Interlace Wins World Building of the Year

Like an oversized version of Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67 in Montreal, The Interlace is a symmetrical arrangement of modular blocks – 31 apartment blocks, each six stories tall and 70 meters long – that overlap to create roof terraces and unexpected vistas. The Interlace is a striking departure from the typical residential projects in Singapore, which are groupings of isolated towers sometimes connected by upper-level walkways. The hexagonal arrangment of blocks results in shared terraces that add a social dimension throughout the numerous private dwellings.

WAF director and founder Paul Finch praised the winning project, the eighth such Building of the Year in the festival's same number of years, as "blazing a trail with an example of bold, contemporary architectural thinking. The project presents an alternative way of thinking about developments which might otherwise become generic tower clusters."

The "super jury" that selected The Interlace as World Building of the Year included Sir Peter Cook (UK), Sou Fujimoto (Japan), Manuelle Gautrand (France), and Michel Rojkind (Mexico).

The Interlace is the second building in Singapore to be named World Building of the Year, following the Cooled Conservatories at Gardens by the Bay (2012) designed by Wilkinson Eyre. Last year The Chapel, Vietnam, designed by a21studio received the award and in 2013 it was the Aukland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki in New Zealand by Frances-Jones Morehen Thorp and Archimedia.

After a four-year runs in Barcelona and then Singapore, WAF will be heading to Berlin for the 2016 festival.