Another Sydney project has taken out the top prize this year in Singapore, with a wide range of other winnings works from around the world.

The major winners of the 2024 World Architecture Festival (WAF) have been announced at an exclusive gala dinner on the final day of the gathering at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. It marked the culmination of the festival after three days packed full of crits, panel discussions, site visits and general networking, with attendees having joined from across the globe.

In our home region of the Asia-Pacific, it was another strong showing for Australian architecture. The day one category winners included work by Cox Architecture and Grimshaw and ABA with McGregor Coxall Meanwhile, day two saw recognition for Woods Bagot, WAM (Warren and Mahoney) with Greenaway Architects and OCULUS, Bates Smart, HDR, Lyons, fitzpatrick+partners, BLP, Cox Architecture and Ian Moore Architects. In fact, Australia led the way with a total of seven winning and highly commended projects.

Taking out the most prestigious award of the week was a project that has already gained significant recognition in the region with two INDE.Awards, including the Best of the Best. Darlington Public School by fjcstudio is an education project in Sydney that takes serious account of its various community stakeholders, including input from the strong First Nations presence at the school. Recognition with the top architecture award of World Building of the Year, supported by GROHE, is a celebration not only of the Sydney design scene but also socially minded, public architecture in general.

Programme director Paul Finch commented: “The architect of the winning project explored and extended the formal programme of the client to include the views and experience of the local community and a variety of users. This generated a reading of the history of place, culture and time. The result of the project is poetic, a building in which topography and landscape, inside and outside, form and materials, flow seamlessly in an unexpectedly delightful way. It is also an inspirational proposition about the acknowledgement and reconciliation of historic difference – a pointer to brighter, better futures for all.”

It was then over to China for World Interior of the Year with the winner named as Pang Mei Noodle Bar LFS by Office AIO. Recognition centred on the playful design, enhancing interaction within the restoration and streetscape connection. Judges commented that “this project is an essay in clever design applied to a successful noodle bar business. Its exciting vocabulary of soft walls, roller shutters and cramped tables and chairs capitalises on the real star, the food. When less busy, dining is confined to the inside, but at busy times it spills onto the street beneath a chunky glass and steel canopy. A veritable machine for dining that ticks all the boxes – for its customers, its staff and its owners.”

Future Project of the Year went to Küçükçekmece Djemevi in Türkiye by EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture, a civic building that addresses the marginalisation of the Alevi community by offering a space that reflects cultural identity and celebrates the community coming together. The building is organised as a series of interconnected fragmented structures, and combines traditional value with contemporary needs for the community, providing spaces to congregate including a dining hall and worship areas.

Related: Project feature on Darlington Public School

Landscape of the Year went to Regeneration of Vitality – Shenzhen Guanlan Riverside Plaza in China by LAY-OUT Planning Consultants Co., Ltd. Based on the concept of a ‘park-like plaza,’ the renovation has been designed to meet the diverse needs of the city and its citizens today, responding to a rapid urbanisation lacking character in its spaces and consideration for people. Redevelopment Design of the Eastern Entrance of Shenzhen People’s Park by Reform, also in China, was highly commended.

Other named prizes included:

• The GROHE Water Prize: The Maotai Eco-Metaverse project in China, by Turenscape.
• Best Use of Stone, supported by Turkish Stone: OH HO Residence in India by Play Architecture.
• The Sustainability Prize, supported by ROCKWOOL: White Renovation in Iran by Olgoo.
• Best use of Natural Light, supported by VELUX: ICÔNE in Luxembourg by Foster + Partners.
• Best Use of Colour: The Brewhouse and Trident Park in Malta by ritchie*studio.
• Small Project of the Year: Fushi in Japan by Tezuka Architects.

Elsewhere, the WAFX overall winner was Knowledge Economic City, a new city design in in Saudi Arabia by DLR Group. The winning project for the Student Charrette, supported by Broadway Malyan, was Staging Symbiosis, designed and presented by student representatives of Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland.

World Architecture Festival
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WAF Day One winners from Singapore