Guardian Art Center, DUO and MahaNakhon make 2019 WAN Awards Shortlist

Three of Büro Ole Scheeren’s recently completed projects have been named Finalists in the 2019 edition of the WAN Awards.

The Guardian Art Center in Beijing has been shortlisted in the category “Leisure”. Built on the doorstep of Beijing’s historic Forbidden City, the Guardian Art Center is a new hybrid cultural institution that embodies the city’s traditional urban fabric and thriving metropolitan energy. The design integrates museum-quality galleries, multi-functional exhibition spaces and auction rooms with a boutique hotel and restaurants, creating an encompassing lifestyle concept centered on the experience of art and culture.

The MahaNakhon Tower in Bangkok is competing in the "Mixed Use" category. The 150,000 square meter development features a dynamic public plaza, a multi-level retail center with restaurants, cafes, and 24-hour marketplace; 200 serviced apartments, a 150 room boutique hotel, a rooftop Sky Bar and restaurant as well as an integrated link to the Skytrain. Characterized by its distinctive sculptural profile and the pixelated ribbon that coils around its full height of 314 meters, the building reveals its inner life and projects the image of human activity and inhabitation to the surrounding city and beyond.

DUO, a mixed-use development in Singapore, is a finalist in the "Commercial” category. DUO integrates the surrounding context around a 24-hour accessible public plaza, forming a new civic nexus for Singapore. Rather than functioning as a piece of individual and self-referential architecture, DUO is a sensitive insertion into the city’s urban fabric that unites a group of existing buildings through spatial integration.

The final results will be announced at the WIN WAN Live event on Thursday 24th October 2019 in London. Stay tuned!