Six Woods Bagot projects have made it to the awards shortlist at the 2024 World Architecture Festival (WAF). The WAF is the world’s largest live awards event for architects and designers, where every year, all finalists present their projects live to a panel of judges at the festival held in Singapore.
This year's shortlist demonstrates the studio's influence on the world stage, with nominated projects covering a diversity of sectors and typologies, says Woods Bagot global design director Domenic Alvaro.
“Our shortlisted projects in this year's World Architecture Festival Awards underscore our contextual relevancy and commitment to sustainable design. By focusing on adaptive reuse and designs that respect their environment, this year’s diverse range of entries features an innovative approach to contemporary architecture,” Alvaro explains.
The shortlisted Woods Bagot projects
The StandardX
Photography: Trevor Mein
The StandardX in Melbourne’s Fitzroy has been shortlisted for the Completed Buildings: Hotel and Leisure category.
Giving due consideration to the location in the city’s oldest suburb, which is characterised by corner pubs, flea markets and live music venues, the project team devised a considerate response to site, stitching together Fitzroy’s industrial past with its vibrant and eclectic future. The 125-room hotel’s bold architectural form provides a visual beacon, drawing people from the surrounding high streets into its vibrant nucleus.
“The StandardX is for the experiential traveller that seeks to immerse themselves in the rhythm and pulse of place,” says Woods Bagot principal Pete Miglis.
Minthis
Photography: Trevor Mein
Minthis, in the Cypriot village of Tsada, has been shortlisted for the Completed Buildings: Mixed-Use category.
The holistic Mediterranean mountain sanctuary comprises accommodation, retail, wellness amenity and hospitality, balancing antiquity and modernity through a lavish masterplan that embraces the natural landscape. Forming a complex of recreational buildings, the plot offers panoramic views of the undulating Troodos mountains, with village aggregation informed by principles of community assembly.
Woods Bagot principal Nik Karalis says the wellness precinct was informed by the concept of the “modern relic”, celebrating antiquity while boasting the latest in world-class amenity. “The project will evolve graciously over the next centuries to establish itself overtime as a destination that has emerged out of sensitive contextual positioning, tradition and pathos.”
Mosman High School
Photography: Trevor Mein
Mosman High School in Sydney’s Lower North Shore region has been shortlisted for the Completed Buildings: School category.
The versatile four-storey building on the Middle Harbour peninsula has a gross floor area of 8,800 square metres, lifting the school’s much needed student capacity and featuring classrooms, studios, staffrooms, canteen, gym, and theatre.
Global leader of education and science at Woods Bagot Georgia Singleton says the design incorporates the site’s heritage and natural landscape, while drawing its inspiration from the creativity and vibrancy of the school’s students. “The design for Mosman High School celebrates Indigenous heritage, merging brick-wrapped forms and colourful window pops that echo Mosman’s historic palette.”
University of Tasmania Forestry Building
Visualisation by Era-co
University of Tasmania Forestry Building in Hobart has been shortlisted for the Future Projects: Higher Education and Research category.
The site comprises two heritage-listed 1920s redbrick warehouses, a former 1980s warehouse showroom and a 22-metre dome-shaped conservatory designed by Morris-Nunn and Associates in 1997. The project team is reimagining the site as an inner-city hub for learning, research and collaboration through a highly connected campus that unifies the disparate built elements onsite with integrated landscape, through-block connections and publicly accessible thoroughfares.
“We strived to create a campus – not a building – through a masterplan that features a collection of diverse and rich interstitial spaces to meet the disparate needs of the university,” says Woods Bagot director Bruno Mendes. “As a highly flexible structure, the building’s demountable design will enable the university to adapt the interior environment as the university’s pedagogical needs change.”
Synchro Yards
Synchro Yards in Montenegro has been shortlisted for the Future Projects: Residential category.
This future luxury waterfront community is set to be the centrepiece of the Mediterranean marina, complete with a beach club, luxury hotel, event space, restaurants and retail strip. The development will feature two luxury premises, with 22 and 25 residences respectively, with strategic views over the marina.
“Woods Bagot was privileged to lead the design for the new district for Porto Montenegro,” says Woods Bagot principal and project leader Julian Cross. “At its heart is a new civic building formed from the adaptive reuse of the historic Synchro Lift, used to service ships during the site’s time as a naval port. Our design was inspired by this naval heritage as well as its extraordinary setting on Kotor Bay and its current use as a home for some of the world’s most beautiful yachts. A dynamic and modern place that is distinct to its Adriatic location, it remembers its history but stands out as a new global destination.”
Minerva
Render by Woods Bagot
The Minerva in Potts Point, Sydney, has been shortlisted for the Future Projects: Leisure category.
Arguably the area’s most famous example of art deco architecture with its vertical sweeping curves, stepped forms and linear motifs, the Metro Minerva, built in 1938, was once one of Sydney’s most beloved and vibrant performance spaces. Woods Bagot is reviving the building, restoring the main auditorium space and introducing a range of elevated amenity and cultural offerings.
Woods Bagot principal Tracey Wiles says the redevelopment will bring the dormant building into the 21st century, complete with an integrated boutique hotel, cafe, bar and basement venue.
“The Minerva is an art deco icon – a historic performance space reimagined to exist as part of Sydney’s future heritage,” says Wiles. “Whether crafted or procured, every element was integrated with an empathetic lens on the historical lineage of the site.”
WAF judging will take place in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands from 6 to 8 November, where design leaders will present their projects before a live jury.
Main image: Mosman High School | Photography: Trevor Mein
