03-12-2019

World Architecture Festival 2019 Finalists

EFFEKT, Rafael Viñoly, Büro Ole Scheeren, Larry Wen, KTX archiLAB, Challenge Design,

Rasmus Hjortshoij, Huang Ligang, Stirling Elmendorf, Maxx Nikonov, Lujing,

Amsterdam, Viborg, Danimarca, Chengdu, China, Himeji City, Japan, New York, USA, Bangkok,

World Architecture Festival,

From December 4 to 6 the World Architecture Festival 2019 will be held in Amsterdam, with three days of conferences, exhibitions and side events, in addition to the much-awaited awards. On the final day, in fact, the winners of the four main prize categories will be announced: World Building of the Year, Future Project of the Year, Interior of the Year and Landscape of the Year. In the meantime, let’s look at some of the finalists.



World Architecture Festival 2019 Finalists

The countdown is finally over: the World Architecture Festival 2019 is just around the corner, set to take place from December 4 to 6 and, for the second consecutive year, ready to transform Amsterdam into the world capital of architecture. Following the previous editions held in Barcelona, Singapore and Berlin, the 2018 edition of WAF was in fact also held in Amsterdam. It is expected that more than 500 architectural projects will be presented over the three days of the 2019 event, with the winners of the four main prizes to be announced on the final day: World Building of the Year, Future Project of the Year, Interior of the Year and Landscape of the Year. The winners will be selected by an expert jury made up of eminent personalities of the architecture world including Aaron Betsky, president of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Anuradha Mathur, professor in the Landscape Architecture Department School of Design, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Maria Warner Wong, Design Director of WOW Architects & Warner Wong Design. The 100 international juries and delegates of the festival also have a lot of work ahead of them, responsible for selecting the winners in more than 30 categories from amongst the 534 projects admitted to the final phase. The World Architecture Festival 2019 has attracted more than 70 countries around the world, with architecture works ranging from private residential projects to public projects in various sectors including education, infrastructure, health care, hospitality, cultural/civic, as well as interior and landscape projects. Taking a closer look at the different countries that participated in the Festival, once again the largest number of projects come from firms based in China, which in fact saw a 68% increase compared to 2018 participants. Other countries that saw a significant increase in candidate projects are Russia, India, together with the UK and Italy in Europe. A ranking of the top five countries with the highest number of projects shortlisted for the WAF 2019 event sees China and Hong Kong firmly in the lead, followed by Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and India. The final phase includes a range of works from architecture firms whose names are not yet known on the international scene, as well as entries from renowned studios including Zaha Hadid Architects, Heatherwick Studio, Bjarke Ingels Group, Rafael Viñoly Architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Grimshaw and White Arkitekter, to name just a few.

Browsing the list of finalist architecture works, some of the most photographed and iconic projects include: the MahaNakhon tower in Bangkok designed by the Buro Ole Scheeren architecture studio, with its façade of pixels that seems to dissolve into the city; the Courtyard No.1 office building located by the sea in the city of Heze, in China and designed by architect Larry Wen; the 277 Fifth Avenue skyscraper designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, one of the tallest residential towers in Manhattan; the Morpheus Hotel resort designed by the Zaha Hadid Architects firm in Macao; the Cloud of Luster, a wedding chapel designed by the KTX archiLAB architecture firm that looks like a cloud floating on water; the new distillery of the famous Macallan Scottish whiskey brand, designed by the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners firm; the lively sports centre for street sports designed by EFFEKT Architects, transforming an abandoned factory in the city of Viborg, in Denmark; Oodi, the new central library in Helsinki, designed by the ALA Architects studio; and the Park Legend Kindergarten, an unconventional kindergarten designed by the Challenge Design architecture firm in Chengdu, China.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of World Architecture Festival:
photo by Maxx Nikonov (1), Huang Ligang (2), Rafael Viñoly Architects (3), Virgile Simon Bertrand (4), Stirling Elmendorf (5), Mark Power (6), Rasmus Hjortshøj (7), Tuomas Uusheimo (8), Lujing (9).

Credits
01) MahaNakhon by Buro Ole Scheeren - Bangkok, Thailand - © Maxx Nikonov
02) Courtyard No. 1 by Larry Wen - Heze, China - © Huang Ligang
03) 277 Fifth Avenue by Rafael Viñoly Architects - New York, USA - © Rafael Viñoly Architects
04) Morpheus hotel by Zaha Hadid Architects - Macao, China - © Virgile Simon Bertrand
05) Cloud of Luster by KTX archiLAB - Himeji City, Japan - © Stirling Elmendorf
06) The Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners - Speyside, UK - © Mark Power
07)GAME Streetmekka Vibrog by EFFEKT Architects - Viborg, Denmark - © Rasmus Hjortshøj / COAST
08) Oodi Helsinki Central Library by ALA Architects - Helsinki, Finland - © Tuomas Uusheimo
09) Park Legend Kindergarten by Challenge Design - Chengdu, China - © Lujing

Title: 2019 World Architecture Festival (WAF)
Date: December 4 – 6, 2019
Location: Amsterdam


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