2025 promises to be a landmark in architecture, heralding a vibrant renaissance of creativity and exploration. As societies confront challenges such as climate change, rapid urbanization, and technological evolution, architecture is both a mirror to these dynamics and a compass pointing toward a sustainable and inclusive future. This year's architectural calendar offers abundant opportunities to celebrate the discipline's transformative power — from boundary-pushing festivals to thought-provoking exhibitions that explore pressing cultural and environmental narratives.
From well-established biennials to inaugural gatherings, including the World Architecture Festival 2025, Desert X Al Ula, and the COP Climate Conference, the 2025 calendar highlights themes such as sustainability, heritage, and community. These events underscore architecture's unique ability to shape a better future, addressing global challenges while honoring cultural diversity and design ingenuity.
Küçükçekmece Djemevi. Image Courtesy of EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture
EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture has recently released its design for the Küçükçekmece Djemevi, a new concept for a civic space in Istanbul designed to combat social exclusion and provide a comfortable and inviting environment for the Alevi community. The building is comprised of a series of interconnected spaces and structures that generate a complex topography, offering ample recreational areas and a space of identity for the local community. The concept was recognized during the World Architecture Festival 2024, earning them the award of Future Project of the Year in recognition of its social inclusivity and careful adaptation to local traditions and needs.
As the architectural landscape continues to evolve in response to pressing global challenges, events such as biennales, design weeks, and fairs play an instrumental role in shaping the profession's future. These gatherings facilitate the exchange of innovative ideas, the exploration of sustainable practices, and the fostering of collaboration among architects, designers, and urban planners. They serve not only as platforms for showcasing cutting-edge designs but also as forums for critical dialogue about the built environment's impact on society and the planet.
Happening worldwide from September to December 2024, a variety of significant events hope to engage the architectural community. The World Urban Forum in Cairo focuses on local sustainable actions, while Dubai Design Week showcases innovative design in the Middle East. The World Architecture Festival in Singapore features live project presentations, and the Architecture & Design Film Festival in New York offers compelling narratives critical to contemporary discourse.
‘(Re)membering the See Monster' by Eldry John Infante - Overall Winner . Image Courtesy of WAF
The World Architecture Festival and Prize, together with co-curators Make Architects and Sir John Soane’s Museum, have announced Filipino Architect and Illustrator Eldry John Infante as the Overall Winner of the 2023 Architecture Drawing Prize. The awarded drawing, titled ‘(Re)membering the See Monster,’ is a mixed-media representation of a defunct oil platform. The image aims to invite conversations on the topic of reuse, going beyond the structure’s physicality.
The Architectural Photography Awards 2021 has announced its shortlist for its ninth edition. Supported by Aluprof UK and the World Architecture Festival (WAF), the shortlist was selected from around 2000 entries and 42 countries, "highlighting the expertise of architectural photography and focusing on the skill and creativity of the photographer". The photographs are divided into 6 categories: Exterior, Interior, Sense of Place, Buildings in Use, Mobile, which this year’s theme is Greening the City, and Portfolio with the theme of Building with History.
Overall and Hybrid Winner 2020 – Apartment #5, a Labyrinth and Repository of Spatial Memories by Clement Laurencio, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Now in its fifth year, the Prize celebrates the importance of drawing as a tool in capturing and communicating architectural ideas. In the spirit of many great architects of the past, from Palladio and John Soane to Le Corbusier and Cedric Price, it's an ideal platform for reflecting on and exploring how drawing continues to advance the art of architecture today.
Digital Category - entombment of fear exterior_kyra swee yew yong. Image Courtesy of The Architecture Drawing Prize 2020
The Architecture Drawing Prize 2020 announced the shortlisted entries in the Digital, Hand-drawn and Hybrid categories. This year’s contest gathered more admissions than the previous edition, with 165 entries from 30 countries, 35 of which are from students and under-30 architects. In addition, the 2020 competition introduced the ‘Lockdown Prize’, focused on the global pandemic, awarded to a drawing related to the architectural changes brought by the coronavirus.
World Architecture Festival have launched Talking Architecture, a series of webinars in the lead-up to WAF in Lisbon on 2-4 December. The WAF team will be inviting contributors to discuss current issues of architectural concern, followed by interactive engagement with registered participants. All the webinars are free to attend and can be watched back on demand.
The World Architecture Festival invites shortlisted architects from around the world to present their projects in a range of categories, the winners of which are invited to present in front of a Super Jury for final selection.
In the 2019 version of the festival, LocHal Public Library by Civic Architects has been named the World Building of the Year concluding this year's three-day event in Amsterdam. This year's winner was selected from a strikingly broad shortlist that included works from offices such as Heatherwick Studio, CEBRA, Nikken Sekkei, and Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners.
As the first day of the World Architecture Festival 2019 is coming to an end, we are happy to announce the winners of the sections already reviewed by the jury. Read on for the winning projects of the INSIDE, FUTURE PROJECTS and COMPLETED categories, among which are works by Heathewick Studio, Büro Happold, Nextoffice and many others.
https://www.archdaily.com/929658/waf-2019-day-1-winners-announcedAD Editorial Team
Presented to projects that anticipate and address future challenges, the WAFX Award celebrates the “most forward-looking architectural concepts”. X-Space, an urban fabric regeneration project in Dubai, winner of the Smart Cities Category was selected to take on the overall WAFX 2019 prize.
Entries for the World Architecture Festival close on Friday 3rd May. The 12th edition of the World Architecture Festival will take place in Amsterdam from the 4th to 6th December, where more than 550 architectural and design practices from over 68 countries are expected to compete for category and overall prizes.
The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced some of the most influential names in international architecture as the members of the jury for its 12th awards programme, which is to be held in Amsterdam from 4-6 December 2019.
Following an extensive day of presentations, panels, critiques, and talks The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced the Day 1 category winners in their 2018 programming. Winners are recognized in over 35 categories over the first two days of the conference, which culminates with the announcement of the World Building of the Year 2018 on the third and final day of the conference.
While still early days, the world’s largest architectural award program, the WAF Awards is poised for its biggest year yet, with a total of 535 shortlisted projects from 57 countries across the world.
https://www.archdaily.com/906741/the-2018-world-architecture-festival-announces-the-day-one-winnersAD Editorial Team
_by_Studio_Link-Arc_%C2%A9_Su_Chen__Chun_Fang.jpg?1575711195 "© Su Chen, Chun Fang")
