Six Saudi buildings - most in Arab world - in running for global 2017 top slot

Among Arab countries, Saudi Arabia currently leads as the most shortlisted projects in the upcoming World Architecture Festival with six nominations.

The World Architecture festival, taking place on the 15th – 17th of November at the Arena Berlin, Germany, will host keynote speeches by the industry’s most influential figures and judge over 400 finalists’ projects, some which will be awarded, in an event where the architecture community celebrates its field.

The event will facilitate global communication and networking between architects and architecture enthusiasts as well as exhibit a strong array of products and a 500 -project-strong gallery. Additionally, live presentations will be take place.

Awards will be given based on five distinct categories, two of which include subcategories.

The main categories that will be judged are the completed buildings, future projects, landscape, best use of color and small projects.

In the completed buildings category, participants are shortlisted in subcategories titled Civic and Community, Culture, Display, Health, Higher Education, Hotel and Leisure, House, Housing, Mixed Use, New and Old, Office, Production, Energy and Recycling, Religion, Schools, Shopping, Transport and Villa.

In the future project category projects will also be judged based on subcategories titled Commercial Mixed Use, Civic, Competition Entries, Culture, Education, Experimental, Health, House, Infrastructure, Leisure LED Development, Master Planning, Office and Residential.

Under the Completed Buildings category, Saudi Arabia is shortlisted in the subcategory Religion for the KAFD Grand Mosque by Mahmoud Abu Ghazal, Omrania and Associates, KAFD Grand Mosque in Riyadh.

Under the Future Projects Category, Saudi Arabia is shortlisted in the Commercial Mixed Use subcategory for Babil by Marwan Bajnaid Architecture and Ghouyoum in Jedda.

Saudi Arabia was also shortlisted in the Education, Master planning, Office and Residential subcategories for the Sustaniable Energy Technologies Center by edgeARCH in Riyadh, Al Baydha (Sustainable village model) by Omraniyoun and DCOMM Headquarter Project in Makkah and the 577 Residence by Collaborative Architects + Partners in Jeddah respectively.

The UAE closely follows Saudi Arabia with five shortlisted projects, two of which under the Completed Buildings category and three under the Future Projects category.

In the subcategory Civic and Community, the UAE is nominated for the Memorial Monument and Pavilion of Honour by Idris Kahn with bureau^proberts and Urban Arts Projects in Abu Dhabi.

In the subcategory Experimental, the UAE is shortlisted for the Sharjah Observatory in Mleiha National Park by3deluxe Transdisciplinary Design.

The UAE is also running in the subcategories Culture, Leisure LED Development and Office for the Mleiha Archaeological Centre by Dabbagh Architects in Sharjah, The Royal Atlantis by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Office Tower Dubai by ibda design.

In third place Kuwait and Qatar are tied with 3 nominations each. Egypt follows with two nominations in the subcategory Competition Entries.

Lebanon, Palestine and Syria are shortlisted once each. Lebanon in the subcategory Commercial Mixed Use, Palestine in Culture and Syria in Competition Entries

The strongest contenders in this year’s festival are the UK with 48 shortlisted projects, Australia with 39 shortlisted projects, China with 28 projects and the US with 22 projects.