Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen Wire: the fifth annual World Architecture Festival (WAF) will take place this year from 3-5 October at the Moshe Safdie-designed Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore.

The event will include a programme of presentations, seminars and exhibitions, as well as awards for the most successful architectural projects of the last year.

The overall winner from the 2011 festival was the the Media-ICT office building by Cloud 9 Architects, which you can see here.

Here’s some more text from the festival organisers:

World Architecture Festival sets sail for Singapore
New venue as Festival returns for fifth successive year

The World Architecture Festival (WAF), the world’s largest, live, inclusive and interactive global architecture event, is returning for its fifth successive year. To celebrate this milestone, and to signal the evolution of the Festival as the world’s leading architectural event, this year’s Festival will be held in a new destination, taking place in Singapore from 3rd to 5th October 2012. Entries to the Festival awards open on May 1st.

Featuring an eclectic mix of architectural styles, from British colonial civic buildings to Art Deco office blocks, Singapore has a rich architectural heritage which it is recognising to an ever greater extent. Through the President’s Design Awards with its multiple international juries, and through the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize now in its third iteration, Singapore has demonstrated a real belief in the power of design to transform people and places for the better and as country which has a real interest in design quality in many fields. This year’s Festival will be held at the spectacular Marina Bay Sands resort, designed by Moshe Safdie, itself a WAF Award winner in 2010.

The Festival will include a comprehensive programme of presentations, seminars, exhibitions, and keynote addresses from international participants. The WAF Awards, the largest architectural awards programme in the world, will again be a focal point of the Festival. Previous entrants have ranged from renowned global architectural firms to small local practices. All entrants go head-to-head as equals in presenting their designs on a global stage. The interactive format involves shortlisted entrants presenting their projects live to international judging panels and Festival delegates.

The Festival’s organisers, i2i Events Group, have today unveiled a jury comprising of a selection of the world’s leading architects and designers, who will decide which projects will be rewarded with a WAF yellow W trophy live at the Festival.

This year’s jury includes Ben van Berkel, UNStudio; Juergen Mayer H., J. Mayer H Architecture Design Research; Mok Wei Wei, W Architects; Kongjian Yu, Turenscape; Marcio Kogan, Studio MK27; Kerry Hill, Kerry Hill Architects; Tang Guan Bee, Tangguanbee Architects; Edouard Francois, Maison d’Architecture Edouard Francois; Ivan Harbour, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Ole Scheeren, Buro Ole Scheeren; Richard Hassell and Wong Mun Summ, WOHA and Sanjay Puri, Sanjay Puri Architects.

Paul Finch, WAF Programme Director said: “Since our inaugural Festival in 2008, WAF has evolved into a truly global event, annually attracting thousands of architects and designers from across the world. Following four fantastic years in Barcelona we feel the time is right to move the Festival to a new location, and where better to celebrate our fifth birthday than at Moshe Safdie’s award winning Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

“The Festival represents an exclusive forum for the architectural community to showcase projects, debate and discuss current trends and learn from some of the world’s most inspirational designers.

“This year’s jury features some of the industry’s leading minds and most-respected thinkers, who are each individually at the very forefront of their respective fields. We’re looking forward to seeing the quality of this panel matched by the creativity and ingenuity of the projects that they will be judging.”