COMPLIED BY Gina Dionisio
The World Architecture Festival 2024 winners have been announced.
Earlier this year the World Architecture Festival (WAF) revealed its shortlist of over 480 projects up for awards in 2024, as well as its INSIDE World of Interiors 2024 shortlist and list of WAFX 2024 winners.
Among the 480 contenders where five South African projects:
- Savage + Dodd Architects have been shortlisted in the WAF Completed Buildings: Creative Re-use category for the University of the Witwatersrand Flower Hall Test & Examination Centre.
- SAOTA has been shortlisted in the WAF Completed Buildings: Housing category for their Upper Albert project. SAOTA have had numerous projects shortlisted over the years, including their pink Buffelsdrift Farm House.
- GASS Architecture Studios has been shortlisted in the WAF Completed Buildings: School category for Green School South Africa (which VISI featured in 2022).
- ARRCC and SAOTA are shortlisted in the WAF Future Project: Leisure Led Development category for Kalahari Dunes.
- Boogertman + Partners are shortlisted in the WAF Future Project: Residential category for #Oxford Hive.
Notably, the Green School South Africa by GASS Architecture Studios was also shortlisted for the esteemed Sustainability Prize.
Here, in no particular order, are ass the winner of this year’s World Architecture Festival:
Special Prize Winners
- Best use of Colour – The Brewhouse and Trident Park in Birkirkara, Malta by richie studio
- The Sustainability Prize supported by ROCKWOOL – White Renovation in Tehran, Iran by OLGOOCO
- Small Project of the Year – Fushi by TEZUKA ARCHITECTS
- Best use of Stone supported by Turkish Stones – 2 OH HO Residence by playarchitecture
- Best use of Natural Light supported by VELUX – ICÔNE by Foster and Partners
- GROHE Water Prize – Maotai Eco-Metaverse project by Turenscape
Overall Winners
- WAFX – Knowledge Economic City by Integrated Design Firm
- Landscape of the Year – Vitality–Shenzhen Guanlan Riverside Plaza by LAY-OUT Planning Consultants Co., Ltd
- Future Project of the Year – Küçükçekmece Djemevi by Emre Arolat
- World Interior of the Year – Pang Mei Noodle Bar LFS by OFFICE AIO
- World Building of the Year – The Darlington Public School by fjcstudio
Completed Buildings Winners
Sport
Parramatta Aquatic Centre | Grimshaw and ABA with McGregor Coxall
The new Parramatta Aquatic Centre (PAC) is located at Mays Hill, the traditional lands of the Burramattagal, a group of the Dharug people. The pool reinvents the traditional aquatic centre typology, creating a new place where the quality of outdoor landscape and recreational space defines the experience.
House & Villa (urban) sponsored by Grohe
Arthur Residence | 5468796 Architecture
The Arthur Residence was designed for a finish carpenter and emergency room doctor from South Africa with a passion for gardening. The couple was seeking a modest sanctuary with ample space for privacy and respite from the outside world.
School
Darlington Public School | fjcstudio
The school is a community school with strong connections to Aboriginal people. The design seamlessly connects the school to its surroundings, offering glimpses of the inner courtyard from the main entrance, promoting a sense of privacy and community for the children.
Office
Forskaren | 3XN
Sited prominently at the heart of Stockholm’s Hagastaden district, an emerging quarter for innovation and entrepreneurship in health and life sciences, the landmark building provides a centre of activity and a knowledge sharing forum for the whole district.
Culture
Istanbul Modern | Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Istanbul Modern was founded in 2004 as Türkiye’s first museum of modern and contemporary art. The museum’s new building designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, which opened on May 4, 2023, replaces its original building at the same location, an old customs warehouse on the Bosphorus waterfront.
Production, energy and logistics
Kalyon Karapınar 1.350-MWp-SPP, Central-Control Building | Bilgin Architects
The building is located in Karapınar/Konya, the only region in Turkey with a desert climate. A 20-square-kilometre area in this region, which has become unsuitable for agriculture but holds significant energy potential due to its desert climate, is designated as an energy specialisation area.
