Invited by sponsors ABB, Alan and Maria were in Amsterdam for the WAF

The event discussed key issues facing contemporary practice, such as sustainability and economic challenges, alongside supplier meetings, live crits with finalists for the WAF Awards and one-to-one meetings with architects and designers from around the world. With an incredibly list of key-note speakers, and meeting James Timberlane (Partner at Kieran Timberlake – designers of the new US Embassy in London), and Sanjay Puri and Zhou Qing (Vice General Manager at GOA).

Maria also particularly enjoyed a presentation by Sir Peter Cook entitled “Coming Up For Air,” looking at the architects and architecture who missed out on success and fame, despite having interesting ideas, some of which have been re-imagined and realised by others at different times; very much exploring roads not taken from the collective architectural heritage of the professional. Following the forum, the prestigious international awards were announced with a retrofit project, perhaps appropriately, winning the overall prize.

Additionally, the four-day visit enabled Alan and Maria to explore Amsterdam which has some incredible historic and contemporary architecture, with a particular focus on various housing typologies from social to community designs which are considered international exemplars for us to learn from and feed back into our on-going projects.

More information about the Forum, Awards and judges can be found following these links.