The finalists for the 2021 World Building of the Year and Landscape of the Year awards

The 2021 edition of the World Architecture Festival is coming up! In preparation for the big event in Lisbon on December 1 through 3, 2021, entitled: “Resetting the City: Greening, Health and Urbanism”, the finalists have been announced for the top two WAF prizes: the 2021 World Building of the Year and the 2021 Landscape of the Year, prizes for architecture and landscape projects completed in the past two years anywhere in the world. Despite travel restrictions and the slow-down in production as a result of the problems generated by the pandemic which began in 2020 and is still with us, the new edition of the WAF saw a major increase in candidacies, up 44% over the previous edition. 732 projects from 55 different countries all over the world were entered, and in fact World Architecture Festival director Paul Finch has said that the quantity and quality of the entries received promise to make this the most competitive edition of the competition ever.
The candidates are buildings and landscapes completed between 2019 and 2021; landscapes are divided into two categories, one for natural settings and the other for urban projects. Buildings are broken down into 20 different categories on the basis of their use, ranging from residential projects to offices, from transportation to schools, from places of worship to places of culture, sports, and community living, as well as a category for energy generation and recycling facilities. The awards provide a wide-ranging, diversified representation of the most beautiful and innovative proposals on the contemporary architecture scene.
The list of 200 finalists includes projects by world-famous studios such as B.I.G. Architecture, Zaha Hadid Architects, Foster + Partners, Rafael Viñoly Architects, Grimshaw Architects and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), to mention only a few, as well as other architectural practices not so well known to the general public. All the architects and designers selected as finalists will have an opportunity to present their projects to a hundred judges and competition delegates from all over the world in person at WAF in Lisbon. In a procedure similar to the 2021 WAFX Awards, on the final day of the festival, a jury of big names in the world of architecture will choose from among the winners in all the categories and announce to an international public the winners of the top awards, the World Building of the Year, Future Project of the Year, Interior of the Year and Landscape of the Year.

The panel of judges appointed to award the title of World Building of the Year includes Jeanne Gang, founder and director of Studio Gang, Abdelkader Damani, artistic director of Frac Centre-Val de Loire and the Biennale d'Architecture d'Orléans, Kim Herforth Nielsen, co-founder and director of 3XN Architects, and Christina Seilern, director of Studio Seilern.
The judges awarding the title of Landscape of the Year include landscape architect and reporter Robert Schäfer, Brita von Schoenaich, director of Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape, Lily Jencks, founder of LilyJencksStudio | JencksSquared, and Todd Langstaff-Gowan, landscape architect, historian, author and collector from Todd Longstaffe-Gowan Landscape Design.

Keep up with events in Lisbon December 1 through 3, 2021 to find out who are the winners during the World Architecture Festival and the parallel event INSIDE World Festival of Interiors.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of World Architecture Festival

Captions: completed building

01 Civic - 20455 JKMM Architects Kirkkonummi Library

02 Clockwise: Al Hosn Masterplan by Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi; Eden by Heatherwick Studio; Chinese Culture Exhibition Center by Qingdao Tengyuan Design; Majara Residency by ZAV Architects

03 Culture - 19878 Architectural buro A2M ZOYA museum

04 Display - 20389 Powerhouse Company Loop of Wisdom photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud

05 Health - JKMM Architects Hospital Nova of Central Finland photo by Kuvio M Sommerschield

06 Higher Eductaion & Research - 20970 WeissManfredi Architects Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking

07 Hotel & Leisure - 20908 Klein Dytham architecture PokoPoko Clubhouse

Captions Landscape

Nature Context Landscape

08 18858 A skywalk as a ramp creates an experience of walking above the mangrove canopy
Turenscape Deep Form of Design Sanja Mangrove Park

09 - 18978 ECOLAND Planning and Design Corp. / Sichuan Provincial Architectural Design and Research Institute CO.,LTD., From a Concrete Riverbank to a Vibrant Riverfront Park——Suining South Riverfront Park, Sichuan Suining, China

10 - 19062 L&A Design Hongshan Lake Civil Park
Shenzhen L&A Design Holding Limited, Hongshan Lake Civil Park, Anshun, Guizhou Province, China

11 - 19089 Change Studio Valley Forest
Change Studio, Valley Forest－Waterfront Park of Chongqing Cultural Tourism Town, Chongqing, China

12 - 20927 ENOTA Koper Central Park
ENOTA d.o.o., Koper Central Park, Koper, Slovenia

Urban Context Landscape

13 - 18859 An Attraction in the Night_A Ramp Integrated with Metal Installation
Turenscape and MAParchitects Design Office, Revitalizing Kazan's Prime Waterfront, Kazan, Russia

14 - 19108 L&A Design Plot 140 POLY Guanggang
Shenzhen L&A Design Holding Limited, Plot 140 POLY | Guanggang, Guangzhou, China

15 - 20770 FOREST PAVILION
Foster and Partners (Architect) & TK Studio Co., Ltd. (Landscape), FOREST PAVILION, THE FORESTIAS, Samut Prakan, Thailand

16 - 19498 Hamburg River Promenade © Piet Niemann
Zaha Hadid Architects, Niederhafen River Promenade, Hamburg, Germany

---

GALLERY