Civic & Community
National Star Observatory | Kyriakos-Tsolakis-Architects
The mountain locations population has steadily been declining and the architects sought to create a memorable landmark that will be an attractor in its own right, bringing people to the region and creating a micro economy around it.
Housing, sponsored by Grohe
Nightingale Village | Architecture architecture, Austin Maynard Architects, Breathe, Clare Cousins Architects, Hayball, Kennedy Nolan
Nightingale Housing brought together 6 architects; Architecture architecture, Austin Maynard Architects, Breathe, Clare Cousins Architects, Hayball and Kennedy Nolan to acquire the Nightingale Village site in Brunswick in 2017. As architect and developer, their vision was to create a fossil fuel-free precinct in a central location, providing long-term homes for a diverse community.
Creative Reuse
Pumphouse | 5468796 Architecture
A mixed-use redevelopment on former railway lands, Pumphouse showcases innovation inspired by heritage, site, and budget challenges, sparking new ideas about attainable housing design and city-building.
House & Villa (rural/coastal) sponsored by Grohe
Touching Eden House | Wallflower Architecture + Design
It is very rare in built-up urban Singapore for a house to be located on such a pristine site, with captivating 180-degree unblocked views of the Botanic Gardens.
Mixed Use
88 Walker | fitzpatrick+partners
Conceived as a tower crafted from a pair of tall slender forms, 88 Walker contrasts with the wider proportions of its neighbours acting as a focal point on the skyline. The development lies at the heart of the North Sydney CBD integrated with the heritage Firehouse hotel.
Display
MemutAR 竹旋幻居 | Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd.
MemutAR 竹旋幻居 is a design research exhibition project featuring an elegant bamboo pavilion, nested next to a beautiful little lake at a University Campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Transport
Metropolitan Bus Station | Tremend
The bus station with accompanying platforms is the heart of the ZCK’s multi-purpose development in Lublin in a suburban post-industrial area – bringing together unique visual features and diverse greenery in its public space. Despite the concentration of transport services here, close to the Lublin Główny railway station (long-distance and local bus traffic, public transport, taxi, own car access, bicycle and pedestrian traffic), it stands out perfectly in its surroundings.
Shopping
Newson’s Yard | Stiff+Trevillion
This existing builder’s yard on Pimlico Road has been renovated and rebuilt as a world class retail space with a public route through the site and integrated with the neighbouring design quarter. The key feature of the design of Newson’s Yard is the dramatic double height space at the centre of the existing yard providing daylight and sunlight in the public areas and retail units on ground and mezzanine levels. The yard is accessed via two gently sloping arcades enabling full accessibility for the public.
Health
Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre | Lyons
The Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre (PFMCC) in Melbourne, Australia is a product of Alfred Health’s desire for a singular highly visible centre for melanoma cancer treatment and research, focussing on supporting high-end research into cancer, and creating a building focussed on a patient centred experience.
Retrofit
Rhodes House Transformation | Stanton Williams
Designed by Sir Herbert Baker and completed in 1929, Rhodes House is located on South Parks Road, in central Oxford. Set within extensive gardens, the building is the historic headquarters of the Rhodes Trust, an educational charity which oversees the world-renowned Rhodes Scholarships at the University of Oxford and several other global fellowship programmes.
Hotel and Leisure
TAWA Refugio | CONTEXTO
At the intersection of the Puelo River and Tagua Tagua Lake lies TAWA, a hotel for travellers seeking to enter a valley of steep mountains and ancient trees.
Higher Education and Research
Waimarie – Lincoln University Science Facility | Warren and Mahoney in association with Lab-Works
Waimarie is designed as an epicentre for education and research in land-based science. The facility stimulates inter-organisational partnerships, industry-wide collaborations and features state-of-the-art teaching, research and collaboration spaces complemented by multi-use flexible workspace and social zones, all set within a biodiverse park-like environment.
Future Projects Winners
Infrastructure
Chaarkhaan Bridge | Bonsar Architects
The design of the Chaarkhaan Bridge aims to connect the historical architecture of Iran, the urban planning of Isfahan, and the Contemporary needs of today’s urban life.
