Dezeen Awards 2024: Global Style
82 countries are represented in the Dezeen Awards 2024 longlist of nominees, celebrating the very best of international architecture and design.
If you could suddenly blink your eyes and magically travel quickly around the world, besides the amazing and wondrously beautiful features of our natural world you’d see, the most lasting visual impression might be the truly stunning designs created by the world’s leading designers and architects in seemingly every corner of the globe.
Fortunately, the annual Dezeen architectural awards deliver that same breadth and scope of global style without you having to pack a bag. Dezeen recently announced the 231 projects longlisted for this year’s awards, in partnership with automotive manufacturer Bentley. The winners will be announced at the annual Dezeen Awards party in London in late November.
This year’s longlist includes buildings by such notable creative minds as Snohetta, Neri & Hu, Studio Gang, MVRDV and MASS Design Group, along with many other leading world architecture and design luminaries. The Dezeen Awards truly represent the finest in innovative and creative architecture and the longlisted projects are in the running for awards in 15 different categories and created by studios located in 40 different countries, including Bangladesh, Nigeria, Taiwan, Chile, New Zealand and India.
The top six project city locations are London, with 24 longlisted entries, followed by Paris, Shanghai, Mexico City, Berlin and New York. Among the longlisted buildings this year are an in-fill home with perforated industrial metal panels in Dublin, a waterside mosque wrapped in pink concrete in Bangladesh and a school centred around a tree-filled courtyard in Tanzania.
Other notable projects include a restored wallpaper factory in London, a pink-toned earth-clad hotel in Marrakech and a concrete-wrapped modular housing concept for displaced communities in Venice.
“We’re proud to continue our partnership with Dezeen in celebrating architectural and design excellence,” says Chris Cooke, Dezeen Awards judge and head of design collaborations at Bentley. “Delving into this year’s longlist, the standard is higher than ever. In particular, a strong focus on cultural sensitivity and adaptive reuse shows a deep commitment to preserving heritage while pushing the boundaries of modern design.”
Now in its seventh year, the Dezeen Awards truly are the pinnacle of international architecture and design, continuing to champion design excellence and showcase innovation from architects and designers around the globe. This year’s longlisted projects were selected from more than 4,130 entries from 82 different countries.
One of the most impressive projects included on the longlist is in the Large Office category, the Alibaba Damo Nanhu Industry Park by Matrix Design located in Hangzhou, China. Matrix Design helped form a compound headquarters of DAMO Academy by combining the charm of ancient architecture with practical functionality, incorporating distinctive Asian features. The headquarters is not a cold and corporate environment — a serene yet dynamic environment has been created through the integration of landscape and architecture, making the space sympatico for both humans and nature.
“THIS YEAR’S LONGLIST, THE STANDARD IS HIGHER THAN EVER. IN PARTICULAR, A STRONG FOCUS ON CULTURAL SENSITIVITY AND ADAPTIVE REUSE.”
The defining feature of Matrix Design’s creation for this headquarters is the truly magnificent staircase in the atrium of the visitors’ centre Matrix redesigned the original scissors stairs, whose major structure is similar to the Möbius strip invented by German mathematician August Möbius. The stairs are like a flowing line which starts from the first floor and continues to the third floor. It not only functions as a staircase but also fills the space with fun and symbolizes endless scientific exploration.
Other notable projects selected this year are Azabudai Hills in Tokyo by Heatherwick Studio, which is an oasis in the middle of urbanity, Haus 1 – Atelier Gardens in Berlin by MVRDV and Hirschmuller Schindele Architeken and the stunning Central Control Building in Konya, Turkey by Bilgin Architects, illustrating the fun and creativity you can exercise with just four corners and a low, flat rectangular structure.
The next stage of the Dezeen Awards 2024 will be to have a prestigious panel of international judges, including architects Keiji Ashizawa, Francine Houben, Anupama Kundoo and Alexandra Hagen, shorten the long list of projects. Ninety judges will determine the shortlist later in October, and a further round of judging by Dezeen’s master jury will determine each winner in the 15 categories, along with the overall Project of the Year winner, the Bentley Lighthouse Award winner, which will be announced at the London finale in November.
While dozens of countries may be represented and thousands of entries were considered that combined form with function, there is one commonality to the Dezeen Awards, and that is the reaction by almost everyone who views this outstanding collection of architecture and design: “How did they think of THAT?”— once again proving the spirit of the soul and the creativity and brilliance of the human mind.