Architecture

World Architecture Festival 2025: Hearts and Minds

World Architecture Festival 2025 in Miami crowns projects that fuse tectonics, emotion and resilience, signaling a new direction for global architecture.

Por: Angela Leon Cervera
World Architecture Festival 2025
Iglesia del Santísimo Redentor de Las Chumberas. Photo: Fernando Menis Architect

World Architecture Festival 2025 turned the Miami Beach Convention Center into a global studio, with over 460 finalists and live crits from 12 to 14 November. The theme, “Hearts and Minds,” asked a direct question: can architecture be clever and deeply felt at the same time?

The four headline winners answered in unison. The Holy Redeemer Church in Tenerife, the Gelephu International Airport in Bhutan, the Fractal Chapel in Graz and Embracing Flood in Jiangxi each framed design as a tool for social repair, not just a glossy silhouette.

World Architecture Festival 2025
Iglesia del Santísimo Redentor de Las Chumberas. Photo: Fernando Menis Architect

How did World Architecture Festival 2025 redefine the “best building” idea?

World Building of the Year went to The Holy Redeemer Church and Community Centre of Las Chumberas in La Laguna, Spain, by Fernando Menis. Exposed concrete mixed with local volcanic stone gives the project a carved, geological presence.

 

That rough shell is also high tech in disguise. The chipped concrete and volcanic aggregate deliver opera level acoustic control and strong thermal inertia without complex mechanical systems, turning a modest church into a passive performance machine.

 

Crucially, the project grew in phases, funded by a working class community over many years. It doubles as a civic plaza, proving that “world’s best building” can emerge from incremental construction and social need rather than a single, spectacular commission.

World Architecture Festival 2025
Iglesia del Santísimo Redentor de Las Chumberas. Photo: Fernando Menis Architect
World Architecture Festival 2025
Iglesia del Santísimo Redentor de Las Chumberas. Photo: Fernando Menis Architect

What do the 2025 winners say about emotion, stress and wellbeing?

World Interior of the Year, the Fractal Chapel at the University Hospital Graz by INNOCAD, translates hard science into soft light. Working with physicist Richard Taylor and 13&9 Design, the team used mathematically calibrated fractal patterns that research links to stress reduction of up to 60 percent.

 

Perforated fractal screens filter daylight into shifting shadows, echoing forest light and nudging the nervous system toward a calmer state. Timber surfaces and a sculpted walnut root altar keep the space tactile and grounded, balancing algorithmic precision with raw material presence.

How does World Architecture Festival 2025 point to a more resilient future?

Landscape of the Year, Embracing Flood: Xinjiang River Ecological Corridor by Turenscape in Shangrao, China, treats flooding as a resource, not an enemy. It restores a 102 hectare floodplain with wetlands, sponge city strategies and elevated walkways that stay accessible when the river swells.

 

Future Project of the Year, Gelephu International Airport by BIG, anchors Bhutan’s planned Gelephu Mindfulness City. The terminal uses a timber diagrid inspired by local craft and is scheduled to open in 2029 as the country’s second international gateway. Yoga decks, gardens and long span wood structures frame travel as part of a broader wellbeing journey rather than a stressful layover.

World Architecture Festival 2025
Iglesia del Santísimo Redentor de Las Chumberas. Photo: Fernando Menis Architect

Together, these winners sketch a clear message: the next chapter of architecture is regenerative, emotionally literate and unapologetically specific to place.

FAQ: Making Sense of WAF 2025

  • What is World Architecture Festival? World Architecture Festival is a global event with live juried awards, conferences and exhibitions that recognise built projects and future proposals each year.
  • Where did WAF 2025 take place? WAF 2025 took place at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida, hosting the eighteenth edition of the festival over three days.
  • Which project won World Building of the Year 2025? The Holy Redeemer Church and Community Centre of Las Chumberas in La Laguna, Spain, by Fernando Menis, received the World Building of the Year title.
  • Why are fractals important in the Fractal Chapel? The chapel’s fractal patterns draw on evidence based research that links mid range fractal geometries with measurable reductions in physiological stress.

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