In the build-up to this year’s edition of the World Architecture Festival (WAF), the event organisers have revealed a shortlist of over 200 architecture and landscape projects across 20 different categories in the Completed Buildings and Landscape brackets for the World Architecture Festival Awards 2021. The news follows the announcement of the WAFX 2021 Prize Winners and Future Projects shortlist unveiled earlier this month. As evident in the stellar list of names and projects, the shortlists encompass the best of contemporary architecture and landscape design, acknowledging unmatched aesthetic and functional beauty and innovation in design.

The 2021 iteration of the festival continues its longstanding association with founder partner GROHE, alongside headline partners ABB and Miele, with a dedicated awards function honouring innovative projects and proposals addressing relevant issues such as climate change, ageing populations, food supplies, pandemic, cultural identities, and social equity. More than 732 entries from 55 countries including United Kingdom, Japan, India, Mexico, China, and the United States were evaluated while compiling the now 200-strong list. In the words of the event organisers, this remarkable influx of submissions represents a 44 per cent increase compared to the number of entries received for the 2019 awards.

After preceding events in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Singapore and Berlin, the 2021 festival will, for the first time, take place in Lisbon, Portugal between October 1-3 under the theme ‘Resetting the City: Greening, Health and Urbanism'. Programme Director, Paul Finch, shares in an official release: “We are delighted with both the quantity and quality of this year’s entries. This promises to be the most competitive awards programme we have ever run, and we look forward to meeting the shortlisted architects in Lisbon.

Of the 20 category prizes on offer, 18 will cover architectural endeavours, with the remaining two dedicated to landscape projects. The 18 categories comprising the architecture awards programme include the typologies of Office, Health, School, Civic and Community, Sport, Religion, Display, Housing Urban and Rural Residential, and Transport. Alternatively, the landscape architecture entries are categorised into Nature Context and Urban Context Landscape.

Leading firms such as Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Studio Gang, Zaha Hadid Architects, Foster + Partners, Rafael Viñoly Architects, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have multiple projects in contention across various typology brackets. BIG, in particular, is nominated the waste-to-energy CopenHill power plant in Copenhagen as well as the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet in Switzerland. On the other hand, Foster + Partners has earned nominations for the Apple Carnegie Library in Washington DC and the House of Wisdom in Sharjah, UAE.

MIRA - an undulating high-rise development in San Francisco and FDNY Rescue Company 2 in Brooklyn, New York, have both received nominations for the acclaimed American architecture firm Studio Gang. Other shortlisted projects include JKMM Architects' Fyyri library, Arter Contemporary Art Museum by Grimshaw Architects, Collins Arch by Woods Bagot and SHoP Architects, PokoPoko Clubhouse by Klein Dytham architecture, Raas Chhatrasagar Hotel by Studio Lotus, OMA Kube Installation, and Heatherwick Studio's EDEN tower. In the two Completed Landscapes categories, CEBRA Architecture has been nominated for its Al Hosn Masterplan in Abu Dhabi, alongside projects such as ENOTA's Koper Central Park in Slovenia, Turf Design Studio's Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project, and Forest Sports Park in Shenzhen by LOLA Landscape Architects, Taller Architects, and L+CC.

This year's programme will feature a themed conference with an electronic gallery of all design awards entries, in addition to exhibition areas and networking events for award winners and partners. Shortlisted projects will compete for the 20 category prizes through live presentations before 100 international juries, with delegates from the festival in attendance. On the final day of the event, the category winners will vie for the World Architecture Festival's most important honours, which include World Building of the Year, Future Project of the Year, Interior of the Year, and Landscape of the Year.

Jeanne Gang (Founding principal and partner at Studio Gang), Abdelkader Damani (Artistic Director for Frac Centre-Val de Loire and Biennale d'Architecture d'Orléans), Kim Herforth Nielsen (Co-Founder & Principal at 3XN Architects), and Christina Seilern (Principal at Studio Seilern) are among the 'Super Jury' that will select the World Building of the Year 2021 from the completed buildings category. Alternatively, the ‘Super Jury’ for the Landscape of the Year Award includes Robert Schäfer (Landscape Architect & Journalist), Brita von Schoenaich (Principal, Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape), Lily Jencks (Founder, LilyJencksStudio and JencksSquared), and Todd Langstaff-Gowan of Todd Longstaffe-Gowan Landscape Design.

WAF will also welcome delegates to the INSIDE World Festival of Interiors which will run in parallel to the main Lisbon event for three days of exhibitions, awards, programmes, and fringe events. With its prolific list of nominees, judges, and delegates, World Architecture Festival 2021 is a resounding return for one of the largest live events in the global design community, offering a new lease of life for architectural conferences in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Click here to view the full shortlist of projects from all categories.