World Architecture Festival Finalists
Oriel and UCL PEARL have both been selected as finalists in this year’s World Architecture Festival Awards in the ‘Future Project – Health’ and ‘Higher Education & Research’ categories respectively.
Members of the design team will travel to the WAF Festival in Lisbon to present the projects to the judges in November.
Oriel, designed by AECOM, Penoyre & Prasad and White Arkitekter, is a joint initiative between Moorfields Eye Hospital, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Charity, and brings world-leading eye care, research and education under one roof.
PEARL–the Person Environment Activity Research Laboratory–is a first-of-its-kind research laboratory in which to create life-sized environments such as a railway station, a high street, or a town square, under controlled conditions, to examine how people interact with their urban environment and each other. The rich data from this research will be used with the goal of improving urban design, for a more accessible and sustainable future.
PEARL has also been shortlisted in the World Festival of Interiors ‘Inside’ – Education category.
This year’s festival theme is ‘Together’; how is architecture responding to the renewal of collective life post-pandemic, in the light of commitments to combatting climate change?
Speakers and panels will discuss a series of issues and conditions which relate to the collective use of architecture and public space in a variety of very different settings. Over the course of the festival they will question, what is changing because of health considerations? And how is domestic life, workplace culture and social engagement operating in our new world?