World Architecture Festival

• 06/09/2014 - New sessions and speakers announced

  This year’s festival will welcome more than 2,000 attendees from more than 60 countries who will experience an extensive programme of conference sessions, seminars, workshops and exhibitions.

  The festival will start at 10am on Wednesday 1^st October with a newly announced keynote speech from Ole Scheeren, Principal, Buro Ole Scheeren. Ole will give his unique perspective on the relationship between architects, architecture and urbanism, in a world changed utterly by the wave of city-building which is defining and transforming life in the 21st century. Ole joins fellow keynote speakers Richard Rogers, Rocco Yim, Saskia Sassen and Moshe Safdie who will speak on a range of issues and topics reflecting this year’s festival theme of ‘Architects and the City’.

  Additional new programme sessions announced today include:

  ‘Starting from Scratch’ – WAF Main Stage- 15.20 - 16.00, Wednesday 1 October

  Leading architects will join the developers of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in discussing the key issues informing new town programmes. The session will explore the challenges involved in realising the vision of creating a thriving city which is socially harmonious, environmentally-friendly and resource-efficient. When completed in 2020, the city will have an estimated 350,000 residents. Ho Tong Yen, CEO, Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco City, will be joined on the panel discussion by Andy Wen, Executive Director, Aedas; Kevin Kwang Yang Sim, Principal, New Space Architecture; and Lars Autrup, Head of Projects, Realdania Foundation.

  ‘Pleased to meet you: Heatherwick Studio’ - WAF Festival Hall Stage – 12.00 – 12.40, Thursday 2 October

  Following Thomas Heatherwick’s keynote speech at WAF 2013, his eponymous practice will showcase its unique use of materials, from the ordinary to the extraordinary and experimental, and how these are being incorporated at its new ‘The Learning Hub’ project for Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

  ‘Meet your next client’ – WAF Festival Hall, Various times

  For the first time, the organisers of WAF are arranging a series of networking sessions for delegates to meet representatives of some of the region’s prominent developers and city planners, including Ayala Land Premier, Fortis Healthcare, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Europe, Hong Leong Holdings Limited, Singapore Housing & Development Board, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad.

  Paul Finch, Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival said: "With only 30 days to go until WAF 2014 kicks off in Singapore, our comprehensive conference programme continues to grow in size, scope and spirit. As the world’s leading architects and designers are preparing to descend on Moshe Safdie’s remarkable Marina Bay Sands, we’re looking forward to three jam-packed days of design debate and discussion of all that is truly inspiring about architecture and the profession.”

  Architects from across the globe will also be preparing to present their projects that have been shortlisted for the WAF Awards, which sit at the heart of the event. 283 projects have been shortlisted across 29 categories of Completed Buildings, Future Projects and Landscape Projects in the world’s biggest architectural awards programme. Uniquely at WAF, two representatives from every single shortlisted practice attend the festival to present their nominated project live in 20 minute crit sessions over the first two days of the event.

  The winners of each category will be eligible to compete for the festival’s ultimate prize, The World Building of the Year, which will be presided over by WAF’s ‘super jury’. The super-jury comprises a selection of the world’s leading architects and designers, led by renowned British architect Richard Rogers. Rogers will be joined on the super-jury by Rocco Yim (Hong Kong), Julie Eizenberg (USA), Enric Ruiz Geli (Spain) and Peter Rich (South Africa).

  Two additional prizes will be awarded at this year's festival for the first time to reward the creative use of colour and materials: The Exterior Colour Prize, sponsored by AkzoNobel; and the Wood Excellence Prize, sponsored by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC).

  The event is being held in association with Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA)’s festival of ideas about the city, Archifest.

  World Architecture Festival is collocated with INSIDE World Festival of Interiors (www.insidefestival.com). INSIDE celebrates the world’s finest interiors of the last year and also has at its heart a live international awards programme.

   

  For further press information on the World Architecture Festival contact:

  Philip Sorensen at FTI Consulting

  +44 (0) 20 7269 7218

  philip.sorensen@fticonsulting.com   

   

   

  
  
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• 30/07/2014 - Shortlist for inaugural Wood Excellence Prize

  A spa in Vietnam, a power station in France and an airport terminal in New Zealand are among the eight projects shortlisted by the World Architecture Festival (WAF) for its inaugural Wood Excellence Prize.

   

  Sponsored by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), the Wood Excellence Prize is the first of its kind to feature on the festival’s awards programme, the only criterion is that wood is an integral part of the project.

   

  The shortlisted projects are:

  Project Name	Architect	Project Location
  The Tent	a21studio	Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, Vietnam
  Pittwater House	Andrew Burges Architects	Sydney, Australia
  Earth Wind and Fire	Atelier Arcau	Vannes, France
  School't Hofke	UArchitects	Eindhoven, The Netherlands
  Regional Terminal at Christchurch Airport	BVN Donovan Hill	Christchurch, New Zealand
  Salvaged Ring	a21studio	Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, Vietnam
  Alex Monroe Studio	DSDHA	London, UK
  The Pinch	Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong	Zhaotong, China

   

  The architects responsible will now be invited to present their project to the prize judges live at the festival this October. The prize winner will be announced at the WAF awards ceremony on Friday 3 October.

   

  Paul Finch, Programme Director, World Architecture Festival said: “This was a great way to appreciate how a 'traditional' material can be used to transform exteriors and interiors in new and unexpected ways.”

   

  David Venables, European Director, AHEC said: "We were delighted to see so many entries for the Wood Excellence Prize; the response to this new initiative has been great and from a long list of over 40 we have chosen eight great timber projects to go forward for the final judging in Singapore led by renowned  architect, Matteo Thun. The Festival is going to provide a new platform for showcasing wood in architecture around the world and we can't wait to be part of it."

   

  The American Hardwood Export Council will be exhibiting at WAF and plans to highlight the results of ‘The Wish List’ – an ambitious design project featuring a stellar list of architects and designers, including Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, John Pawson, Alison Brooks and Amanda Levete.  The project showcases how life cycle assessment tools can be used to create an environmental profile for product design. AHEC recently commissioned Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research for 19 American hardwood species.  Life Cycle Assessment is a scientific tool that helps industry to establish environmental frameworks that have real meaning and assess true sustainability.

   

  The WAF awards sit at the heart of the festival, and will see practices from around the world compete across 28 individual award categories for global recognition. Competing across three category groups of completed buildings, landscape projects and future projects, previous WAF award entrants have ranged from renowned global architectural firms to small local practices. Architects of every shortlisted project are invited to attend the festival to give a live presentation to a panel of judges, asserting their case for why their project should win. The winners of each category are put forward to compete for the coveted World Building of the Year award, presided over by the festival’s ‘super-jury’, with the presentation of the award being the culmination of WAF 2014.

  
  
  See the photogallery