to community members experiencing homelessness, precarious housing, and food shortage.
Since the pandemic, homelessness in Toronto has become more visible, but there is also a lot of invisible homelessness and food precarity. Many architecture studio briefs have taken on themes such as affordable housing. However, this project aims to leverage our architectural work to help vulnerable community members more directly.
A broader aim of this auction project is to explore ways that architectural drawings can be used for public good. Realizing spatial projects of any scale typically rely on a financial backer: an owner, a client, an entity with a commercial interest, etc. The interests of the moneyed participant drive, or at least influence, the interests of the spatial project. But the instrument of drawing, we argue, is entirely ours. It belongs to us, and as designers, we can decide what and how we draw, who we draw for, and who benefits from our work.
Thank you to all of our supporters. Drawing for Food ran for the first time in 2023 and raised $7275. We are looking forward to rerunning the auction this year!
How It Works
Drawings donated by an international roster of participants will be posted on the auction website.
The auction of architectural drawings, illustrations, and prints is now live! You can check out donors from last year here!
The auction will go live on December 1, 2024 (midnight EST) and end on December 8, 2024 (11:59 p.m. EST).
All drawings will be given the same starting price ($100 CAD).
Buyers will bid on the auction website.
The top bidders will be contacted via email on December 9th and asked to donate their bid amount directly to the organization using an online donation portal. Credit cards, Google Pay, and PayPal are all accepted!
Donors will ship the drawing to the buyer.
Drawing for Food will act as a go-between, verifying that the bid has been donated so that a tax receipt can be issued, taking any questions from bidders, and hosting the auction site.
The site will remain live, and the hope is to continue adding to the collection of drawings with a new auction each year to generate funds for a different organization in Ontario, Canada, or Western New York, USA.
How to Bid
On December 1st, the site will allow interested bidders to input bids.
Bids will start at $100 (CAD). Please bid in $10 increments.
We request that only serious and intentional bids be made. If you are the winning bidder, you will be asked to donate that amount.
Bids can be input at any time during the week, and the bidding history will be visible (so you can track whether you’ve been outbid!).
Please refresh the page before submitting a bid to see the most recent bid before submitting your own.
Bidding will be disabled on December 8th at 11:59 p.m. EST, and the auction will end.
We’ll contact the top bidder the next day to help facilitate your donation directly to Seeds of Hope for Toronto Food Not Bombs. Seeds of Hope issues tax receipts for donations. Please see our How to Donate page for more.
Once you share your donation receipt with us, we’ll pass your mailing address to the drawing donor, and your drawing will be posted directly to you.
The bidding box to the right will be used to input bids.
It will appear on each drawing page on December 1st and be removed on December 8th.
Drawing Donors
Álvaro Siza Vieira, Portugal
Andrew Kovacs, USA
Bonell+Dòriga, Spain
BUREAU, Switzerland/Portugal
Doris Thut, Germany
French 2D, USA
Hadi Madwar, Canada
Jean-Benoît Vétillard, France
Kemetic Blue, Egypt/France
Nicholas Tilma, USA
Outpost Office, USA
Raymond Biesinger, Canada
Ryan Tyler Martinez, USA
Studio Abirascid Hemlin, Sweden
Valerie Marshall, Finland/Canada
Team
Stephanie Davidson and Georg Rafailidis work as DAVIDSON RAFAILIDIS and they teach at the Knowlton School, Ohio State University.
Eira Roberts holds a Bachelor of Interior Design and is a Master of Architecture candidate at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
Adrian Phiffer is the founder of the Office of Adrian Phiffer and teaches at the University of Toronto.
Claudia Draghia designed the Drawing for Food logo.
Thank you to the donors for their drawings and participation, making the auction possible and rich with drawing diversity.