A report on the World Architecture Festival 2024

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) is the largest international, live architectural event devoted to the architecture and construction fraternity. It is the forum where the architecture community from across the globe meets to commemorate and celebrate some of the best architectural marvels.

WAF 2024 was held from 6th to 9th November at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The festival included the world’s largest live architectural awards programme, live presentations, and sessions dedicated to celebrating architectural excellence. The programme, themed “Tomorrow”, showcased a conference on how population movement, city growth, AI, immersive environments, digital technology, and cultural change impacted architecture, urban design, landscape, and interiors. Famed international speakers reflected on the changes they witnessed and how they influenced their thoughts and work. The festival included main stage programmes, festival hall stage programmes, and fringe events.

Some of the highlights of WAF 2024 included the events programme and keynote talks, live judging of finalists’ projects, a gallery of all award entries, an exhibition area, networking and social events, including partner fringe events, a gala dinner announcing the overall winners, and a tour programme of the local architectural landmarks in Singapore. 140 judges from 68 countries evaluated architectural submissions from across the globe. The finalists presented their projects during the first two days, and the category winners were presented to the super jury on the third day.

Day 1 Winners

One-half of the 470 shortlisted projects presented by architectural practices globally were judged on the first day. Australia led the way, winning 5 of the 20 category awards, followed by Canada, Turkey, and Singapore, which bagged 4, 3, and 2, respectively.

The COMPLETED BUILDINGS category award winners were Kyriakos Tsolakis Architects for National Star Observatory in Cyprus; Renzo Piano Building Workshop for Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in Turkey; 5468796 Architecture for Arthur Residence in Canada; Wallflower Architecture + Design for Touching Eden House in Singapore; Architecture Architecture, Austin Maynard Architects, Breathe, Clare Cousins Architects, Hayball, Kennedy Nolan for Nightingale Village in Australia; 3XN for Forskaren in Sweden; Bilgin Architects for Kalyon Karapınar 1.350 MWp SPP – Central Control Building in Turkey; fjcstudio for Darlington Public School in Australia; and Grimshaw for Parramatta Aquatic Centre in Australia.

The FUTURE PROJECTS category award winners were Pace for Retal Mosque in Saudi Arabia; EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture for Küçükçekmece Djemevi in Turkey; Bonsar Architects for Chaarkhaan Bridge in Iran; Rodeo Architects for Unity Arena in Norway; ASPECT Studios for The Greenline Project Master Plan in Australia; NEUF architect(e)s for Institut Thoracique de Montréal—breathing life into an abandoned urban hospital in Canada; and hcma & Dub Architects in conjunction with FaulknerBrowns Architects for Coronation Park Sports & Recreation Centre in Canada.

The INSIDE category award winners were Studio MK27 for Fasano Itaim in Brazil, Cox Architecture for CSL Global Headquarters and Centre for Research & Development in Australia, and DP Design for Penn Color Technology Center in Singapore.

Day 2 Winners

On Day 2 also, Australia topped the award list with 7 projects, followed by the UK with 4.

The COMPLETED BUILDINGS category award winners were Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd for MemutAR in Taiwan; Lyons for Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre in Australia; Warren and Mahoney in association with Lab-Works for Waimarie – Lincoln University Science Facility in New Zealand; CONTEXTO for TAWA Refugio in Chile; fitzpatrick+partners for 88 Walker in Australia; Stanton Williams for Rhodes House Transformation in the United Kingdom; Stiff+Trevillion for Newson’s Yard in the United Kingdom; and Tremend for Metropolitan Bus Station in Poland.

The FUTURE PROJECTS category award winners were KanLan Studio for Shoupé mixed-use project in Iran; IND for Creative Cluster in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Woods Bagot for University of Tasmania Forestry Building in Australia; tHE gRID Architects for AGRITECTURE in India; aRE Arquitectura en estudio, OPUS diseño arquitectura paisaje, ABALAR for Tatamá Hospital in Columbia; SAOTA for Meru in Kenya; and RSHP for Regent’s View Bethnal Green in the United Kingdom.

The INSIDE category award winners were Bates Smart for the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC; Office A10 for Pang Mei Noodle Bar LFS in China; HDR Pty Ltd for WSU Bankstown City Campus in Australia; 3DM Architecture for Twenty-four in Malta; Klein Dytham Architecture for Fender Flagship Tokyo in Japan; and  HKU/Superposition for Backpack Housing in Hong Kong.

Day 3 Winners

On Day 3, the winners across the 42 categories competed for the coveted World Building of the Year, World Interior of the Year, Future Project of the Year, and Landscape of the Year awards.

The Darlington Public School in Australia won the World Building of the Year award for its design, which has a strong connection to Aboriginal people. The school was designed by fjcstudio. Office AIO awarded the World Interior of the Year to Pang Mei Noodle Bar LFS in China. Küçükçekmece Djemevi in Turkey, designed by EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture, won the Future Project of the Year. Regeneration of Vitality—Shenzhen Guanlan Riverside Plaza in China by LAY-OUT Planning Consultants Co., Ltd bagged the Landscape of the Year.

Other special prizes included The GROHE Water Prize, Best Use of Stone, Natural Light, Colour, and Small Project of the Year.

The White Renovation in Iran by Olgoo won the coveted “Sustainability Prize”, supported by ROCKWOOL. Knowledge Economic City, a new city design in Saudi Arabia by the DLR Group, was the overall winner of WAFX.

For more details, visit: https://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/

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