Each year, Architizer publishes our annual anthology of the World’s Best Architecture — an enduringly popular hardbound book that showcases the top buildings and architecture firms. With the expansive geographic, technical and aesthetic breadth of A+Awards winners, the task of choosing a single project to represent the entire collection bound within the book’s cover may seem daunting.
So, this year, for the first time ever, Architizer took its core mission of democratizing design one step further: We invited our community to vote on the cover project of our beloved book.
Since then, we’ve been hard at work preparing the manuscript for print. And now, as the 2024 edition hits the press, we can finally announce the winner of the week-long public voting campaign that decided this year’s cover design.
For the vote, we narrowed down the selection to four amazing works that we believe encompass the overarching spirit of outstanding design showcased throughout the book:
The shortlisted projects in the running for this year’s cover were as follows:
- The Valley by MVRDV, Jury Winner in the Architecture +Façades; photo by Ossip van Duivenbode
- Lookout Tower by Robert Gutowski Architects, Jury Winner in the Architecture +Joy; photo by Tamás Bujnovszky
- Cloudscape of Haikou by MAD Architects, Popular Choice Winner in the Architecture +Concrete; photo by ArchExist
- Orange County Museum of Art by Morphosis, Jury Winner in the Museum Category; photo by Mike Kelley
And now, drumroll for the winner…
The 2024 edition of Architizer: World’s Best Architecture will be fronted by ArchExist’s photo of the MAD Architect-designed library, Cloudscape of Haikou.
In addition to the renowned studios whose work was considered for the cover, this year’s winners include many more signature firms, such as Zaha Hadid Architects and CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati. Many smaller firms and up-and-coming studios, such as BE_Design, also provided award-winning projects that captivated the illustrious jury and public alike. Now their work is published internationally among some of the biggest names in the industry, foreshadowing the next generation of impactful design.
Here’s a sneak peak at some of the pages from this year’s highly anticipated book…
BEEAH Headquarters by Zaha Hadid Architects, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates | Popular Choice Winner, 11th Annual A+Awards, Office – Low Rise (1 – 4 Floors)
The Greenary by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Parma, Italy | Jury Winner, 11th Annual A+Awards, Private House – Large
Komera Leadership Center by BE_Design, Rwanda | 11th Annual A+Awards Jury Winner in Architecture +Community and Architecture +For Good; Jury and Popular Choice Winner in Architecture +Low Cost Design; and Popular Choice Winner in Architecture +Community Centers
This diverse range of A+Award-winning projects are honored within the hardbound covers of this illustrated compendium. Excitingly, there will be an all-new section in the book dedicated to the A+Sustainability Awards winners, a new suite of A+Award categories dedicated to projects that act as positive precedent for green building practices in specific regions and the wider world.
All in all, each year our stunning hardbound compendium of The World’s Best Architecture truly lives up to its title: it is an atlas of truly innovative contemporary designs found on all continents. We design our covers keeping in mind that these beautiful books are series to be collected, so side-by-side, the spines will complement each other on your bookshelf. If you haven’t already, snap up the latest limited-edition (which just started shipping!) before it sells out, and preorder your advance copy of this upcoming issue, featuring MAD Architect’s Cloudscape of Haikou on it’s cover.
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