World Architecture Festival Awards 2013 shortlist announced

Shortlist of 302 projects highlights the global strength of architecture and design Organisers see big increase in entries from Europe and North America

Singapore, July 3, 2013 – A giraffe house in New Zealand, a monastery in Taiwan, a treehouse in the USA and a research station in Antarctica are among the 302 projects that have today been shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards 2013 – the world’s biggest architectural awards programme.

Taking place at this year’s sixth annual World Architecture Festival, the WAF Awards 2013 have attracted entries from almost 50 countries. The festival’s organisers, i2i Events Group, saw projects submitted from as far afield as New Zealand and Denmark, via Mexico and Azerbaijan. The geographic spread of entries in the shortlist is further complemented by the variety of projects, from The National Arboretum in Australia, to a media centre in Kazakhstan and an opera house in South Korea.

Diamond House – Alan Tay

This year’s festival is being held in Singapore for the second time, and whilst the organisers have again seen huge interest in entries from South East Asia, entries from Europe and North America have increased by almost 40% and 14% respectively.

Buildings designed by global architects such as Zaha Hadid Architects, Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, and Robert A.M. Stern Architects feature among projects by smaller, local practices. Practices will compete across 29 individual award categories, spanning completed buildings, landscape projects and future projects, presenting their shortlisted designs live to international judging panels and festival delegates.

Paul Finch, WAF Programme Director, said: ‘Following such strong competition at last year’s awards, expectations were understandably high for the WAF Awards 2013, and the entries did not disappoint. From the subtle to the spectacular, from a four room house to an 80 storey tower, the sheer quality and diversity reflected in the array of projects shortlisted today demonstrates the increasingly global nature of the event. All eyes are now on the festival’s venue, the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, where the architects will battle to win their individual categories, with the victorious projects competing for the coveted World Building of the Year award.”

Heydar Aliyev Centre – Zaha Hadid Architects

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) is the world’s largest, live, inclusive and interactive global architecture event. Building on last year’s successful relocation from Barcelona to Singapore, the festival will once again take place at the spectacular Marina Bay Sands resort. The event is being held in association with Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA)’s festival of ideas about the city, Archifest.

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.

L’Avenue Shanghai – Leigh & Orange

For a full breakdown of the WAF Awards shortlist, please visit:
For more information visit: www.worldarchitecturefestival.com
Twitter: @worldarchfest
#waf2013
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArchitectureFestival
Linkedin:
www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1840224

Notes to editors

About WAF
World Architecture Festival (WAF) is the largest annual festival and live awards programme for the global architecture community.
It will take place at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore between 2nd – 4th October 2013.

WAF has three central pillars of activity:

• A wide-ranging conference programme, featuring keynote lectures, dozens of expert-led talks and seminars from thought-leading architects and designers from across the globe.

•  The world’s largest annual awards programme in which practices from around the world compete across 29 award categories for global recognition. Architects of every shortlisted project are invited to attend the festival to give a live presentation to a panel of judges, asserting their case for why their project should win. The winners of each category are put forward to compete for the coveted World Building of the Year award, presided over by the festival’s ‘super-jury’, with the presentation of the award being the culmination of WAF 2013. This year’s super jury includes Ken Yeang – Llewelyn Davies Yeang; Patrick Bellew – Atelier Ten; Jeanne Gang – Studio Gang Architects; Dietmar Eberle – Baumschlager Eberle and Ken Tadashi Oshima -University of Washington.

• Three festival halls where all award entries are displayed in a unique awards gallery and where sponsors and suppliers can interact with delegates, make new contacts and showcase their services and products.

As well as this the festival plays host to an international, live student charrette; parties and receptions in some of Singapore’s most exciting locations; exclusive tours to Singapore’s most recent architectural sites of interest and a celebratory gala dinner and awards ceremony.

WAF has welcomed over 10,000 attendees to date, including 1,900 in 2012. The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, itself a previous WAF Award winner, is WAF’s home for the second year running, having been held in Barcelona for four years previously, providing the perfect backdrop to this truly global architectural extravaganza.

WAF Awards Programme
The WAF Awards are the global industry benchmark for excellence. Entries were welcomed in 29 categories, spanning completed buildings, landscape projects and future projects.
Individual Categories:
Completed Buildings:

• Civic and community
• Culture
• Display
• Health
• Higher education/research
• Hotel/leisure
• House
• Housing
• New and Old
• Office
• Production/energy/recycling
• Schools
• Shopping
• Sport
• Transport
• Villa

Landscape Projects:

• Completed designs – rural and urban

Future Projects:

• Commercial mixed-use
• Competition entries
• Culture
• Education
• Experimental
• Health
• House
• Infrastructure
• Leisure-led development
• Masterplanning
• Office
• Residential

About WAF’s organisers – i2i Events Group
i2i Events Group delivers world-class exhibitions and large scale events in key sectors including home and gift, fashion, retail, healthcare, energy, environment, education, technology and media. Its portfolio of world-wide events includes World Retail Congress, RWM, Spring Fair, Naidex, BVE, Bett and Pure London. It prides itself on opening up possibilities for its customers and each year brings more than 250,000 decision makers together to network, source, test, buy and sell brilliant products, services, ideas and solutions. The company is headed up by Mark Shashoua who joined EMAP as Group MD of EMAP Connect in November 2011 and became CEO of i2i Events Group in March 2012. i2i Events Group is powered by Top Right Group, formerly known as Emap International Ltd.

About Archifest 2013
Archifest 2013, A Festival of Ideas About The City is Singapore’s annual architecture festival organised by Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA). Running from 27 September 2013 to 13 October 2013, the festival returns with a brand new theme – Small is Beautiful. Through the lens of the theme, Archifest 2013 will use the city as a laboratory and frame Singapore as an urban ecosystem beyond singular architectural projects. It will explore and celebrate projects, design studios, communities and ideas that might be small by choice and circumstance but are large in ambition and impact.

Festival highlights include Archifest Pavilion Competition Design, Archifest Forum, SIA Award Dinner, School of Urban Ideas, Architours and Fringe.

For more information, visit www.archifest.sg 

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