The World Architecture Festival explores tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities in architecture and interior design

The annual World Architecture Festival (WAF) will take place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore 6-8 November. In addition to the world’s biggest live-judged awards programme, this year’s event will include a live events programme and keynote talks from an international panel of speakers around the theme ¨Tomorrow¨.

WAF and its co-located event, the Inside World Festival of Interiors, will welcome the world’s leading architects and designers for three days of talks programmes, awards, exhibitions and fringe events, showcasing leading international practices, the best new projects, and most pressing live debates. This is where the world architecture community meets to celebrate, learn, exchange and be inspired.

Lighthouse by 3XN. Photo: Adam Mørk

The 17th edition of the festival will take place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, an innovative city that has seen extraordinary development in experimental architecture, urbanism and city planning, public transport and water management.

The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Tomorrow’, inspired by the description of architecture critic Reyner Banham as a ‘historian of the immediate future’. “We hope to shed light on what we may currently only dimly see. How will architecture, urban design, landscape and interiors be affected by the trends we see around us with respect to population movement, city growth, digital technology, AI, immersive environments and cultural change?“ says Paul Finch, director of WAF. “International speakers will be invited to reflect on the changes they see coming, and how this is being reflected in their own work and thinking.”

Photo: World Architecture Festival

Urban horizons and pragmatic utopia

The programme includes 76 international speakers and presenters across two stages. A highlight is Professor Cheong Koon Hean, chairman of Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, who will kick off the event with her talk “Urban Horizons: The Next Chapter.” She was formerly CEO of the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Housing and Development Board and contributed to the urban transformation of Singapore, introducing a new generation of smart and sustainable public housing areas.

Also speaking on the festival’s first day is Richard Whitehead, CEO and global B+P of AECOM. In his talk “Property investment, value and money. How architectural design is reshaping the economy and our cities,” he will explore how the push towards net zero buildings is reshaping valuation and design in real estate, emphasising the role of environmental sustainability.

Photo: World Architecture Festival

The second day of the festival features Jan Bunge, advisor at Squint Opera, who will elaborate on how advances in real-time rendering technology and machine learning are radically changing the way architects design, build, and operate buildings and cities. His talk is titled “The Future of Urban Design: Harnessing the Potential of Digital Experience Twins and AI.” And on the third and final day, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, partner at Bjarke Ingels Group, will conclude the formal programme with “Pragmatic Utopia” – a speculative piece about utopian thinking.

Photo: World Architecture Festival

Awards for cutting-edge design approaches

WAF represents the world’s biggest live judged architectural awards programme, where all finalists present their projects to a panel of judges at the festival. On the final day of the festival, category winners from across all 43 categories will go head-to-head for the ultimate accolades of World Building of the Year, Landscape of the Year, Future Project of the Year and Interior of the Year.

Midsommarkransen Elementary School by Tengbom AB has been nominated in WAF INSIDE: Education. The school is located in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo: Felix Gerlach

WAF’s sister awards programme, the Inside World Festival, celebrates the finest examples of global interior design, across ten categories. The overall shortlist has been selected from 800 entries and comprises over 480 projects from more than 350 unique practices.

Also WAFX, a subsidiary event within the main hall, will host technical sessions, talks, discussions and a showcase of award winners, celebrating international proposals which embrace cutting-edge design approaches to address major world issues ranging from tackling the climate emergency to building community resilience. Alongside the main categories are a host of Special Prizes including the WAFX Award. One other such special award is the GROHE Water Prize, for demonstrating a new challenge or opportunity related to design within the built environment and water. This year’s winner will receive £10,000 from GROHE to enhance their project.

Forskaren by 3XN. Photo: Marcus Stork

“With 175 judges coming to Singapore in November, this will be a truly international event and we look forward to welcoming both familiar and new names for the award presentations,” concludes Finch. “And our thematic conference programme ‘Tomorrow’ will review the directions in which architecture is heading in relation to 21st century conditions.”

Forskaren by 3XN has been nominated in WAF WAF Completed Buildings: Office. Forskaren is located in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo: Marcus Stork

Web: www.worldarchitecturefestival.com
Facebook: worldarchfest
Instagram: @worldarchfest
Twitter: @worldarchfest

Scandinavian firms shortlisted for awards at this year’s festival:

• Lighthouse by 3XN (Denmark), in WAF Completed Buildings: Housing
• Forskaren by 3XN (Denmark), in WAF Completed Buildings: Office
• Vuosaari Bioenergy Heating Plant by Kivinen Rusanen Architects (Finland), in WAF Completed Buildings: Production energy and Logistics
• Unity Arena by Rodeo Architects (Norway), in WAF Future Project: Leisure Led Development
• Tårnkvartalet by Haptic Architects & Pir 2 (Norway), in WAF Future Project: Education
• Aarhus Harbor Masterplan by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group (Denmark), in WAF Future Project: Masterplanning
• EPFL Ecotope by 3XN and IB (Denmark), in WAF Future Project: Education
• Midsommarkransen Elementary School by Tengbom AB (Sweden), in INSIDE: Education
• The Fennia Block by Olla Architectur (Finland), in INSIDE: Retail
• “Sydney Opera House: A beautiful idea” exhibition at Utzon Center Aalborg by JAC studios (Denmark), in INSIDE: Temporary/Meanwhile uses
• Architecture Firm Stockholm Office by Tengbom AB (Sweden), in INSIDE: Workplace (Large)

World Architecture Festival and Inside World Festival of Interiors will take place at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 6-8 November 2024.