Civic Architects' LocHal Public Library named World Building of the Year at World Architecture Festival
Civic Architects' LocHal Public Library has won Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival's (WAF) World Architecture Awards 2019.
Designed in partnership with Braaksma & Roos Architectenbureau, Inside Outside, Petra Blaise and Mecanoo Architecten, the building is a new urban living room created in a former locomotive shed.
The project is designed to provide a space for people of all ages to read, learn, study, meet and gather.
Historical elements have been retained, including the original train tracks as well as new oak and steel additions.
Judges commended the project for its "fine details and the use of textiles which create the necessary intimacy for the human scale, whilst considering the old steel structure”.
The project triumphed in the ‘Culture - Completed Buildings’ category earlier in the festival and also won 'Creative Re-Use' category at the WAF's sister event, the INSIDE World Festival of Interiors.
The winner of World Interior of the Year at INSIDE, meanwhile, was J.C. Architecture's JCA Living Lab in Taipei City, Taiwan.
Having initially won INSIDE's 'Residential' category, judges described the project as "A Machine for Green Living: DIY, low-cost and low-tech, yet imaginative in layout, design details and materials as well as being innovative in building and environmental technologies".
Civic Architects World Building of the Year awards World Architecture FestivalMixed-use, community and culture recognised at World Architecture Festival day two
Heatherwick among winners on day one of World Architecture Festival 2019
Leisure dominates World Architecture Festival 2019 Awards shortlist


Seventh International Museum Construction Congress to be held in Norway this year

The 'world's most anticipated museum' to finally open this year

Nike's Serena Williams Building, designed by Skylab, follows the concept of flow

Saudi Arabia's Neom mega-development to include 100-mile long 'horizontal skyscraper city'

David Adjaye and Ralph Appelbaum selected for £57m International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum project

Virgin Active opens at Milan’s sleek new Bocconi University by SANAA

Swedish architects Wingårdhs create year-round resort with waterpark and hotel for Liseberg

Juneteenth Museum by Bjarke Ingels Group has been designed to inspire spiritual uplift

BIG and HOK's timber concept wins Zurich Airport competition

Christoph Ingenhoven reveals Lanserhof Sylt, featuring the largest thatched roof in Europe

BIG's designs Prague concert hall to be vibrant centre of life

Mather & Co-designed Gretna Green Experience opens to the public

Project to save last major bellfoundry which cast bells for St Paul's and Washington National Cathedral

Perkins & Will reveals designs for net-zero sports and cultural centre in Toronto

World’s first living waterslides announced for Therme Manchester

Heatherwick reveals Volcano-inspired opera house designs for Hainan

Natural history museum planned for Abu Dhabi

Controversial London music venue, MSG Sphere, gets full planning permission

Clifford's Tower opens to the public after £5m redevelopment

Clifford's Tower opens to the public after £5m redevelopment

Glasgow's iconic Burrell Collection reopens after five-year, £68.5m revamp

SB Architects delivers Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Costa Rica with tree-house spa and private residences

Ole Scheeren designs vertical jungle resort complex in China

Designer Brian d’Souza launches Swell to create evocative soundscapes for physical environments

Basalt Architects create geothermal Forest Lagoon in the wilds of Iceland

Hot Pickle design £73m Guinness visitor attraction for Diageo in London

Amsterdam's new digital art centre Fabrique des Lumières will use tech to bring art alive

Pharrell Williams to launch tropical Bahamian beach resort

Banyan Tree curating solar-powered wellness retreat on private Mozambican island

Dubai Expo hits 10 million visits
From parks designed to mitigate the effects of flooding to warming huts for one of the world’s coldest cities, these projects have been designed for increasingly extreme climates