Solar Orchids And Tessellated Structures Shortlisted For The World's Largest Architecture Festival

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Beginning October 1st, the World Architecture Festival will host their seventh annual awards ceremony. Showcasing entries from architects from over 40 nations, with proposals for 30 countries, the world’s biggest architectural awards program will present one winner for each of the 27 individual award categories, including Villa, Leisure Led Development, Commercial Mixed-Use, and Experimental. Just recently, the submissions were cut down into a final shortlist of competitors, with entries that range from modernized Buddhist and Hindu temples to the hospitals of the future.

This year's theme, "Architects and the City," examines the ways in which architectural practices affect, and are affected by the politics, technologies, infrastructures, and community plannings of their respectively proposed sites. Taking place in Singapore for the third time, Paul Finch, the festival's Program Director describes the diversity of the festival:

From small structures to sprawling industrial complexes, the breadth of projects shortlisted this year reveals the diversity and strength of global architectural design. It also demonstrates the creativity and tenacity of the international architectural community in creating these truly remarkable schemes."

During the festival, architects will present their designs live to panels of international expert judges, including delegates from Rem Koolhaas' Office of Modern Architecture (OMA), Moshe Safdie, Richard Rogers, and Rocco Yim. Winners from each category will then compete for either the World Building or Future Project of the Year awards, designated by the WAF's starchitect-studded jury.

Below, we've culled through the massive list of seriously bold and visionary entries, and selected five of our favorite finalists from the crowd of contenders:

Spark Solar Orchid, Singapore by SPARK ARCHITECTS: 

Not only are the Solar Orchid's roofing panels solar-powered, like sunflowers, they rotate to track sunlight throughout the day.

Te Kaitaika ‘The Cloak,’ New Zealand, by FEARON HAY ARCHITECTS

This not-so-hidden multi-use city structure brings together rich layers of materials, textures, and forms to express the cultural & national values of the New Zealand countryside.

Cellular Tessellation, Australia by the ABEDIAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

Created by a team of teachers and master students, Cellular Tessellation is a proposal that uses complex geometries for future forms of construction designs.

Free Press Monument, Brazil by GUSTAVO PENNA

Built to house the International Press Center, this glass gesture symbolizes journalism's grounding of fact in truth, a beacon of light beaming out towards the public (also pictured above) .

Bombay Arts Society, India by  SANJAY PURI ARCHITECTS

Looking very much like Deep Thought from Douglas' Adams The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, Sanjay Puri Architects' proposal for the mixed-use Bombay Arts Society is situated on a 4,300-square-foot plot.

Visit the 2014 Shortlist here for more selections from the World Architecture Festival. 

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