Prizes awarded to future projects focused on today’s major global opportunities and challenges.

London, UK – Thirty-four exemplary future projects which address major architectural issues facing society and the planet have been announced as winners of this year’s World Architecture Festival WAFX Awards, across eight key categories.

The 2023 WAFX shortlist celebrates international proposals which embrace design vision and innovation to address major world opportunities and challenges, ranging from pushing the use of smart technology and building reuse, to addressing the issue of an aging population and tackling the climate emergency.

View the full list of the WAFX Award winners here.

The WAFX Award winners are all selected from entries to the Future Projects category in the WAF Awards Programme, for their ambition and scope in response to today’s most pressing global issues. This is ahead of the live event which this year will take place in Singapore, at Marina Bay Sands, from 29 November - 1 December.

This year’s WAFX categories are: Ageing and Health, Building Technology, Carbon Climate and Energy, Cultural Identity, Ethics and Values, Re-Use, Smart Cities, and Water. The 2023 category winners range from an island centred around medical services in Dubai and an off-grid mixed-use tower in the United States, to rethinking oil rigs as sustainable, offshore data centres in the United Kingdom and an exhibition hall celebrating local bamboo craft in China.

Paul Finch, Director of the World Architecture Festival, comments: “Thinking about better futures is part and parcel of the World Architecture Festival programme. We are delighted with the quantity and quality of projects which are looking at the biggest problems facing the world, and which are addressing them in a truly constructive way.”