Woods Bagot's seven shortlisted for WAF and INSIDE Awards
In keeping with Urban.com.au's awards theme over the last two weeks, Woods Bagot last week announced that seven of its projects had been shortlisted finalists in this year's World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards program and its sister program, the INSIDE World Festival of Interiors.
The WAF Awards are the world’s largest, live architectural award, combining keynote presentations from leading international figures alongside live judging presentations from over 400 award finalists.
Woods Bagot’s project shortlist comprises three future projects and four completed buildings. The six shortlisted WAF projects are:
- Younghusband Woolstore Development, Melbourne
- Melbourne Innovation Precinct, Melbourne
- Elwood House, Melbourne
- Short Lane, Sydney
- St Mary’s Calne School Library, London; and
- Sunshine Insurance Plaza, Beijing
While West Hotel, Sydney in conjunction with Fitzpatrick + Partners is shortlisted in the INSIDE World of Interiors Awards.
Selected from a record number of entries, WAF's 536-strong shortlist includes projects from 81 countries across 39 prizes and categories.
Being a multi-project finalist at WAF affirms Woods Bagot's place on the international stage. It’s immensely gratifying as a global studio to now present these projects to the exceptional talent of our national and international peers.
- Domenic Alvaro, Woods Bagot Global Design Leader
Woods Bagot will present each shortlisted project to judges in a series of live events at the festival in Amsterdam, 28 to 30 November. The awards will be decided by over 130 judges from more than 35 countries.
More info on the shortlisted projects is available below:
Younghusband Woolstore Development, Melbourne
Category: Commercial Mixed Use – Future Project
Younghusband transforms a former 100-year-old wool factory in Melbourne’s inner-west into a community-focused commercial site. Co-working, education, food, retail and wellness spaces have been woven into the buildings diverse spaces, allowed to co-exist thanks to modifications made in the floor plate to bring light into previously unlit spaces and to create connections through the spaces for the movement of air and people.
Melbourne Innovation Precinct, Melbourne
Category: Commercial Mixed Use – Future Project
The Melbourne Innovation Precinct seeks to establish Australia’s leading campus-centred, multi-disciplinary innovation precinct where university, industry, government, entrepreneurs and researchers co-locate and collaborate to enhance Australia’s innovation, productivity and sustainability agendas. Situated on the corner of Swanston and Grattan Streets in Carlton at the site of the former Royal Women’s Hospital, the precinct is the main ‘gateway’ vista into the Melbourne Innovation District, announcing its bold ambitions.
Sunshine Insurance Plaza, Beijing
Category: Mixed Use – Completed Buildings
Inspired by a string of pearls, Sunshine Insurance Finance Plaza provides a soaring new addition to Sanya Bay’s rising skyline. Located at the southern tip of China’s Hainan Island, the mixed-use development features a 35-storey tower above a tiered retail podium and lush gardens. The tower comprises A-grade offices, a 4-star Park Hyatt Hotel, a private clubhouse and a rooftop pool.
Category: Small Scale Housing – Completed Buildings
With 30 finely crafted residences, Elwood House challenges the genre of medium density residential against the values of community and gathering, neighbourhood texture and scale, memorial to its past, and owner experience. Reflecting the local grain and scale of its beachside village, the development evolves the location’s heritage into a more refined solution for the area that transforms the typically low-scale residential language of the area into a modern interpretation of multi-residential living.
Short Lane, Sydney
Category: Small Scale Housing – Completed Buildings
Conceived as an urban garden, Short Lane is an undertaking in providing humans with a connection to nature in a dense, inner-urban setting that lacks greenery. The mixed-use development retains the diversity of its local neighbourhood and creates places for more of it to happen – with new botanical spaces, walkable laneways and venues for local participation.
St Mary’s Calne School Library, London
Category: Education – Future Project
With a vision to design an inspiring academic environment which fosters a love of learning, creativity, debate and scholarship in its pupils, the St Mary’s Calne School Library is a rich, academic haven. Designed as a stand-alone pavilion, the library is at the heart of the school. The building layers from solidity to lightness and from internal to external, creating a sense of arrival and then discovery, culminating in framed views of the orchard beyond.
West Hotel, Sydney (Woods Bagot and Fitzpatrick + Partners)
Category: Hotels (Inside World Festival of Interiors Awards)
West Hotel, Curio by Hilton, is a botanical oasis nestled in the heart of Sydney on an iconic street that is going through a period of renewal due to its proximity to near the city’s newest precinct, Barangaroo.Wedged between an office building and an old Sydney heritage pub, the faceted glass box is an escape from the city. The restaurant, bar, rooms all surround a sunlit, jungle-like atrium within. Woods Bagot has used the crystal-like façade of the base building by Fitzpatrick and Partners as the reference point for the interior design.
Lead Image: Short Lane, Trevor Mein