In response to continuing COVID-19 travel restrictions World Architecture Festival (WAF) is to migrate its 2021 event in December to a live and interactive digital format, along with sister event INSIDE World Festival of Interiors.

WAF, the world’s largest annual international architectural event, originally scheduled to take place in Lisbon this year, will be going ahead as a live-streamed event, from 1 to 3 December 2021. Delegates from around the world are invited to partake in the conference in its live digital format; with plans confirmed for the festival to return as a hybrid event in Lisbon in 2022.

The 2021 WAF digital event will consist of three days of live conference programmes, awards, and fringe events, with talks by leading global architectural thinkers and industry personalities live-streamed exclusively to festival delegates.

WAF includes the biggest international architectural awards programme in the world, dedicated to celebrating excellence via presentations to an audience of high-profile delegates and international juries. On-line category judging will form a cornerstone of the 2021 WAF digital edition, with finalists for ‘World Building of the Year’, ‘Future Project of the Year’, ‘Interior of the Year’ and ‘Landscape of the Year’ judged live and streamed to festival delegates across the world.

Confirmed judges on this year’s Super Jury include: Jeanne Gang, Founding principal and partner, Studio Gang; Abdelkader Damani, Artistic Director, Frac Centre-Val de Loire | Biennale d’Architecture d’Orléans; Kim Herforth Nielsen, Co-Founder & Principal, 3XN Architects and Christina Seilern, Principal, Studio Seilern.
 
With 18 digital crit rooms and 18 trios of international judges, the WAF 2021 digital event stands to offer the widest access to the largest amount of content in the history of the festival, which launched in Barcelona in 2008. This year’s digital event will generate 40 days of exclusive programming which will be available to delegates on-demand up to 90 days after the event.
 
The excitement around bringing WAF to Portugal’s capital city remains, and the WAF 2022 edition is confirmed to take place in Lisbon from 30 November to 2 December at the FIL exhibition centre. Harnessing opportunities opened up by this year’s event, the 2022 festival will include integrated digital elements to form a hybrid festival format, fully attuned to digital and in-person delegates. 
 
Paul Finch, Programme Director of World Architecture Festival, commented: “This will be the most accessible WAF to date, with all judging recorded and available to everyone with a digital pass. Including three days of live-streaming from the virtual event, delegates will have access to 40 days of presentations and conference sessions. So while we look forward to going live again next year, we are excited about enhancing access to the Festival both on-site and across the world.”
 
For more details on the WAF Awards and the festival, visit www.worldarchitecturefestival.com