World Architecture Festival 2012: Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs talks to Wilkinson Eyre Architects' Paul Baker in this interview filmed just moments after the firm's Gardens by the Bay project in Singapore was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival today.
In the movie, Baker explains that to build cooling greenhouses in the tropics was "an extraordinarily tough thing to do" and required "proper collaboration, not the genius idea". The two structures are the largest climate-controlled greenhouses in the world and include a 30-metre-high man-made waterfall - read more in our earlier story.
The winners were announced at the Marina Bay Sands hotel and conference centre, which is situated next to the Gardens by the Bay. See category winners from days one and two plus the Landscape of the Year and Future Project of the Year in our special category.
Dezeen is media partner for the festival and we'll be publishing a series on interviews with selected winners soon.
Photography is by Craig Sheppard.
What a surprise. Global event – organised by the English – is held in Singapore. World’s ‘best’ building – designed by the English – is located in Singapore. Old habits are hard to shake.
Did you not follow last years WAF? Hardly any British architects won prizes that year so don’t go lecturing everyone on the apparent bias of the judges just because the architect’s country of origin isn’t your own.
Oh yes, last year's WAF was held in Barcelona and the World Building of the Year was awarded to a building in . . . Barcelona.