A private house known as High Horse Ranch in Northern California by Kieran Timberlake and Innovation Curve, a new flexible workspace in Silicon Valley by Form4 architecture are among the projects in the United States of America (USA) shortlisted in the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards 2018 – the world’s biggest architectural awards program.
Architects and designers from the USA will join the world’s architectural elite later this year as practices across the globe prepare to attend World Architecture Festival (WAF) 2018. WAF will reconvene for its eleventh edition in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 28-30 November this year. This is the first time the event has been hosted in the Dutch capital, following previous editions in Barcelona, Singapore and Berlin.
2018 World Architecture Festival Awards Shortlist for Office – Completed Buildings: Form4 Architecture – Innovation Curve, Palo Alto, Calif.
More than 40 per cent of US shortlisted projects for this year’s WAF Awards are in Future Project categories, an unusually high percentage. Highlights include Northtown Affordable Housing and Public Library in Chicago by Perkins & Will, The Floating Bridge in Boston by Paul Lukez Architecture and Binary Harmonics, a mixed-use high-rise building in Oakland by Form4 Architecture.
Other strong contenders in the completed buildings categories include Miami Design District by SB Architects (shopping category) and the Mercedez Benz stadium in Atlanta by HOK (sport category).
2018 World Architecture Festival Awards Shortlist for Shopping – Completed Buildings: Miami Design District by SB Architects. The project has achieved LEED for Neighborhood Development designation, and Palm Court has been certified LEED Gold for Core + Shell by the US Green Building Council. Palm Court utilizes an infill site, capitalizing upon development density, community connection and access to public transportation. The team managed construction waste, used recycled, locally-sourced and sustainable materials, optimized energy performance, and utilized systems to reduce water use. Nearly every roof in the development is planted as a green roof, providing not only thermal cooling but a stunning rooftop landscape design mimicking past hurricane patterns over Miami. The project provides 50% more open space than required by the zoning codes.
Leading American architectural thinkers and industry personalities such as Aaron Betsky, dean of Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and Chad Oppenheim, Principal of Oppenheim Architecture + Design will speak at WAF in Amsterdam during three days of conference programs, awards, exhibitions and fringe events.
This year’s shortlist builds on the strong regional performance from last year. Previous winning projects include US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis by HKS for completed buildings in the sport category.
The 2018 awards program received more than 1,000 entries for the first time with numbers up 20 per cent compared to 2017. Architects and designers across 81 countries were represented on the shortlist.
2018 World Architecture Festival Awards Shortlist for Infrastructure – Future Project: Corgan – Connect: A Mega Skyport, Multiple locations, United States of America. Designed to meet the anticipated appeal and democratization of near future UberAIR and other on-demand aerial ride sharing services, CONNECT supports electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL) through a flexible and modular station that is scalable to meet mass adoption or episodic passenger throughput while reconnecting the communities it serves.
Paul Finch, Programme Director of World Architecture Festival, commented: “It is encouraging to see so many entries from the US, and doubly encouraging because so many of them relate to ideas and approaches for the future.”
All types and sizes of architectural projects are represented on the 2018 shortlist for WAF, ranging from private residential, to education, infrastructure, healthcare, hospitality, cultural/civic, interior and landscape projects. Major world architects shortlisted include Zaha Hadid Architects, OMA, Foster & Partners, BIG, China Architecture Design Group, Leigh & Orange, Aedas, Grimshaw, Woods Bagot, Skidmore Owings & Meril, Heatherwick Studio and FJMT. Many smaller practices will also take part and pitch against the big names.
2018 World Architecture Festival Awards Shortlist for Display – Completed Buildings: Grimshaw – Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, Miami. Credit: © Rafael Gamo
The architects and designers behind each shortlisted project will compete for category prizes at WAF from 28-30 November where they will present live to international juries in front of festival delegates. Category winners will then compete against each other on the final day of the festival for the ultimate accolades of ‘World Building of the Year’, ‘Future Project of the Year’, ‘Interior of the Year’ and ‘Landscape of the Year’.
The 2018 completed buildings ‘Super Jury’ which will decide the World Building of the Year, will be chaired by Nathalie de Vries, Director & Co-founder of Dutch practice MVRDV; panellists include Sir David Adjaye of Adjaye Associates; Manuelle Gautrand, Principal, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture; and Li Xiaodong, Founder, Li Xiaodong Atelier and Professor at School of Architecture, Tsinghua University.
The full shortlist for this year’s awards can be viewed HERE.
For more details on the WAF Awards and the festival please visit: www.worldarchitecturefestival.com @worldarchfest #WAF2018
