The World Architecture Festival (WAF) announced its second round of award winners on November 7, 2024, following Day Two of live presentations at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Australia dominated with seven winning or highly commended projects, followed by the United Kingdom with four.
Notable winners included RSHP, Woods Bagot, The Grid Architects, and SAOTA. Standout projects in the Completed Buildings category included Lyons’ Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre (Health) and Stanton Williams’ Rhodes House Transformation (Retrofit).
In the Future Projects category, Woods Bagot’s University of Tasmania Forestry Building (Education) and SAOTA’s Meru project (House) impressed judges with rigorous research and community-focused designs.
The INSIDE category saw Bates Smart’s Embassy of Australia (Public Buildings) and Klein Dytham architecture’s Fender Flagship Tokyo (Retail) take top spots.
On November 8, 2024, the festival announced its ultimate accolades. fjcstudio’s Darlington Public School in Australia won World Building of the Year, marking a historic double win for the practice. Paul Finch, Programme Director, praised the project as “poetic” and “inspirational.”
Other major awards included:
– Landscape of the Year: Regeneration of Vitality โ Shenzhen Guanlan Riverside Plaza (China) by LAY-OUT Planning Consultants Co., Ltd.
– WAFX award: Knowledge Economic City (Saudi Arabia) by DLR Group
The 2024 World Architecture Festival showcased innovative, socially conscious designs, setting the stage for the industry’s future developments.