The World Architecture Festival (WAF), the largest annual international gathering of architects, is decamping from its four year home in Singapore for Berlin later this year. The annual event, consisting of awards, a conference, and an exhibition, recognizes outstanding projects in a variety of categories, and is attended by over 2,000 visitors from 65 countries. The venue for this year’s festival is the Berlin Arena, a bus terminal designed by Franz Ahrens in 1927 and repurposed as an event space in the 1990s. This is the ninth edition of the festival and the first to occur in Europe since 2011.
As noted by WAF program director Paul Finch, “After four happy years in Singapore we are delighted to be moving to Berlin for our 2016 Festival. This is a city with an extraordinary history, and one which has been a breeding ground for architectural ideas, historical and contemporary.”
This year’s awards will be given in 31 categories broken into three sections: Completed Buildings, Future Projects, and Landscape. All submissions are placed in the WAF archive, the World Building Directory Online Database, where projects can be searched by section, country, year, award, and keyword.
Awards finalists will be invited to Berlin for the festival from the 16-18 November. The announced members of this year’s "super jury" include David Chipperfield, Louisa Hutton, and Professor Frédéric Migayrou.
Winners in the different categories are considered for World Building, Future Project, or Landscape of the Year awards. Last year’s World Building was awarded to The Interlace by OMA/Buro Ole Scheeren, and the Future Project of the Year went to BIG’s Vancouver House.
Applicants who submit before April 28 can take advantage of an early bird rate. More information about award categories and how to enter here. And stay tuned for updates on the 2016 World Architecture Festival!
