WAF Awards 2021: World's best new architecture revealed

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has unveiled its prestigious shortlist of the best new buildings and landscape designs from around the globe.

The 200-strong list spans commercial, residential and cultural projects, including the sweeping open-air Chinese Culture Exhibition Center in Lanzhou and a plan to preserve Abu Dhabi’s oldest building, the Qasr Al Hosn Fort. In the Chinese seaside city of Sanya, meanwhile, a verdant mangrove park has been restored after three decades of pollution and development.

But smaller, farther-flung endeavors were also recognized. In the remote Swiss Jura Mountains, a whimsical green-topped spiral rises out of the landscape, housing a new museum by luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet. And off the coast of Iran, on Hormuz Island, a crop of colorful domed tourist residences aims to connect visitors to the local community.

With last year’s WAF Awards canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s shortlist features architectural projects completed globally between 2019 and 2021. Winners will be decided at the festival in December, when more than 100 judges will convene in Lisbon, Portugal, to decide the individual category awards — and to crown one project World Building of the Year.

Scroll through the gallery above to see a selection of projects from the WAF Awards 2021 shortlist.