Now in their 17th year, the global WAN Awards are intended to celebrate outstanding architecture on an international scale. You have until 27 June to benefit from the discounted early bird entry rate. Every project entered in the WAN Awards is assessed by an expert panel of senior industry judges from across the world.
Architect, urban designer and city strategist Dennis Ho is a Director and East Asia Design Lead at Arup where he also leads the collective’s Urban Innovation Unit. With global experience on complex projects, ranging from city master plans to highly specialized I&T buildings, he is passionate about regenerative placemaking and sustainable design. He is a founder of HUBs, a forum that encourages discourses on high density urban habitats. His recent projects include Taikoo Green Ribbon, which offers an environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional high-rise and was a WAN 2022 gold medal winner in the future projects category.
“The WAN Awards offer a unique opportunity and platform for designers to showcase their visions and design thinking to a global audience of users, clients, consultants and designers,” Dennis says.
“It's a forum that promotes discourse on city-shaping solutions, innovative strategies, and regenerative habitats around the world,” he adds.
Dennis believes that designers and architects have the responsibility and capability to utilize their skills and network to collaborate across different disciplines, to create highly distinctive, flexible, sustainable, and beautiful places.
“Our influences can go beyond our immediate sites, to shape the way we live, work and play in the future. I will be looking at how well different elements such as nature, human experience and technology can interact with each other to create highly adaptable and future-oriented places,” he says.
Monica Lamela is a Los Angeles based architect and researcher. She is the founder of the architecture practice There There. A former Fulbright fellow and a Board Member of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, she has collaborated with Lacaton&Vassal, Francis Kéré, and Tatiana Bilbao.
Monica believes the WAN Awards offer great exposure and a powerful platform to engage with projects developed in different parts of the world.
“Be creative and make sure that your drawings, images and text represent your idea cohesively,” she tells entrants.
Joseph Passa has been principal of Passa Associates Architects for over 25 years. His firm has a variety of projects in the Southern Ontario region under its belt with a particular emphasis on sustainable design initiatives. Two of his schools have been listed as the most energy efficient in Ontario and among the most efficient in Canada by Natural Resources Canada (NRC) in Ottawa. His work is dedicated to the formulation of sensitive and imaginative buildings that strive for architectural excellence in the exploration of ideas and functional requirements within the economic responsibilities that are demanded of all projects.
“The WAN awards validate our passion for design, our thought process and choices we make in creating unique space,” Joseph says.
He urges entrants to “tell the story of your design, how it originated, the context and why you took the approach that you did.”