Twelve big-picture architectural initiatives addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges have won the first of this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards. The 2021 WAFX Awards celebrate project proposals from across the world tackling today’s global issues, ranging from pandemic control and the climate emergency to social equity, cultural identity, ageing populations, and food supply.

The WAFX Award winners are all selected from entries to the Future Projects category in the WAF Awards Program, for their ambition and scope. This year’s category winners include a fast installation modular hospital for epidemic prevention, a floating eco-campus off Manhattan Island, a grand prototype smart transportation city from Bjarke Ingles and Toyota, a zero-carbon office development in central London, the world’s first high-rise data centre in Shanghai, and a new eco-tourism typology at Cagbalete Island, Philippines.

View a selection of images of the WAFX Award winners here.

Live interviews with the 12 WAFX Awards winners will take place at WAF Futures, a free-to-view virtual event taking place from July 12 to 14, 2021, sponsored by GROHE. After presenting their project, each winner will be in conversation with a specially selected guest, a studio panel including esteemed architect Alison Brooks; Founding Partner of Ash Sakula Architects Cany Ash; Head of Architecture at Royal Academy Vicky Richardson, and more. The overall WAFX winner will be announced at the 2021 World Architecture Festival which returns this year as a physical event, taking place in Lisbon for the first time, from December 1 to 3.

Paul Finch, Director of the World Architecture Festival, comments: “This year’s WAFX winners feature an inspiring set of ideas and approaches in respect of many of the major issues of our time. From all-wood offices to conceptual projects combining nature with the man-made, architects have once again shown how design can be deployed to tackle challenges and investigate opportunities.”

The shortlist of the WAF Future Projects Award supported by ABB, also announced today, will also be under discussion at WAF Futures, at a session on July 12 with WAF Director Paul Finch, WAF Curator Jeremy Melvin, and members of the guest studio panel. Representatives of over 180 finalist projects from 40 countries will go on to compete live in front of a judging panel at WAF in December to decide the winner of each of the Future Project categories, ranging from Office, Residential, Education, and Health to Culture, Leisure and Experimental. The best overall future project will also be judged and announced at the Lisbon event. Competing practices include Eric Parry Architects, SHoP, WilkinsonEyre, Bates Smart, and AHMM.

View the WAF Future Project Award shortlist here.

To register for a free WAF Future event ticket please visit: www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/wafutures-registration.

The event runs in conjunction with WasteBuild, an event for the international construction industry dedicated to the new circular built environment, which takes place on the same virtual platform from July 15 to 16.

For more details on the 2021 World Architecture Festival and sister event Inside Festival of Interiors please visit www.worldarchitecturefestival.com and www.insidefestival.com.

The WAFX 2021 Category Prize Winners are:

Ageing winner: “Taikang Community Gui Garden” by Sunlay

This design concept originates from the local natural landscape and culture of the Guangxi region, China, known for its mountainous terrain, rivers, and stunning rice terraces. It uses modern design techniques to reinterpret the landscape of picturesque villages, to create an ideal natural living environment for elderly communities, including residential accommodation, medical care, an activity centre, and support for independent living.

Climate, Energy and Carbon winner: “Paradise, London” by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Paradise will transform a disused site in South London, UK, into 60,000 sqft of net carbon zero work and maker space. The landmark timber-framed building will have an exposed cross-laminated timber structure and natural light and ventilation. Designed to be future flexible, and low energy in use, it’s also designed with an easily disassembled structure as part of its end-of-life strategy. The proposal is on target for almost 60 years of a negative carbon footprint.

Construction Technology winner: “Museum for Architecture + Residences” by Sou Fujimoto Architects

The condominium tower, including a museum for architecture, is based on traditional Bahay Kubo huts, reinterpreted in a bamboo grid-like structure, and intertwined with natural fauna to create an evolving vertical forest. The concept-driven design is a vertical extrusion of the rice fields that once covered the project site in Laguna, Philippines.

Cultural Identity winner: “Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi” by the Department of Culture and Tourism-Abu Dhabi

The UAE’s National Museum, designed by Foster + Partners, tells the story of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the United Arab Emirates, and showcases the country’s history, cultural heritage, and recent social and economic transformation. The highly efficient, contemporary form is combined with traditional Arabic design and hospitality.