Leisure led development
Unity Arena | Rodeo Architects
Unity Arena is a transformation project aimed at creating a vibrant new entertainment district, and becoming the heart of a new urban centre at Fornebu, Oslo, Norway.
Competition entries
Retal Mosque | Pace
Retal Mosque stands as a breathtaking gem nestled in the heart of Nesaj Town 2, beckoning worshippers to find solace within its sacred walls. Embodying Retal’s ethos of “We Build for Generations,” the mosque’s design seamlessly breathes life into its surrounding community, offering a haven of tranquility amidst the bustling urban landscape.
Civic
Küçükçekmece Djemevi | EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture
The Küçükçekmece Djemevi was designed considering the sociological atmosphere created by the pressure of such marginalisation, alongside the constantly redefined identity issue of Alevism and the community’s need for a legitimate space.
Office
Institut Thoracique de Montréal | NEUF Architect(e)s
Constructed in the 1930s as the Royal Edward Institute, the Montreal Chest Institute (MCI) was a key medical centre in the history of Montreal and Quebec. A surgical wing was added in the 1950’s. Neglected and finally abandoned, the campus will now be revived as a new life sciences hub specialising in research into respiratory illnesses, continuing the site’s original vocation at the foot of Mount-Royal.
Sport
Coronation Park Sports & Recreation Centre | hcma & Dub Architects in conjunction with FaulknerBrowns Architects
Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre is an innovative hub that brings together high-performance sport and community recreation in one, world-class facility.
Masterplanning
The Greenline Project Master Plan | ASPECT Studios, TCL, City of Melbourne
The Master Plan serves as a roadmap to transform four kilometres of riverfront promenade. This connected network will create a sequence of inspiring public spaces, fostering a vibrant community hub. The Greenline Project represents a transformative shift in the way people will relate to the city and its river.
Experimental
AGRITECTURE – future experimental homes/ workspace- multi functional – Greenhouse Living (Architecture + Agriculture) | tHE gRID Architects
AGRITECTURE merges agricultural and architectural principles to craft a prototype that enhances greenhouse functionality, focusing on self-sustainability and ecological integration.
Culture
Creative Cluster in Riyadh | IND
Spanning an expansive plot area of approximately 133,600 square metres, the Creative Cluster encapsulates a blend of culture and commerce, featuring co-working spaces, hotels, museum galleries, cafes, retail outlets, workshops, restaurants, and more. The design aims to cater to both local residents and international creatives, fostering an environment conducive to the growth of talents and imaginative minds.
House
Meru | SAOTA
The Meru Oak is a rare tree species found only in significant parts of Kenya. A strong presence of this iconic species on site inspired a series of contextual research topics and, together with the client’s desire to pay homage to her traditional upbringing, led us on a path of reinterpreting the fascinating Swahili tribal lifestyle. This break-away house, located on the midland outskirts of Mombasa, draws strong reference to the traditional built environment of the ‘kraal’.
Residential
Regent’s View Bethnal Green | RSHP
The development site, located in Bethnal Green / London Borough of Tower Hamlets, has been an industrial facility since the mid-19th Century and prior to that marsh land – and has never accommodated residential use before. The urban context has evolved significantly throughout the site history. Former industrial sites are incredibly complex, covering challenges such as historic contamination and tight site logistics.
Education
University of Tasmania Forestry Building | Woods Bagot
The project consists of the restoration and redevelopment of the former Forestry Building in Hobart CBD: the centrepiece of University of Tasmania’s Southern Campus Transformation.
Commercial mixed-use
Shoupé mixed-use project | KanLan Studio
Shoupé mixed use project seeks to enhance the neighbourhood organisation as the most efficient and the public space and the neighbourhood. Shoupé is a mixed-use project situated along the Babolsar coastline, adjacent to urban areas on the seafront. Spanning 18 floors and covering 22,000 square meters on a 4,000 square meter plot, it offers small-size residential units alongside diverse shared amenities, services, and recreational facilities.
Health
Tatamá Hospital | aRE Arquitectura en estudio, OPUS diseño arquitectura paisaje, ABALARK
This project aims to link the interior with exterior, to provide necessary spaces for advanced technological equipment, and to reinterpret local architectural characteristics from Colombia’s coffee region.
