The inaugural World Architecture Festival recently concluded in Barcelona, and with an international attendee list stretching 11 pages long, it seems to have been quite a success.

The heart of the festival was the WAF Awards, with over 722 entries in 17 categories from 63 countries.  Within the office category, shortlisted entries that are clearly tenant/user driven included:

• Google EMEA Engineering Hub (Zurich, Switzerland) by Camenzind Evolution
• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Headquarters (Abu Dhabi, UAE) by Kohn Pedersen Fox
• Chevron Intl Trading Co Headquarters (Nanjing, China) by Perkins+Will

Interestingly, none of the shortlisted office buildings were located in the United States, despite five entries including notable tenant/user driven projects such as Comcast Center (Philadelphia, PA) by Robert A.M. Stern and the US Census Bureau Headquarters (Suitland, MD) by Skidmore, Owens & Merrill. 

Alas, the judging panel is looking beyond whether the design is user-driven, and considers issues such as site, embedded challenges, environmental impact, planning considerations, construction materials, novel concepts and materials applications, etc. 

The selected first place office project was Duoc Corporate Building in Santiago, Chile, by Sabbagh Arquitectos, a relatively young firm.  Duoc is a 40,000 student vocational/technical school, but presumably this building will be primarily used for administration. 

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