Due to Covid-19, the number of planes being scrapped could double to 1,000 a year by the end of 2023, up from 400 to 500 planes annually since 2016, according to data released by the aviation analytics firm Cirium last September. So why not turn them into affordable housing instead, propose Victor Hugo Azevedo and Cheryl Lu Xu of Robert A. M. Stern Architects, New York. Their drawings, titled Aeroplane Tower and executed in Autodesk Sketchbook for the iPad Pro, have won the special Lockdown Prize in the 2020 Sir John Soane’s Museum Architecture Drawing Prize. 1

• 1. The judging panel spanned fine art and architecture, with Narinder Sagoo of Foster & Partners, Ken Shuttleworth of Make Architects and Lily Jencks of LilyJencks Studio and the AA School of Architecture; Louise Stewart, curator of exhibitions at the Soane museum; the artist duo Ben Langland and Nikki Bell, and artists Pablo Bronstein and Gary Simmons. They thought Aeroplane Tower was both witty (they especially liked how the tail fins with the airlines’ showy logos stacked up as a decorative element) and serious, not to mention media-friendly too.