LIXIL, maker of pioneering water and housing products, through its Grohe brand, welcomed nearly 1,600 delegates and guests to the World Architecture Festival 2024 (WAF) in Singapore.

The 17th edition of WAF, held at the Marina Bay Sands, aims to recognize industry excellence and outstanding projects from across the world.  

This year’s festival theme “Tomorrow” examines how architecture, urban design, landscape and interiors will be affected by the trends we see around us in respect of population movement, city growth, digital technology, AI, immersive environments and cultural change. The global A&D community converged at WAF to advance this theme through various keynotes, speakers and conversations to catalyze ideas and opportunities.

Paul Finch, program director, WAF, said, “We extend our deepest congratulations to all WAF and INSIDE award winners. They continue to impress industry peers with their forward thinking and visionary projects.  The industry faces constant pressure to deliver excellence in the face of change, which we explored through our ‘Tomorrow’ theme. We appreciate the support extended from all quarters of the industry, especially our sponsors and delegates, in advancing design excellence across the discussions, awards, and networking at WAF.”

This resonates with the A&D community’s deep appreciation that buildings exert considerable aesthetic and psychological impact on our everyday lives. WAF reflects and advances this understanding through its live judging and discourse on competing ideas that affect the human experience.  Over 800 entries vied for coveted awards across different categories. Out of the 53 category winners, 21 were from Asia and Australasia, led by Australia (nine), China (three), Singapore, India and Japan (two each).

Grohe, a part of LIXIL and a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings, has supported WAF from the very beginning. As WAF founding partner, GROHE seeks to deepen appreciation of the unique role water plays for the design discipline and in shaping innovative architectural visions and solutions around the element of water. The GROHE SPA-inspired “Aquatecture” exhibit at WAF highlights the fusion of water and architecture — elevating the significance and importance of water in architecture, and the health and well-being benefits this infusion brings.

GROHE is also the sponsor of the GROHE Water Prize, which was awarded to the Maotai Eco-Metaverse project, by Turenscape. This research and development project is being built across 8 hectares in Maotai Town, Guizhou Province, China, for a liquor distillery to manage a daily output of 7,000 tons of sewage and industrial wastewater, by creating an ecosystem that fully integrates water, nutrient, carbon, and energy recycling. Although specific to a planned distillery, the principles involved would apply to any industrial facility using large amounts of water. This is the sixth time the GROHE Water Research Prize has been awarded, with past winners across water filtration, generation and cooling systems in Bangladesh, Peru, Brazil and Greece.

Audrey Yeo, leader, LIXIL Water Technology, Asia Pacific, expressed, “As WAF founding partner, it is gratifying to see the tremendous industry support that’s enabled us to build WAF into one of the most respected global platforms for leading industry discussions and rigorous peer-reviewed awards. GROHE engagement with WAF, from the start, has never wavered to address and collaboratively find solutions to pressing industry issues and macro trends, such as personal wellbeing and sustainability, facing the A&D community.”