Digital Technology winner: “Shenzhen Qianhai Telecommunication Centre” by Schneider+Schumacher International GmbH

This telecommunications centre in Shenzhen, China, is destined to become the world’s first high-rise data centre. Its lower floors will relate to the tower’s urban surroundings and the public life of the city, while the top floor will feature a large terrace for IT workers, offering daylight and views of the city and the bay. The lively façade reflects the building’s computational theme and incorporates and interactive elements that move with the wind.

Ethics and Values winner: “#WeThePlanet Campus” by 3deluxe

This mobile, floating green platform off the Manhattan shoreline is designed for convening international summits, workshops, and educational programs which focus on transforming our world for a better future. The fluid, organic design concept responds to the natural elements surrounding it, water, sun, and wind, and the biotope is designed to give as much as it takes from nature while generating its own energy and drinking water.

Food winner: “Cagbalete Sand Clusters” by Carlo Calma Consultancy Inc.

This proposal for a new sustainable eco-tourism typology at Cagbalete Island, Philippines, 

is designed to bring uplift to local farming and fishing industries, including mud crab farming. The mixed-use development is designed to mix farming and leisure, including a farm-to-table restaurant focusing on local plants and produce. It is constructed from a prefabricated unit system inspired by the areas’ coral, made from a membrane of fishing nets, sand, and soil.

Health winner: “The Deformable Modularized COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention Hospital, Shanghai” by the School of Architecture and Design, China University of Mining and Technology

This fast installation modular hospital is designed as a rapid response solution to large-scale infectious diseases such as SARS and COVID-19. The scheme takes the modular isolation “ward” as the core module, and “treatment,” “office,” and “cleaning” as auxiliary modules, allowing for the rapid construction of hospitals of different combinations and sizes. The scheme is designed to be easy to store, transport, construct and adapt when it reaches the end of use.

Re-use winner: “Silo City” by STUDIO V Architecture

Silo City is a design vision for the re-use of the largest collection of grain elevators in the world, transforming a 1,000,000 sq. ft site on the Buffalo River, New York, into an art and cultural campus. Silo City will accommodate both grassroots and internationally renowned institutions and artists, supported by sustainable development including commercial, residential, and hospitality that grow out of the themes, architecture, and history of the site.

Smart Cities winner: “Toyota Woven City” by B.I.G. Architecture D.P.C.

Toyota Woven City is the world’s first urban incubator dedicated to the advancement of all aspects of mobility at the foothills of Mount Fuji in Japan. With a primary street optimised for faster, autonomous vehicles, a recreational promenade for micro-mobility types such as bicycles and scooters, and a linear park dedicated to pedestrians, flora, and fauna, it aims to bring equality to different forms of travel, and create safer, pedestrian-friendly connections.

Social Equity winner: “A Resilient Duplex for Fort Severn First Nation” by Two Row Architect and KPMB Architects

This housing typology is based on close consultation with Fort Severn First Nation, the northernmost community in Ontario, accessible only by air and ice roads. The durable, easily transportable construction system is designed to help elderly people live independently in the community for longer, while also providing units for young families, who often end up living in overcrowded conditions with parents and siblings for lack of other options.

Water winner: “Horizon Manila” by William Ti, Jr.

Horizon Manila is a 419-hectare master plan designed to serve as a new hub for growth and development for the Philippines’s capital. The new district is composed of three islands bisected by a 4 km canal park, creating many different waterside neighbourhoods, gardens, and urban parks, to allow for a diverse, and permeable urban environment to evolve.

About WAF Futures

WAF Futures, sponsored by GROHE, takes place online (on Swapcard) from July 12 to 14, 2021.

Free-to-view for all architects and design professionals, WAF Futures will include a program of architectural content showcasing solutions from WAFX prize winners who tackle some of the biggest issues facing the world. The winning designs will cover climate, energy, and carbon; Water; Food; Ageing; Health; Re-use; Smart cities; Construction technology; Cultural identity; Ethics and values; Social Equity; and Digital technology. The WAF Futures week will also feature WAF categories shortlist announcements from the main WAF Awards program, comprising 44 categories covering completed buildings, interiors, future projects, and landscapes, and live interviews with the winners of the WAFX Awards.

