The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has unveiled the initial shortlist for its 2024 Special Prizes, highlighting exceptional architectural achievements across six categories.
This announcement precedes the live WAF festival scheduled for November 6-8, 2024, at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
The Special Prizes, which span various aspects of architectural design, include:
- Best use of Colour
- The Sustainability Prize supported by ROCKWOOL
- Small Project of the Year
- Best use of Stone supported by Turkish Stones
- Best use of Natural Light supported by VELUX
- GROHE Water Prize
These awards recognise projects that push the boundaries of design within the built environment, with a particular focus on water conservation for the GROHE Water Prize.
Paul Finch, Director of the World Architecture Festival, emphasised the significance of the Special Prizes program, stating: “Our special prizes programme is an important element of the WAF Awards. Cutting across all categories, they give entrants an additional chance to win an award for excellent work. We look forward to seeing the presentations of these creative shortlisted projects at the live festival!”
The finalists for the Best Use of Natural Light category, supported by VELUX, will be announced in August, while the shortlist and winner of the GROHE Water Prize will be revealed in September.
WAF, now in its 17th edition, represents the world’s largest live-judged architectural awards program. Finalists for the Special Prizes will compete live at WAF Singapore, with overall winners announced during the festival.
This year’s event will feature a comprehensive program including live events, keynote talks, and insightful seminars from an international panel of speakers centred around the theme of ‘Tomorrow’.
The announcement of the Special Prize shortlist follows the release of the main WAF shortlist earlier in July, which celebrates the world’s best newly completed buildings, interiors, landscapes, and future architecture concepts.