Published by Leonardo Calcagno
A Buddhist temple in Singapore, an invisible eco-tourism resort in Turkey, a maritime museum in Copenhagen and the new masterplan for Gatwick Airport are among the projects that have today been shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival (WAF) awards 2014 – the world’s biggest architectural awards programme.
Taking place at this year’s seventh annual World Architecture Festival, the WAF awards 2014 have attracted entries from more than 50 countries. The festival organisers, i2i Events Group, received entries from across the globe, from countries such as Costa Rica and Kuwait, to Japan and Jordan.
The organisers have seen a huge increase in entries from Asian countries, with projects in China, Malaysia and Vietnam up on last year by 87%, 71% and 140% respectively. The geographic spread of entries on the shortlist is further complemented by the variety of projects, from an opera house in Italy, to a variety of health facilities in Australia and a chapel in Brazil.
Buildings designed by established global practices such as Zaha Hadid Architects, OMA, Foster & Partners, BIG, Woods Bagot, KPF, Farrells, Perkins & Will and Aedas, feature in the shortlisted entries. Practices will compete across 27 individual award categories, spanning completed buildings, landscape projects and future projects, presenting their shortlisted designs live to international judging panels and delegates at this year’s festival.
For the first time, this year’s festival will have a separate small projects category as the judges wished to highlight design skill which had a disproportionate relationship to the physical size of a project.
Paul Finch, WAF Programme Director said: “From small structures to industrial complexes, the breadth of projects shortlisted this year reveals the diversity and strength of global architectural design. It also demonstrates the creativity and tenacity of the international architectural community in creating these truly remarkable schemes. We’d like to congratulate the architects responsible as they prepare to present the merits of their schemes live at the festival in October.”
The 2014 festival is being held in Singapore for the third time, taking place between 1 – 3 October. The winners of each future project and completed building category are put forward to compete for the coveted World Building or Future Project of the Year award, presided over by the festival’s ‘super-jury’, with the presentation of the award being the culmination of WAF 2014.
This year’s ‘super jury’ comprises a selection of the world’s leading architects and designers, led by renowned British architect Lord Richard Rogers. Rogers will be joined on the super-jury by Rocco Yim (Hong Kong), Julie Eizenberg (USA), Enric Ruiz Geli (Spain) and Peter Rich (South Africa).
Two additional prizes will be awarded at this year’s festival for the first time to reward the creative use of colour and materials: The Exterior Colour Prize, sponsored by AkzoNobel; and the Wood Excellence Prize, sponsored by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC).
The theme for WAF’s main conference sessions in 2014 will be ‘Architects and the City’. Speakers will examine the contribution architects can make, and the way they affect and are affected by, politics, infrastructure, planning, communities and technology. Presentations and panel discussions will feature prominent architects including keynote speeches from Lord Richard Rogers (UK); Moshe Safdie (Canada) and Rocco Yim (Hong Kong); and representatives from policy-makers and urban organisations.
World Architecture Festival is collocated with INSIDE World Festival of Interiors www.insidefestival.com. INSIDE celebrates the world’s finest interiors of the last year and also has at its heart a live international awards programme.
For more information visit: www.worldarchitecturefestival.com
(source: v2com)