WAF Futures is co-located with WasteBuild which takes place online from July 15 to 16, 2021, the must-attend event for the international construction industry to be inspired, meet new contacts, and win business in the new circular built environment sector. It is focused on showcasing circular and regenerative solutions for the built environment and practical and scalable solutions to help reduce embodied carbon.

About World Architecture Festival (WAF)

World Architecture Festival and INSIDE World Festival of Interiors will take place at the FIL exhibition centre, Lisbon, from December 1 to 3, 2021.

WAF is where the world architecture community meets to celebrate, learn, exchange, and be inspired.

WAF is the world’s largest annual, international, live architectural event. It includes the biggest international architectural awards program in the world, dedicated to celebrating excellence via live presentations to an audience of high-profile delegates and international juries.

The 2021 World Architecture Festival (WAF) comprises:

• A thematic conference program (based on the theme “Greening the City”)
• Electronic gallery of all Award entries
• Exhibition area
• Live judging of finalists’ projects
• Networking and social events including partner fringe events
• Winners Dinner

INSIDE World Festival of Interiors runs alongside WAF, with its own awards and conference program. Delegates have access to both events.

WAF and INSIDE are organised by EMAP, publishers of The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal.

Sponsors:

WAF is proud to work with all our valued partners including Founder Partner, GROHE, and headline partners ABB and Miele.

About GROHE

GROHE is a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings. GROHE is headquartered in Germany has been part of the LIXIL Group Corporation since 2014. Our products combine award-winning design with the most sophisticated technologies and the highest-quality materials.

As the founding sponsor of the World Architecture Festival, we are proud to support this important event for the twelfth consecutive year at the RAI Amsterdam. In addition to presenting our latest collections, we’ll be offering complimentary food and drinks every day, making the GROHE stand an ideal rendezvous and networking point during the event. If you’re arriving straight from the airport, enjoy a light breakfast on the GROHE stand with our compliments. We have invited many leading developers and GROHE partners to enjoy this annual spectacle of architecture and we are sure they would enjoy meeting the crème de la crème of the industry on our stand.

Pass by our stand this year and be the first to see the unveiling of our latest collections at the Festival. GROHE will present our first 3D metal-printed faucets combining cutting-edge technology with spectacular design, together with our Essence Colors and water filtering solutions called GROHE Blue Home turning tap water into freshwater.

As in previous years, GROHE is sponsoring the World Building of the Year Award, which will be presented at the end of the Gala Dinner. GROHE is also sponsoring the awards for the categories Hotel and Leisure, Housing, and Residential.

If you’re presenting a project at the Festival, we wish you the very best of luck!

About ABB

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader with a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years. Today ABB focuses on digital industries with four customer-focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion and Robotics/Discrete Automation, supported by its common ABB Ability™ digital platform. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 147,000 employees.

Within the electrification business, ABB’s German daughter Busch-Jaeger Elektro is one of the world’s leading suppliers of electrical solutions for the building sector, and its expertise can be found proven in numerous hotels, condominiums, offices, retail-, public-, cultural- and residential buildings around the globe.

Solutions provided include the whole range of products: from innovative, design-oriented wiring accessories to the control of building functions via touch panels, smart phones—tablets as well as voice control.

The ABB Busch-Jaeger portfolio stands for maximizing the comfort and safety in buildings for building users and minimizing energy consumption and overall ecological footprint.

ABB’s “Mission to ZERO” campaign 2019/20 draws worldwide attention to ABB’s cutting-edge technological portfolio.

About Miele

Miele is held in high esteem as the world’s leading manufacturer of premium appliances for cooking, laundry care, and floor care. Miele also makes dishwashers, washing machines, and tumble dryers for commercial use as well as appliances for the reprocessing of medical instruments and laboratory equipment (“Miele Professional”). With its own sales companies or importers, Miele is represented in about 100 countries.

The Miele company, founded in 1899, has eight production plants in Germany as well as one plant each in Austria, the Czech Republic, China, and Romania. 2017/18 turnovers amounted to approx. EUR 4.1 bn with sales outside Germany accounting for 70%. Miele is represented with its own sales subsidiaries and via importers in almost 100 countries. The Miele company, now in the fourth generation of family ownership, employs a workforce of around 20,100, 11,200 thereof in Germany. The company headquarters are located in Gütersloh/Westphalia, Germany.