In the first of WAN’s groundbreaking sector awards this year, educational buildings were submitted from across the globe with architects hoping their project would clutch the title of Education Building of the Year. A long list of 27 projects was reached by 31 March and following a tense jury session, a shortlist of six has now been reached.
WAN introduced the WAN International Sector Awards following the success of the WAN House of the Year Awards which have run for the past three years. Diversifying by sector has opened up a huge array of worldwide projects, delivered sustainably to the desktops of 127,000 architects via News Review every week. Acknowledging the ever-increasing need to address sustainability WAN makes extensive use of digital and internet technology to provide the information and some of the scoring electronically.
Breaking further ground, the Education Award formed a pioneering jury combining world-class talent in design and those in the know at ground level. Michael Hammond, chairman of the Education panel said, “At WAN, we pride ourselves in our ability to assemble top class juries, vital for the delivery of a rounded verdict. This principle was borne out by our Education panel, which comprised one of the UK’s top headmasters, two leading architects (from the US and Denmark), a director of the Government’s school procurem
Obviously, it is far more important to evaluate what goes on inside these buildings than simply their facade.