INSIDE Winners
Hotels
Fasano Itaim | Studio mk27
Fasano Itaim is an ode to classic elegance. The Italian family, devoted to hospitality for three generations, forged a brand over the principles of excellence and warm service. Its interiors are dark, walls covered in Brazilian freijó wood, with very punctual lighting. A diffuse natural brightness filtered by continuous linen curtains creates an ethereal atmosphere.
Workplace (large)
CSL Global Headquarters and Centre for Research & Development | COX Architecture
CSL’s new Corporate and R&D headquarters at Elizabeth Street Melbourne provides a future-ready environment enabling the organisation to continue its contribution to Bio-Medical science. The project includes agile workplaces, development laboratories, exhibition spaces for external stakeholders and an extensive variety of meeting, collaboration and breakout spaces.
Workplace (small)
Penn Color Technology Center | DP Design
In the conceptualisation of Penn Color’s pioneering Design Centre in Asia, a coating industry workshop for both designers and clients, the design prioritised three things in its scheme: simplicity and sustainability, user-centrism and a different perspective to industrial space design.
Temporary/Meanwhile uses
Backpack Housing | HKU/ Superposition
The prototype system occupies the second and third floor of an apartment tower scheduled for redevelopment in the near future. In anticipation of this process, these spaces were carefully and minimally restructured to provide space for the inhabitation. Existing partitions have been removed and utilities reinstated providing generous communal areas, and cooking and bathing facilities built around existing the service cores. This remaking is informed by the demolition of the building in the coming years and creates little additional work – any enhancements are designed to be deployable on new transitional sites.
Public Buildings
Embassy of Australia, Washington D.C. | Bates Smart
Materiality and light are key in expressing the building’s design where the appearance of the facade changes throughout the day depending on the viewer’s perspective. The interplay of angled copper cladding and extensive glazing combine to create a dynamic and engaging expression of Australia that is also respectful of Capitol Hill’s architectural style.
Retail
Fender Flagship Tokyo | Klein Dytham architecture
Harajuku, Tokyo’s vibrant street-style shopping mecca, is the apt home of Fender’s first flagship store of its nearly 80 year history of pioneering electric guitar design. An interior renovation of the iconic glass-walled The Ice Cubes building, the store opens up four floors to offer a chic and unprecedented guitar-shopping environment. As a hub of all things Fender, it’s an immersive retail experience — a destination of discovery that includes personalised customer services, bespoke guitars, gallery exhibits, an event space, a cafe and opportunities to try instruments and equipment.
Bars and Restaurants
Pang Mei Noodle Bar LFS | OFFICE AIO
Interior space was strategically sectioned to facilitate different operational needs while engages and energises its surroundings. With the benefit of a wide facade, the design carves out a corridor along the façade, a linear zone for grab-and-go orders and double-sided window seats that takes advantage of the arterial walkway and exposure to the courtyard. Service windows of varying sizes protrude along the kitchen into the corridor, streamlining service for this bustling section.
Residential
twentyfour | 3DM Architecture
twentyfour emerges as a contemporary reimagining of conventional architectural norms, situated in Rabat, Malta. The residence seamlessly integrates with its surroundings by adhering to the timeless aesthetics of Maltese architecture while infusing a contemporary sensibility. This synthesis between traditional Maltese architecture and a modern aesthetic is not confined to the exterior; it permeates every aspect of the residence.
Education
WSU Bankstown City Campus | HDR
The Western Sydney University Bankstown City Campus, designed by HDR, embodies a groundbreaking approach to tertiary education architecture, introducing a hybrid “omniverse” model. Developed in collaboration with Lyons, Western Sydney University, and Walker Corporation, the campus accommodates up to 10,000 students and 1,000 staff, fostering universal collaboration in a technology-rich environment. The 18-storey structure integrates 32 adaptable learning and research studios, emphasising agnostic and informal learning.
World Architecture Festival and Inside World Festival of Interiors takes place at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, on 6 – 8 November 2024. | worldarchitecturefestival.com
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