The Tree Hotel in Sweden, designed by Tham & Videgard Architects, is among 284 projects shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards 2011.
Among the architectural projects shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards 2011 are 11 buildings in Turkey, including a cultural center in Yalova and a mosque in İstanbul, the organizers of the event announced last week.
Also cited in the list are a student center in Ankara, several urban residential complexes in İstanbul and Bodrum, a hotel in Hatay and two hospitals and a shopping mall in İstanbul. Together, they are among a total of 284 projects from around the world that have been shortlisted for the award, which this year will name its fourth winner.
Billed as “the world's biggest architecture competition,” the WAF Awards 2011 attracted its highest number of applications to date, with 704 entries from 59 countries, the organizers announced in a press statement on Aug. 17. The awards are divided into three main categories: completed buildings, structural design, and future projects (which allows for designs in progress).
The Raif Dinçkök Yalova Cultural Center, designed by Turkey's Emre Arolat Architects (EAA), was praised for its exterior design featuring a woven rust-colored pattern that allows light to stream into the building from a range of different angles and that draws on the industrial heritage of the town-turned-city of Yalova.
The Sancak Mosque in İstanbul, also designed by the EAA, is one of the most extraordinary projects on the shortlist for both its exterior and interior design, which are aimed at highlighting “the essence of religious space” by “distancing itself from current architectural discussions based on form,” according to the EAA. The WAF organizers noted the project -- located in İstanbul's Büyükçekmece district -- for “blending in completely with the topography” and for its “dramatic and simple cave-like interior space.”
A proposed hotel to be located at the center of the southern Turkish city of Hatay, close to the St. Pierre Cathedral, has also been shortlisted. The Antakya Hotel, also designed by the EAA, will “incorporate excavated relics, positioning itself as a protective cover for the historic remains,” the WAF statement said.
A project that involves converting the long, open spaces of an old rope factory in İstanbul into a high-end residential complex of around 40 individual units was also among Turkish entrants shortlisted. The Rope Factory Lofts, designed by Turkey's Suyabatmaz Demirel Architects, aims to give an equal stretch of the building with access to the waterfront to every unit. The project was also noteworthy for the primary building materials used, such as the raw wooden panels, natural wood and stone that hint at the former identity of the site.
Other notable projects on the shortlist from around the world include a theater made of straw in Estonia, a soccer school in Soweto, a tree hotel in Sweden, a bamboo office in India and a moving gallery in New York.
“Projects entered this year … highlight the continuing need for innovative buildings that use materials and construction techniques which are sympathetic to practical, aesthetic and economical factors,” the organizers explained in the statement.
Buildings designed by renowned architects such as Zaha Hadid and Foster + Partners feature among those by smaller or lesser-known practices, each of which will present their designs live to international panel of judges and festival delegates at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona from Nov. 2-4. The judges, headed this year by Michael Sorkin of Michael Sorkin Studio New York, will vote to decide which project will be crowned World Building of the Year 2011.
The competition this year offers a first for architecture and design enthusiasts as they will get the “opportunity to have their say on which project should be crowned as the World Building of the Year 2011,” the organizers added. The OpenBuildings People's Choice Award will be the first major award of this type in which the public – not just industry insiders – will be able to vote for the building they think deserves to win.
To view the shortlisted projects, cast your vote and provide comments, visit: http://openbuildings.com/peoples_choice/waf/leaderboard. The closing date to cast votes for the OpenBuildings People's Choice Award is Oct. 28. The final winner will be announced by WAF in November. For more information, visit www.worldarchitecturefestival.com.
