Now in its eighth year, the forthcoming 2015 World Architecture Festival Awards (WAF) will take place in Suntec in central Singapore following three days of intensive live presentations and judging. Following a $180 million modernisation programme, the redesigned space will host WAF’s soundproofed crit rooms, auditorium and Festival Hall Stage. Entries are now invited from architects and designers for the 2015 edition of what is described as "the biggest architectural awards programme in the world." The awards are expected to attract more than 750 entries, around half of which will be shortlisted into thirty categories. The closing date for entries is the end of May, and shortlisting will take place in early June.
This year’s 'superjurors' include Royal Gold Medallist Sir Peter Cook (UK), Sou Fujimoto (Japan), Benedetta Tagliabue (Spain), Charles Jencks (UK/US), Kerry Hill (Singapore) and Manuelle Gautrand (France).
In addition, the WAF have announced that it will be coming to London for the first time between the 24th and 27th of June 2015. Hosted by the University of Westminster, WAF London will "celebrate international, game changing architecture, best practice, and design innovation." Running in partnership with London’s Festival of Architecture (LFA), "WAF London will not only provide free access to an extraordinary display of global architecture, interiors and landscape, but will also serve as a new platform upon which both the profession and general public can participate in the ‘big conversations’ affecting international design."
Commenting on the awards, WAF programme director Paul Finch said that "this is an exciting time for the wards, with no predictions possible about this year’s result. Since our launch in 2008 with our founder sponsor Grohe, we have had entries from about 70 countries round the world, and winners of every shape, size and type. Last year’s completed building winner was a community space in Ho Chi Minh city by a small Vietnamese practice, a21, but we have also had big projects winning, including Zaha Hadid’s Maxxi arts centre in Rome, and Wilkinson Eyre’s Gardens by the Bay project in Singapore."
He continued by saying that "every year we find new talent competing with established big names, and that is part of the attraction of the event, not just for entrants, but for delegates too."
The 2015 WAF Awards will be presented at a Gala Dinner on the evening of Friday 6th November. Shortlisted entrants will compete for category prizes on the first two days of the three-day festival, which takes place in the Suntec Centre on 4th, 5th and 6th of November. On the final day, category winners present again to ‘super-juries’ of experienced and respected judges, who decide on the World Landscape, Future Project and Completed Building of the Year. Past winners have included Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, Snøhetta and Vo Trong Nghia. In addition to the main awards there are prizes for small projects, use of wood and use of colour, decided by specialist juries.
All entries must be submitted in English by the 22nd May 2015. Each entry must contain a minimum of:
- six low resolution photographs (not visualisations unless it is a future project) of the project (also including elevations, sections, details and plans - maximum of 20 in total)
- three further images of a site plan, floor plan, key section
- 250 words of explanatory text describing the project (maximum of 1000 words)
- one high resolution image, up to 300dpi (and a maximum of three)
Full submission requirements can be found here.
