The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design announced the winners of the International Architecture Awards 2021 on August 17th. The awards are offered for buildings and landscape interventions completed anywhere in the world between 2019 and 2021. The award ceremony will take place on September 10th in Athens, Greece, while “The City and the World”, a traveling exhibition dedicated to all the winning architectures, will visit various European cities during 2022.

Every year, since 2005, the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies have organized the International Architecture Awards, rewarding the best architecture and urban planning designs in the world. There are no limits in terms of style, complexity, size or budget, as Christian Narkiewicz-Laine President/CEO or the Chicago Athenaeum states. The awards single out a sample of well-thought out and expertly executed architectures that are changing the world, improving lives and enhancing the communities for which they were built. The awards are offered for buildings and urban planning and landscape interventions completed over the last two years, from 2019 to 2021, in any part of the world.

During the 2021 edition, over 800 proposals arrived from 46 different countries, from China to Mexico, Canada, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates etc. The first round reduced the candidates to a shortlist of 400 designs, including new houses, offices, projects in the fields of transport, health, schools and community centers, buildings for sport, religion, libraries and cultural centers, private homes, technical buildings for energy production and storage, commercial properties, renovation projects. This shortlist of aspiring designs includes some of the most interesting and innovative architectures of contemporary production, hailing from 35 different nations around the world (Algeria, Austria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vietnam).
From these finalists, the “Super” Jury of the International Architecture Awards 2021, consisting of architects, designers and critics, selected the over 130 winning designs, announced on August 17th and divided into the 24 award categories. Some of the winning designs have already been presented in the pages of Floornature, such as: the Apple Store in Singapore designed by Foster + Partners; the Adidas World of Sports Arena center in Germany by Behnisch Architekten, the new skyscrapers designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox in Shanghai (Qiantan Center), New York (55 Hudson Yards), Singapore (18 Robinson) and Bangkok (Rosewood Bangkok); the new airport in Mexico City designed by FR-EE with Foster + Partners; the head office of the Triodos Bank in Driebergen-Rijsenburg, in the Netherlands, created by the RAU Architects studio with Ex Interiors; the Innovation Curve created in Palo Alto, California, by the Form4 Architecture studio; the Amos Rex underground museum in Helsinki, Finland, designed by JKMM Architects; the municipal library and public park in Pélissanne, France, designed by Dominique Coulon & associés; the “Franco Corelli” Music Academy in Camerino by the Alvisi Kirimoto and Harcome studios for the Andrea Bocelli Foundation; the MEET digital culture and creative technology center in Milan designed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati; the Paracelsus Bad & Kurhaus wellness center in Salzburg, Austria, designed by Berger+Parkkinen Associated Architects